How have Jewish summer camps changed throughout the years? Experts explain – Yahoo Canada Shine On
Posted By admin on July 6, 2022
Jewish summer camps have a rich history dating back to before World War I. (Photo: Getty Creative)
The Jewish summer camp experience has become a beloved summer memory for many Jewish families and communities. But these summertime programs have not always been the Jewish summer camps of today. Through the decades, summer camps have varied between everything from an experience that excluded Jewish people to one that was used to protect and support Jewish children from the effects of war.
Jonathan Krasner is a professor of Jewish education at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. who reports that in the very early years of summer camp in the U.S., Jewish people and other minority communities were left out of these traditional summertime activities.
"Camps often had Christian influences," he explains, "and while some were officially non-denominational, many camps were restricted which means that Jews, Black people and other marginalized people were not permitted to enroll."
Krasner says as a result, Jews started creating their own parallel institutions to traditional American summer camps, beginning in 1893. As Jewish organizations began to open facilities all their own, they followed the two different traditional structures for American summer camps: private camps and "fresh air" camps.
"Private and institutionally-affiliated camps were for middle-class and wealthy kids," says Krasner. "And, fresh air camps were for children of immigrants and other at-risk populations."
"For middle and upper-class families, the growth of summer camps at the turn of the 20th century was part of a wider cultural reaction to urbanization and industrialization," he adds. "Nostalgia was palpable for what was imagined as a simpler time, when humans were more connected to the land and to nature."
For the children of immigrants, fresh air camps were touted for their health benefits. According to Krasner, parents saw the value of relocating kids from hot, overcrowded city neighborhoods and exposing them to nature, fresh air, hearty food and wholesome play.
Story continues
"Camps were [also] agents of Americanization: teaching immigrant kids how to play American sports and encouraging them to develop a taste for American cuisine and enjoy popular American pastimes," he says, adding that these early Jewish summer camps gave Jewish children a camp they could attend, but werent much different from their non-Jewish counterparts. If any Jewish culture was presented, like Friday evening services and a Shabbat dinner, it was minimal.
"After World War I, a new type of Jewish summer camp developed," says Krasner, "the Jewish culture camp."
"These camps had many of the same activities as the general camps, but the atmosphere was distinctly Jewish," he continues. "The emphasis was on spending the summer immersed in Jewish culture and living rich, joyfully-Jewish lives."
These newer Jewish summer camps were not only a place for fun and cultural discovery. In some cases, they were a safe haven for Jewish children in high-risk areas of the country during World War II.
"While camps in picturesque remote locations always had a cache with the rich, parents found a new reason to favor these camps during World War II," Krasner tells Yahoo Life. "[Parents] fearing U-Boat attacks (a type of naval submarine operated by Germany during the first and second World Wars) on East Coast population centers, packed their kids off to camp in remote locations like the Adirondacks and central Maine."
As World War II came to an end in 1945, Jewish summer camps, along with many other Jewish institutions, saw massive amounts of growth throughout the U.S.
Daniel Olson, director of strategic initiatives and research at the National Ramah Commission in New York, says in 1947 when the first Camp Ramah (Jewish summer camps affiliated with the Conservative Movement of Judaism) opened, it was just the beginning of the second stage of Jewish summer camps.
"There were camps organized around using Hebrew, using Yiddish, teaching socialist values or being early Zionists supporting Jewish state-building in Palestine," he tells Yahoo Life. "At that time, the American-Jewish community was more established with less concerns about assimilating into mainstream American culture so, the post-World War II period is when you saw Jewish denominations getting into the summer camp game and having a much more self-conscious focus on Jewish education for leadership development."
Olson says 75 years later, stories of that first summer at Camp Ramah, so close to the end of the atrocities of the Holocaust and World War II, are still remembered to this day. And, while some American children had been protected from potential attacks by Jewish summer camps, refugees new to the country found comfort and community in these summer experiences after the war had ended.
Today, Jewish summer camps continue to be a part of the Jewish experience in the U.S. and around the world, a phenomenon experts believe may be tied to a third wave of camping, focused on individuality.
Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow is the New York-based vice president of innovation and education at Foundation for Jewish Camp. Orlow says Jewish summer camps have entered into a new phase, paving the way to continue the tradition of the Jewish summer camp experience.
"Now it's how do we make them good Jews?" he says "Even if there are many different flavors of what a good Jew could look like. The third phase happened about 13 years ago an enterprise to build new specialty camps, to bring new kids to the market who would not necessarily be going to Jewish camp otherwise"
"Reform science camps, farm-to-table camps how do we take these niches of human existence and integrate Jewish into that space and bring new people into the camp environment?" Orlow adds.
Olson agrees, and says in recent decades, Jewish summer camps have learned not only how to share a more authentic, full Jewish life, but also how to be more inclusive.
"We've learned a lot in the last generation," Olson says. "People who come to camp learn how to live in a community and how to have respect for lots of different people. Disability inclusion has been a part of Ramah for the last 52 years and is now a part of many many other Jewish summer camps as well."
"Respect for difference and the full diversity of our communities is a really important outcome here," he adds. "When you're living an an immersive especially for the overnight camps 24/7 environment, surrounded by other people, there's an incredible opportunity to not just learn about Jewish values, traditions, rituals and customs, but also to live them out all the time. That, I think, is one of the most special pieces that Jewish summer camps provide for kids and staff members."
Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here forYahoo Lifes newsletter.
Go here to see the original:
How have Jewish summer camps changed throughout the years? Experts explain - Yahoo Canada Shine On
- Jew - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms | Vocabulary.com - September 5th, 2023
- Putin: West put ethnic Jew to rule in Ukraine to 'Nazism' - The Jerusalem Post - September 5th, 2023
- Putin: West put 'an ethnic Jew' as head of Ukraine to 'cover up anti-human essence' - I24NEWS - i24NEWS - September 5th, 2023
- Putin: West put ethnic Jew to rule in Ukraine to 'cover glorification of ... - The Union Leader - September 5th, 2023
- RECIPES: Start the New Year like a British Jew with fried cod gefilte ... - The Jewish News of Northern California - September 5th, 2023
- One Palestinian, one Jew, and two very different impressions of 'Golda' - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - September 3rd, 2023
- 'I found the only Jew in Chad' diplomat writes in decades old letter just revealed - Ynetnews - September 3rd, 2023
- How the first Orthodox Jew in an MLB organization is making it work - The Guam Daily Post - September 3rd, 2023
- Undercover Jew: The incredible Dachau rescue of Adolf Mueller - National Post - September 3rd, 2023
- Who is lonely? The Jew struggling with doubt - opinion - The Jerusalem Post - August 26th, 2023
- A bite of the Big Apple: The 'New York Jew' on an online culinary ... - Ynetnews - August 26th, 2023
- The only Jew in remote Greenland sometimes feels like the last person on Earth - The Times of Israel - August 26th, 2023
- Popular kosher eatery near Paris defaced with graffiti saying Jew and thief - The Times of Israel - August 26th, 2023
- UFC Fighter Looking Forward To 'real Jew-jitsu' In The Cage After ... - i24NEWS - August 26th, 2023
- Jew | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary - August 16th, 2023
- The only Jew in remote Greenland sometimes feels like 'the last person ... - August 16th, 2023
- British Jews - Wikipedia - August 16th, 2023
- On the cutting room floor: Arab subtitles omit 'Jew' from summer ... - August 16th, 2023
- Shin Bet: Iranian Jew Deported From Israel's Airport After ... - Haaretz - August 16th, 2023
- The only Jew in remote Greenland feels like 'the last person on earth' - The Jerusalem Post - August 16th, 2023
- The Only Jew in Remote Greenland Sometimes Feels Like the Last ... - Jewish Exponent - August 16th, 2023
- Coming out as Jewish: What being a Jew and LGBTQ+ have in ... - The Jerusalem Post - August 16th, 2023
- The Mobile Jew Versus the Stationary Israeli - Opinion - Haaretz - August 16th, 2023
- Jew | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary - August 10th, 2023
- OPINION: Oops, David Miller forgot to substitute the word 'Jew' with 'Zionist' - Jewish News - August 10th, 2023
- German man accused of posing as a Jew and peddling fake, antisemitic Holocaust story - The Times of Israel - August 10th, 2023
- How William Friedkin, a Jew from Chicago, made us fear the ... - The Jewish News of Northern California - August 10th, 2023
- A Black Jewish American Woman's Take on the Jamie Foxx Incident - Jew in the City - August 10th, 2023
- Woke Jew Haters Ilhan Omar and Squad Expose Their Inferiority - August 4th, 2023
- Was Shakespeare a believing Jew? - Sun Sentinel - August 4th, 2023
- This Barbie Is an Assimilated Jew - Alma - August 4th, 2023
- Leading anti-occupation activist, Orthodox Israeli Jew - The Times of Israel - August 4th, 2023
- X marks the spot of Jew hatred - Toronto Star - August 4th, 2023
- The First Orthodox Jew Close to Making the NBA Gets the Doc Treatment - Rolling Stone - July 28th, 2023
- False charges of antisemitism harm the fight against Jew-hatred - The Jewish Standard - July 28th, 2023
- When is a Jew not a Jew? When they are German and Gentile - The Jewish Chronicle - July 28th, 2023
- Thomas Friedman, the court Jew - JNS.org - July 28th, 2023
- Lessons for Freeing an American Jew in Russia from the Fight to ... - Mosaic - July 5th, 2023
- The French riots and Jew-hatred - JNS.org - July 5th, 2023
- OPINION: As a Black trans Jew, anti-LGBTQ+ laws target everything ... - The Jewish News of Northern California - July 5th, 2023
- Weekly Dvar Torah: The Rebbe The Ultimate Torah Jew ... - CrownHeights.info - June 23rd, 2023
- Jew - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - June 17th, 2023
- Putin: My Jewish friends say Zelensky isnt Jewish, is a disgrace to the faith - The Times of Israel - June 17th, 2023
- Glenda Jackson played Jews, acted for Jews and replaced a Jew in parliament - Forward - June 17th, 2023
- Let's Ensure No Jew Should Ever Be On The Street - Anash.org - Good News - June 17th, 2023
- Are Orthodox Jews Allowed To Kiss and Tell? - Jew in the City - June 17th, 2023
- The Israeli conflict over Who is a Jew? is resurfacing in 2023 - The Times of Israel - June 12th, 2023
- CUNYs troubling Jew-hatred sanctioning is bigotry on the taxpayer's dime - New York Post - June 12th, 2023
- Another Complaint Launched Against Arab Party's Token Jew Ofer ... - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com - June 12th, 2023
- Biden Touts CAIR, SPLC in Launching Antisemitism Strategy - June 6th, 2023
- No Jew Will be Left Behind: FSU's Leading Jewish Organizations ... - Federation of Jewish Communities - June 6th, 2023
- Who are the Real Jews? | My Jewish Learning - June 4th, 2023
- I was the wrong kind of Israeli memoirs of an Arab-Jew by Avi Shlaim review - The Times - June 4th, 2023
- Timely reflections on the coronation | Chaim Ingram | The Blogs - May 11th, 2023
- Defendant pleads guilty to brazen antisemitic attack that ... - April 30th, 2023
- NYC Council progressives vote no, from 'End Jew Hatred Day' - April 30th, 2023
- Polish-Jewish group releases antisemitism report that shows steep ... - April 29th, 2023
- First antisemitism report conducted with the Polish Jewish community shows how Jew is used to discredit enemies - Forward - April 25th, 2023
- Berber Jews - Wikipedia - March 31st, 2023
- Which side are you on: Jewish American or American Jew? - March 20th, 2023
- Googles leading definition for the word Jew showed offensive terms ... - March 12th, 2023
- Texan Posing as Orthodox Jew Arrested After Adoptive Son Calls Podcast ... - March 12th, 2023
- How The Soviet Jew Was Made | Sheldon Kirshner | The Blogs - March 12th, 2023
- Jews - Wikipedia - February 25th, 2023
- Who is a Jew? - Wikipedia - February 25th, 2023
- Ben Shapiro mocks George Santos over claim his heritage is Jew-ish - February 25th, 2023
- Google fixes leading definition of "Jew" after search engine results ... - February 9th, 2023
- Celebrities You Didn't Know Are Jewish - Insider - February 9th, 2023
- What Do Jews Believe About Jesus? | My Jewish Learning - February 9th, 2023
- A new film brings to life the largest single work of art created by a Jew during the Holocaust - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - January 18th, 2023
- Google fixes leading definition of "Jew" after search engine results showed offensive slur - CBS News - December 29th, 2022
- Haters Meltdown Over Real Housewives of New York Casting of Proud Jew ... - October 23rd, 2022
- Does UC Berkeley really have Jew-free zones? We explain - October 23rd, 2022
- Nazi Propaganda | Holocaust Encyclopedia - October 23rd, 2022
- Community convenes Sunday for Festival of Jewish Life in Bloomington - The Pantagraph - October 17th, 2022
- Ben Bril: The Dutch Jewish boxing champion sent to Nazi camps by Olympic team-mate - BBC - October 17th, 2022
- Nazi sympathizers vandalize small Spanish town once named Fort Kill the Jews - The Times of Israel - October 17th, 2022
- Off the wall: What the Jewish man slurred in leaked LA city council recording has to say about it - Forward - October 17th, 2022
- "U.S. Jews have to get their act together," says the former president of the United States - msnNOW - October 17th, 2022
- Black people are actually Jew[s]: The historical origins of Kanye Wests inflammatory comments - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency - October 12th, 2022
Comments