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Guest Columnist
Editorial
Adam Finkel stands
Jewish Camp
n
in front of the mid-
town home dubbed
Moishe House
Detroit.
T
I Adam Finkel
pencer Greenberg is a
28-year-old whose invest-
__ ment fund uses complex
computer" algorithms to maxi-
mize investments in ways legend-
ary investors never imagined.
So, in an age when we can out-
source investing to algorithms, legal
investigations to computer software
and driving to a robot made at
Google, how can our community
benefit from this changed world?
We must
emphasize
grassroots ideas,
launched at the
"individual"
level, to unleash
our purpose as
a people and
our competitive
Spencer
advantage
as a
Greenberg
community.
We must inno-
vate with the urgency that the dis-
interest of one student is like the
loss of one entire school; the dis-
interest of one member is like the
loss of one entire generation and
the disinterest of one leader is like
the loss of one entire community.
I looked at 10 random Detroit
Mumford High School alumni from
1960. Nine still have Michigan
addresses and one has an Ohio
address. I looked at Jewish alumni
at Bloomfield Hills Andover
High School about 40 years later,
between 1998 and 2001. Nine out
of the 10 I looked at are currently
out of state.
"
Small ideas and connections
can, and will, have a big impact
on our current challenges. Maybe
a kosher food truck (there is one
in the works in Washington, D.C.)
up and down Woodward Avenue
here in Metro Detroit won't have
a noticeable impact on our com-
munal future; but lots of smaller
ideas will start to add up.
Plus, grassroots ideas scale
quickly and inexpensively. Reboot,
an organization facilitating Jewish
innovation, came up with the
National Day of Unplugging. This
simple idea got major news media
outlets to talk about the sanctity
of the Jewish Sabbath.
Thousands of jobs today can be
traced to companies whose found-
ers forged friendships at summer
camp decades ago. Thousands of
more opportunities can be created
by simply connecting people to
work together or find the resources
they need to make an impact.
Both local and entrepreneurial
need to be part of the equation. We
fear innovation at our own peril.
Technology allows unique ideas
to scale rapidly. Yet assets clinging
to yesterday's worldview or artifi-
cial engagement or missions that
maintain the status quo can depre-
ciate in value faster than ever.
Don't forget: Hadassah is rooted
in the dream of one committed
Jew. Teach for America started
with the thesis of one dedicated
Princeton undergraduate. Three
years after a stint at IBM Detroit,
Craig Newmark — not a giant
bureaucracy, but one programmer
— began craigslist.org , which has
created a marketplace for 50 mil-
lion monthly classifieds.
Living And Learning
David Cygielman created a
residence for a few friends just
a couple of years ago where his
peers could come over for regular
activities that promoted Jewish life.
Thirty-three "Moishe Houses" exist
today that create programs for
40,000 attendees each year.
Moishe House Detroit opens
June 1. The goal is to create a corn-
munal hub that supports young
leaders, markets the best of Jewish
Detroit, organizes several events
each month that makes our com-
munity even more welcoming to
young post-graduate Jews and
fosters a broader residential land-
scape where Jews can call home.
Founding donors — from Al
Taubman to the founder of New
Line Cinema — pledged nearly
$80,000 in private funds.
The Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit's
CommunityNEXT initiative,
directed by Jordan Wolfe, is in a
position to be a key builder of
Moishe House Detroit. Federation,
through CEO Scott Kaufman,
served as a repository for the local
donations.
After the Moishe House idea was
showcased at a Detroit town hall
meeting in January, a member of
the Italian American community
called me to express his eagerness
to donate.
Exporting Ideas on page 43
42
April 21 . 2011
he good times enjoyed at Jewish summer camp
strengthen Jewish identity. That once was
theory; now it's fact. A new study on the long-
range effect of Jewish overnight camp finds that kids
who have experienced camp are more involved in Jewish
life as adults.
This is the first statistical look at the impact of
Jewish camping on individual as well as communal
Jewish identity. Jewish federations, foundations and
philanthropists seeking support options now can give
with even greater confidence to Jewish overnight
camps. Scholarship dollars are sorely needed. Oakland
County-based Tamarack Camps, the dean of Jewish
overnight camping in Michigan, can attest to that.
Camping is not the end-all. Missing the experience
doesn't mean you'll be a marginal Jew in adulthood.
But let there be no doubt: It helps you become a more
complete Jew.
The Foundation for Jewish Camp put the survey in
perspective, driving home the point that Jewish over-
night camp helps kids grasp what it means to be Jewish
and hone their desire to live as a Jew. The New York-
based foundation, the survey sponsor, advocates for 155
Jewish nonprofit camps in North America. More than
70,000 kids attended Jewish overnight camp last year.
The report shows the greatest increase in Jewish
involvement in four areas not usually associated with
non-Orthodox Jewish habits. Three of these areas
related to Jewish communal identity: Camp alumni
are more likely as Jewish adults to say they are very
emotionally tied to Israel, more likely to attend syna-
gogue at least once a month and more likely to donate
to Jewish federations – all significant findings at a
time when the organized Jewish world is caught in a
briar patch of disinterest among many Jewish 20- and
30-somethings.
The other 10 areas under review also revealed more
intense individual Jewish involvement among camp
alumni, including the lighting of Shabbat and holiday
candles.
Steven Cohen, director the Berman Jewish Policy
Archive (funded by Detroiter Mandell Berman) at
New York University Wagner, was the lead researcher.
Interestingly, he underscored how if you are younger
than 49 and not Orthodox, "you need the intentional-
ity of Jewish camp, or day schools or youth groups, to
compensate for the loss of the organic Jewish social-
ization experience that characterized our parents and
grandparents."
"It's as if to be Jewish today, you have to be
Jewishly educated," he says.
But thanks to the "Camp Works" study, only camping
has hard evidence of that popularly held belief.
Authentic data now confirm that Jewish overnight
camps not only help kids awaken the Judaism within,
but also help steer them toward an engaging Jewish
future and a sense of being part of the Jewish com-
munity.
The study's success affirms an immediate need to
conduct similar surveys of Jewish day schools and
youth groups. f l