Search results for: Camps

Nine Jewish day camps across the country are running a unique Hebrew program known as Kayitz Kef. Supported by The Areivim Philanthropic Group, in collaboration with Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC), ”Kayitz Kef” represents the fun process campers experience during summer camp as they acquire Hebrew without even noticing.

These young women and men shlichim attend a four-day training seminar run annually each spring in Israel by The Jewish Agency (JAFI). Nonetheless, they come to camp sight unseen, not necessarily prepared for what to expect despite emails, phone calls and facetime with their supervisors. In order to the address the discrepancy between expectation and reality of the day camp setting, JCC Association of North America established Israel Up Close in 2013. This has allowed 51 day camp directors to attend the shlichim training. Not only do they gain insight into how the shlichim are prepared, but they offer valuable resources into the discourse about day camp.

The first two volumes of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s comprehensive record of Nazi-established persecution sites are now available. The first two volumes of the Museum’s “Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945,” are now freely accessible in their entirety on the Museum’s website, the museum announced. Printed editions of the Encyclopedia will still be offered through the publisher, Indiana University Press. Together, the two volumes cover more than 2,200 sites, many of which are described nowhere else in English.

As appreciation of the impact of Jewish camping has grown, so have efforts to increase the number of campers able to participate in these settings. Inclusion of campers with disabilities, though not a new phenomenon, has likewise expanded. As more services are provided to campers with disabilities, more camps are hiring an Inclusion Coordinator to spearhead and manage these initiatives. This article explores the work done by these professionals and the challenges they face in doing so. The work of Inclusion Coordinators is discussed in the context of the evolving nature of camp-based inclusion efforts as a whole. The authors see inclusion at summer camps as an area in which much creative work has been done, and would benefit not only from additional resources but also from increased coordination as “a field.”