To Life!

Camper Connection

Tamarack
experience
strengthens
American-
Israeli bond.

Above: Noah Eisenberg, 7, of

Bloomfield Hills is flanked
by two Israeli Scouts — Paz

Tsafrin, left, and Noa Mazor,
both 13 — who will stay with

his family after camp.

Left: Israeli Scouts Itai Many

and Omri Hefetz, both 14,

talk to Sheryl Sukenic of
Huntington Woods.

Last year Korotkin hosted two
boys who were junior counselors.
This September he'll be their
"American dad" for 10 months as
the boys return to do community
service in Detroit after graduating
high school and before entering
the army.
And this year, his daughter,
Andrea Belen of Berkley, and her
husband, Jeff, will host an Israeli
camper chaperone.

Mutual Benefits

Keri Guten Cohen

Story Development Editor

A

new crop of Israeli
youngsters has estab-
lished Detroit as "home"
through Federation's Israeli
Camper Program. Now in its fifth
year, 700 campers already have
made this vital connection.
This summer, 80 Israeli kids
ages 13-14 will join the fun at
Tamarack Camps in Ortonville.
About 40 will attend each ses-

sion. Currently, a group of Israeli
Scouts from across Israel is min-
gling with kids from Michigan for
a typical American Jewish camp
experience. For Session II, 40
teens will be coming from Detroit
Federation's Partnership 2000
region in the Central Galilee.
At the end of each camp ses-
sion, campers will go home to
Detroit host families for a long
weekend. And while they're doing
typical American things — shop-
ping at the mall, going to a Tigers'

game, having a backyard barbe-
cue — they'll also be building
bridges and strengthening bonds
between Israel and Detroit.
Ken Korotkin of Birmingham,
co-chair of this year's camper
program with Steve Goodman
of Bloomfield Hills, knows the
power of this bridge building.
For three years already,
Korotkin has played host "dad" to
nine Israeli boys.
"Because of this program, my
whole family and I went to Israel

for the first time," he said. "Having
spent the time with these young
campers, we all just felt we need-
ed to know more about Israel and
see it. We met all of their families
and we are still in contact with
at least five. It's made me feel like
I really did have a connection
to people in Israel; that they're
friends and family."
His participation in the camper
program led to a position on the
Partnership 2000 steering corn-
mittee and another trip to Israel,
with more planned in the future.
"Now when I go to parts of our
Partnership region, I run into
people I know in the mall — it's
like being at home," Korotkin said.

The Israeli camper program,
the largest exchange of its kind
among American_ federations,
has strengthened bonds, but also
increased awareness for both
groups of kids, say program coor-
dinators, Naomi Miller Rockowitz
of Federation's Israel office and
Karen Kaplan in Detroit.
"For Israeli kids, it increases
their awareness of connections
to Jewish communities abroad,
and also to a positive approach to
Judaism," Rockowitz said. "Three
weeks in a bunk with American
Jewish kids — they have very
powerful meetings.
"The American campers get to

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July 6

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