6 | JUNE 24 • 2021
PURELY COMMENTARY
1942 - 2021
Covering and Connecting
Jewish Detroit Every Week
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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