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While most college students are busy churning out term papers and debating the merits of one beer over another, 20-year-old Geoffrey Kantor is arranging an adventure combining Kabbalah and kayaking.

This July, Kantor, raised in Piedmont and currently a sophomore at Oregon's Willamette University, will help guide a whitewater rafting trip for Jewish Outdoor Adventures, a new firm of which he is founder and director. While it shares certain qualities with standard whitewater excursions — heart-thumping excitement, cookouts and stunning scenery, for instance — this five-day jaunt on the middle fork of Idaho's Salmon River will have a Jewish element as well.

Evenings around the campfire will be spent in discussion and song with a rabbi and cantor, as rafters learn about Kabbalah and other Jewish topics. Participants will enjoy gourmet kosher meals.

Fondly remembering his own Jewish summer-camp experiences, Kantor, who hopes to eventually attend rabbinical school, is determined "to put Judaism in the outdoors." While working as an outdoor educator at Brandeis Bardin camp several summers ago, he did not like the limited role the outdoors played in the experience.

He felt a wilderness trip — either "rough and rugged" or less rigorous — could be ideal for urban Jews who may not get out to nature areas too often. His own experience as a rafting guide inspired him further. Using an outfitter, he could book the guests himself. "I'm a travel agent of sorts," he explained. "While I will lead a boat as a hired guide, I'm not the official guide of the trip."

Kantor contacted the owner of Idaho's Sun Valley River Company and proposed the idea. The owner "jumped on the bandwagon," even agreeing to "kosher his kitchen," said Kantor.

The next step was to find a rabbinical speaker. Kantor's parents suggested Rabbi Stephen Robbins, whom they knew. Robbins loves the outdoors, and was ecstatic about the idea.

Growing up in Piedmont, Kantor enjoyed what he calls "the best of both worlds": He was educated both at Oakland's Reform Temple Sinai and Orthodox Beth Jacob Congregation.

"Orthodoxy had an element of ruach [spirit] that was unmatched," he explains. So his family "belonged to both." When the family moved from Piedmont to Sun Valley "to get out of city life," Kantor discovered a new love: the outdoors.

In Idaho he tutored his younger brothers for their bar mitzvahs, and taught Sunday school. He said that Sun Valley's Jewish community is growing rapidly, and that the town is now served by a part-time rabbi who lives in Boise.

At Willamette, Kantor formed a Jewish student union — the only Jewish group on this campus of 1,600 students.

Prior to this summer's river trip, participants will probably be sent the title of a book to read, so the group will have a common ground for discussion.

"Over hors d'oeuvres and wine we'll ponder the subject," Kantor said.

While the trip does not fall over Shabbat, participants are welcome to join the Sun Valley community for Shabbat prior to the start of the trip, which will be limited to 20 participants. Kantor hopes to eventually offer additional river adventures for singles, teens, couples and families.

He would like to offer Jewish biking tours as well.

Kantor knows of no other group currently sponsoring Jewish sports-education trips. Mosaic, a Jewish outdoors club, runs a network of groups across the country. Individuals within the group take trips, but the organization itself does not plan them.

"As far as I know," he said, "I'm filling a void."

To find out more about JOA and the July 13-17 rafting trip, call Geoffrey Kantor at (503) 370-6524, or write to him at 900 State Street, Box Ds 201, Salem, OR 97301. He can also be reached by e-mail at [email protected].