Source: eJewish Philanthropy
A collaboration between The iCenter for Israel Education, Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), and Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) is working closely with eight Jewish summer camps as part of a 20-month intensive process to infuse dynamic and meaningful Israel experiences throughout the fabric of camp. Program teams from the three organizations work closely together and with camp leadership to fully leverage camps’ diverse activities, their young staff members who are Jewish role models, and an increasing number of shlichim who help create camp programs.
Applications currently are open for a second round of camps to join the Israel@Camp Intensive. Eligible camps must be part of the FJC network of camps and not have participated in past iCenter/FJC Israel education camping initiatives. The camps in the intensive embark on a deliberate visioning process about the place of Israel at their camp.
Israel@Camp off builds on The iCenter’s years of experience and past initiatives, including the Goodman Camping Initiative for Modern Israel History and Bringing Israel to Camp. The Intensive utilizes JAFI’s expertise and role in training shlichim, and FJC’s leadership and support nationally in the Jewish camping field. The initiative is supported by the The AVI CHAI Foundation http://avichai.org/ and the Maimonides Fund. The first camps that entered the program in spring 2017 currently are assessing their recent summer of new experiments with Israel learning and looking toward a second summer of growth.
The Intensive includes mentorship with Israel educators, support for developing a vision of Israel education at camp, high quality education resources, and opportunities for staff and shlichim to train and work in partnership to enhance Israel education at camp. This includes a joint training experience in Israel that brings together shlichim, camp directors, and Israel educators integrated with JAFI’s annual Shlichim Training Seminar.