6 | JUNE 24 • 2021 

PURELY COMMENTARY

1942 - 2021

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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continued from page 4

joyful and fun. Something 
you’re proud to be. These 
camps create experiences 
that connect kids powerfully 
with Judaism, enabling them 
to embrace the heritage that 
is their birthright.
So, those grandparents 
showed their enthusiastic 
support with a big farewell. 
They wrote letters and sent 
care packages. On Visitors 
Day or Visitors Weekend, 
there they were again, lugging 
picnic baskets and stepping 
carefully over the uneven 
ground. 
They loved the vibrancy of 
Jewish life at camp, and they 
said so again and again. Some 
of these grandparents may 
have helped pay for camp, 
too. Their support, in ways 
large and small, delivered two 
powerful messages to their 
grandchildren: You matter. 
And this matters.
With a few exceptions, 
those beloved elders have 

passed from the scene. But 
their example remains.
It’s the example I’ve had 
in mind this week, as the 
next generation of our family 
heads to Jewish overnight 
camp. Now, it’s my turn, 
our turn, to carry the torch 
forward. 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS HELP 
It also makes me think about 
the ways a Jewish community 
shows all its children that 
they matter, and this matters. 
Jewish summer camp is a big-
ticket item. Scholarship funds 
will always be needed.
That’s how I was able to 
go to Jewish summer camp 

so long ago. The cost was a 
fraction of the cost today, but 
it was still totally out of reach 
for my blue-collar parents. 
Thanks to the generosity of 
someone I never knew, maybe 
someone else’s grandparents, 
I was able to go. Twice. It 
changed my life forever.
Years ago, I established a 
modest camp scholarship 
fund at our Jewish Federation 
in memory of my parents. The 
parents who needed a helping 
hand to get me to camp 
are benefactors for other 
children now. I always ask 
the scholarship coordinators 
to convey a parallel message 
to the recipients: Sometimes 

one who needs a boost 
today will be in a position 
later to help someone else. 
There are many ways to be 
a “grandparent.”
It’s time to dash off 
a message to my little 
campers. No more “snail 
mail”; now the camp prints 
out email messages and 
delivers them to the kids.
Times change, but one 
thing will never change. 
The sound of the air brakes 
releasing, and the lurch of 
the buses moving ahead will 
always fill my eyes with tears. 
It’s the poignant sound of 
time passing; one generation 
departs, another steps up in 
its place, and the children, 
the sweet children, move ever 
forward. 

Sally Abrams co-directs the Speakers 

Bureau of the Jewish Community 

Relations Council of Minnesota and 

the Dakotas. Visit: sallygabrams.com.

CAMP TAMARACK

