Perspectives on Jewish Education: Day Camping – An Underdeveloped Jewish Educational Resource
Source: Jewish Education Leadership, Volume 7:3 , Summer, 2009
Although day camps have the potential to play an important role in fostering positive identification with Judaism, it is the author's belief that their potential to foster Jewish identity and provide truly significant informal Jewish education experiences is not being fully realized.
He sees the potential for enhancing the Jewish educational components of Jewish day camps as revolutionary. Jewish organizations can bring about both a culture change and a paradigm shift in day camping. Cultural change, meaning that each day camp must begin to view itself first and foremost as an experience in vibrant Jewish living and not merely as a general summer fun experience for those who attend. The paradigm shift will then be for the day camp to use its power to educate through the vehicle of the Jewish experiences it provides. The camp’s ultimate purpose must become the enhancement and enrichment of the Jewish life, learning and soul of each of its campers and staff members.