30 February 7 • 2019
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gramming, Kerbel said.
The first three-day retreat for camp
staffers in May 2018 drew 35 partici-
pants from Young Judaea and Ramah
camps, Camp JORI, URJ Camp
Coleman, Atlanta’
s In the City Camp
and the Marcus Jewish Community
Center of Atlanta’
s day camps.
The content included the origins of
Jewish identity, peoplehood, Zionism,
state making and contemporary issues
and led to discussions about how
each camp could take advantage of its
unique setting to implement experi-
ential programming beyond a single
Israel Day during a summer session.
“Some participants wrote feverishly,
jotting down ideas from peers. Others
challenged their own perceptions of
Israel’
s story, and still others figured
out, through brisk exchanges, how to
apply content to their camp’
s settings,
”
CIE President Ken Stein said. “
As a
teacher, watching each of them belong
to Israel’
s story in their unique ways
generated similar outcomes to what
educators, teens and clergy have expe-
rienced in previous Israel learning ses-
sions with us. Common to all of them
is understanding content in context
and Israel’
s complexity.
”
Kerbel said camps sent staffers
because they recognized the need to
improve as Israel educators, not in
response to claims from organiza-
tions such as IfNotNow that summer
camps hide the truth about Israel and
the Palestinians. But he said CIE can
help camps deal with those issues in a
developmentally appropriate way that
includes understanding perspective
and answering tough questions with
appropriate, nuanced responses.
Kerbel said he followed up on the
seminar by spending a couple of days
doing Israel programming with sev-
enth- and eighth-graders at Camp
Judaea, and he found they didn’
t even
know how to start talking about the
conflict.
“
After allowing myself to sit on the
student side of the classroom, learning
from the CIE staff and the impressive
young participants, I now feel more
properly positioned to encourage these
exercises and conversations in camp,
”
said seminar participant Elana Pollack,
the program director at Camp Judaea.
Helene Drobenare, the executive
director of Young Judaea Sprout
Camps, said participation in the May
program added to the staff skill set and
helped build a stronger educational
team for this past summer.
Camp Young Judaea Sprout Lake
staffers said at the end of the seminar
that they gained a better understand-
ing of Israel’
s current events, learned
how to teach Israel to young children,
took away programming ideas and
materials on Israeli geography, and
gained ways to explain the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict and the issues of
occupation.
“Our staff returned motivated and
excited to create some new programs
for our community,
” Drobenare said.
“They had fresh techniques that really
worked at camp.
” ■
For more information about the CIE Israel
seminars, email steve@israeled.org.
Center for Israel Education President Ken Stein uses a giant floor map of Israel to help educate
Jewish camp staffers about Israel’
s geography during CIE’
s inaugural three-day seminar for
Jewish camp staffers in May 2018 at Camp Ramah Darom in Clayton, Ga.
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