In the second public forum on the fate of UAHC Camp Swig in Saratoga, the clamor to save the site quieted down to just a few squeaks and squabbles.
Last week’s meeting at San Francisco’s Congregation Sherith Israel held little drama with fewer than 25 people in attendance, in sharp contrast to the packed room of more than 70 angry campers and rabbis at the first forum in September.
The intent of the session on Thursday of last week was to glean ideas from the community for the future of the Swig site. But few were galvanized to offer their input.
The Reform Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which owns the dilapidated Swig site as well as the much larger UAHC Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, had received an unsolicited offer last year from a private developer to buy Swig. But the deal was canceled for unspecified reasons in December, following a community uproar.
Looking for a new plan of action, UAHC appointed a task force earlier this month to gather opinions from the public and make a recommendation on what to do with the site. The camp, which sits on a faultline, needs an estimated $2 million in repairs and will run in a reduced capacity this summer.
At the meeting, the only new group to voice a complaint was Camp Arazim, a local Conservative summer camp that has no permanent site. Frank Kurtz, the camp’s vice president, said his group had been “stonewalled” in attempts to bid for summer use of the Swig site.
Rabbi Steven Chester, co-chair of the task force, responded that all concerns would be heard and that no one was being intentionally excluded from the process.
With still no commitment from the UAHC to ensure that the camp’s Jo Naymark Holocaust Memorial will continue standing, Ron Naymark questioned whether “the stewardship of the camp is properly placed. Each of the camps needs an independent board. I think the community will look on with suspicion” at any action taken by the single board, which operates both Swig and Newman.
Samuel Noily, who has been a strong advocate for saving the memorial, said it “has to have vital Jewish life around it and has to be accessible to the Jewish community. If UAHC wants to keep the camp, it has to take on a renewed vigor for the memorial.”
Along with others who spoke emotionally about the need to keep Swig operating, Barbara Cohen, who works at the camp, pressed the task force to consider constructing buildings in areas just outside the faultline.
She also wondered whether the UAHC had publicized the forum sufficiently. “I think it is sad about tonight’s turnout,” she said. “I, for one, never got a simple notice in the mail about the event.”
Turnout at Swig camp events this year has also been low, said Ruben Arquilevich, Swig’s camp director. While enrollment at Newman is on the rise, encouraging the UAHC to construct new facilities there, Swig’s attendance has been slumping. Just two years ago the camp hosted 500 campers over the summer, but this coming summer, Swig will have a limited program with only 150 campers.
Arquilevich warned that even if millions of dollars were pumped into camp improvements, Swig could still only serve a limited number of youth.
Diane Marcus, recently appointed to the national UAHC board, said that the future of Swig should be invested in a mix of adult and youth camping.
The only group to publicly express an intent to buy the Swig campus is the Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose. No representative from the agency appeared at the forum, but Jon Friedenberg, the federation’s executive director, said that an offer could be presented by late March. If the federation purchases the site, it will run it in conjunction with other agencies as a summer camp and a retreat center.
On Sunday, the task force will hold a meeting in Los Angeles to hear from others who wish to have a stake in the camp’s future.