Shelter Rock Jewish Center

Last year, we had the great good fortune to be selected by the United Jewish Appeal as one of only twenty synagogues charged with distributing fifteen very generous camperships to boys and girls in our community who have never gone to Jewish summer camps. It sounded too good to be true, but, for once, it actually was true. And we were able to help many children, both members of Shelter Rock and others more distant from organized Jewish life, to have their first taste of Jewish camping. It was great being able to help all those children!

 

And now, perhaps to reward us for working so hard last year, we have again been selected for the program. Only this time we have been given thirty camperships to distribute, which gives us the most fabulous job: finding thirty boys and girls who have either never been to Jewish sleepaway camp, or who have only been there once, and to encourage them either to try it out or to try it out again.  The sums are impressive: $1250 for first-time campers and $750 for second timers. The camp has to be on the approved list of camps, which you can find conveniently listed at www.jewishcamping.org . (Ramah, of course, is on the list! And Ramah is offering a matching grant of $750 to any families that accept the UJA campership and send their kids to camp.) There are only important restrictions regarding the camperships: one, that the camp experience in question run for at least three weeks, and the other is that the child involved not be a student in a fulltime Jewish day school. But, aside from that, if the child hasn't been before, or has only gone once before, and the camp is on the list...then it shouldn't be a problem to get the money.

 

Last year, I wrote to you all about how much I loved camp as a child. I still have the nicest memories of those years. They were important for me in terms of my transition from childhood to adolesence, but they were also very important for me in terms of my Jewish growth: my first real experience of Shabbat was at camp and I still remember the details of Friday night at camp warmly and with the greatest affection.  There is something magical about the whole concept--the independence kids feel in camp combined with the reality of being in a totally secure, safe environment, the excitement of living with other boys and girls in a communal setting combined with the knowledge that a full staff of adults is quietly watching over things and making sure that the summer unfolds in a healthy and worthy way, and the whole concept of living in a Jewish world absent the strictures of life in the "real" world--all of it was wonderful for me as a child, and was definitely something Joan and I wanted to provide for our own children. And we did--for our Vancouver years at Camp Solomon Schechter in Olympia, Washington, and then at Ramah California in Ojai. It wasn't cheap, but what truly valuable things ever are? I'm happy we did it. And I think the parents of all successful campers feel the same way.

 

So let's put on our communal thinking caps. Surely, working together, the members of a shul our size should be able to think of thirty kids who haven't ever gone to camp! They could be our children or our grandchildren, but they could also be the children of friends, or their grandchildren. They could be neighbors or the members of other congregations that we've met and think would do well at camp. We are not restricted to Shelter Rockers--just enabled by this generous grant to help thirty kids do something they might otherwise not be able to do. Nor is this need-based: any child who qualifies gets the money regardless of his or her parents' income. Sounds good to me!

 

If you think of someone to suggest, phone me at the shul (741-4305, ext. 14) or e-mail me at rabbi@sjrc.org and I'll follow it up. Or contact the child yourself and see how well you do. What a huge mitzvah we have the possibility of performing if we work together and come up with the names of enough kids. I'll do my part...but we're going to have to work together to make this happen. Ronit Azulay, our educational director, is also very involved in this whole effort, and you can certainly speak to her too. I'm excited. Let's give out all thirty camperships if we can!