16 | SEPTEMBER 19 • 2024 
J
N

I

t was a summer of great meaning 
at Tamarack Camps.
The Elaine and Michael 
Serling Israeli Camper Program, 
now in its 22nd year, brought 
approximately 140 Israeli campers 
— almost twice as many as a typical 
summer — to Ortonville for a 
summer of respite. 
The extra campers were made 
up of two evacuated groups from 
Kibbutz Gevim and Kibbutz Be’eri.
After Oct. 7, in partnership with 
the Jewish Agency for Israel, the 
opportunity was offered to bring 
those kids from the Gaza envelope 
to Tamarack for the summer. 
The team at Tamarack Camps, led 
by camp director Carly Weinstock, 
and the team at the Jewish 
Federation of Detroit (JFD), led by 
Allison Gutman, worked together 

almost every day since fall 2023 
to ensure the expanded program’s 
success. 

PUTTING A PLAN TOGETHER 
Both teams met after Oct. 7, not 
knowing how long the war would 
last at that point, to brainstorm the 
systems they would need to put 
in place to bring children in a war 
zone to Tamarack.
The plan they implemented 
included bringing in Israeli 
social workers and extra staff 
and counselors for those Israeli 
campers. It meant finding room 
at camp for the extra campers 
and staff; Tamarack had 70 Israeli 
staff (including an Israeli Camper 
Program supervisor) and 28 TLV 
(counselors-in-training), more than 
ever before. 

It meant dedicated training 
and professional development for 
American and other international 
staff for kids coming out of a war 
zone and altering activities that 
might evoke anxiety for those kids.
It meant meeting with each of the 
kids from the Gaza envelope and 
their families, who all had major 
trauma and had no idea what camp 
was like, and communicating with 
them about how camp would care 
for and support them. 
Reflecting on the summer, 
Weinstock says the expanded 
program went as smoothly as it 
could’ve gone, made possible by 
program leadership preparing as 
much as possible in addition to 
having leaders such as Gutman 
and Lior Zisser-Yogev, Detroit’s 
community’s shlichah, on the 

ground at camp. 
Both camp sessions (24 days 
each) had groups of campers that 
came from evacuated areas. 

KEEPING THE MAGIC 
OF TAMARACK
Second session was a little 
more challenging than the first, 
Weinstock says. There was a push 
to put all the campers who came 
from evacuated areas together in 
their own village and to not mix 
them with Americans or other 
Israelis. 
Weinstock was firm in keeping 
the magic of Tamarack. 
“I said no. The success of our 
program is that they are a part of 
camp, they are doing everything 
with camp, and we need to let them 
do that.” 

The Elaine and Michael Serling Israeli Camper Program brought 
almost twice as many Israeli campers as a typical summer.
A Summer of Respite

DANNY SCHWARTZ SENIOR STAFF REPORTER

OUR COMMUNITY
Session Two Israeli campers 
pause their welcome dinner with 
their host families at Hillel Day 
School for a group photo with 
Elaine and Michael Serling.

