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. 

continued from page 28

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