Section archive - Informal Education

The Jewish Agency for Israel is pleased to inform all of their readers that the FSU Summer Camps Blog 2010 is back. In keeping with tradition, this year's blog posts will chronicle key activities taking place in their summer camps, located in 14 different locations across the FSU. This summer there will be close to 5,000 children and youngsters, ages 7 -17, attending the summer camps.

Jacob Berkman reports on a press release from the Foundation for Jewish Camp giving a preview of preliminary findings of a major new research initiative which serves to advance the understanding of nonprofit Jewish camp’s impact on adult Jewish identity. Despite the continuing financial struggles of many families, nonprofit Jewish overnight camps are filling up! As in 2009, camps are projecting a flat or increased enrollment over last year. Camps are doing all they can to ensure that every parent is able to send their child to camp.

In a post from the Growing Jewish Education in Challenging Times series, Beth Cousens of Hillel, illustrates how the Hillel Senior Jewish Educators on ten campuses around the US help hundreds of Jewish students create personal Jewish identities for themselves by taking “ownership” over their Jewishness.

In a post for the eJewish Philanthropy's 'Growing Jewish Education in Challenging Times' series, Maggie Bar-Tura, Chief Operating Officer of Foundation for Jewish Camp, puts forth an idea to enable many more Jewish youth to be able to afford to attend Jewish summer camps. She suggests creating lower priced Jewish camping options that deliver strong educational value without all the frills, which could add new market segments that were previously priced out.