Some say you can’t have too much of a good thing, but that was the problem Zach Landres-Schnur was facing.
The director of Berkeley Congregation Beth El’s Camp Kee Tov had an abundance of counselor-in-training applications and not enough spots. He dreaded having to make rejections.
“We had a huge number of CIT applicants, way more than we could take,” he said. “These are current high school freshman, some of whom just completed their ninth-grade program last year at Kee Tov, and I just thought — why is this the only option?”
With 40 summers of swimming, singing and friendship circles in its history, Kee Tov is an East Bay institution. The Berkeley day camp serves kids in kindergarden (Rishonim) through ninth grade (Gesher) with day camp activities from June through August each year.
In his 22nd year with the program — as he has watched word about the Jewish camp spread well beyond the Jewish community, to the tune of 800 kids a year — Landres-Schnur has come to know the camp like the back of his hand. But this year, as sessions filled up “alarmingly fast,” he saw the need for something a little new.
“We work our CITs really hard,” he said. “And I know when I was 14, 15 years old, I wasn’t ready to stop being a kid and start working. It doesn’t seem like you shouldn’t have to stop being a camper.”
So Landres-Schnur created Olam, a two-week road trip adventure for teens ages 14 through 17.
From Aug. 1 to 12, participants will forge a trail through the Sierras while bonding over two short backpacking trips, a ropes course, fishing, river rafting and more. In addition to Kee Tov’s standard community-building and social justice–themed games and workshop activities, Olam campers will focus on survival skills such as navigation and shelter-building.
To build the program, Landres-Schnur approached Daniel Schindelman Schoen, the Gesher program director for the last two years, and a trained backcountry wilderness and white water guide, to boot.
“He’s a longtime Kee Tov counselor, and it was a really perfect fit,” Landres-Schnur said. “Together we discussed what would be best for this age group … how to make it new and exciting, but with the same stuff that makes Jewish day camp what Jewish day camp is.”
Similarly to Kee Tov’s regular day camp programming, the group will be a mix of newcomers and kids who have been attending camp together for years.
“The idea is for it to be a small, intimate group that may or may not know each other … but they’re going to be in close quarters for two weeks, so they’re going to bond whether they like it or not,” he said with a laugh.
Kee Tov branching out with its programming as it grows in size is a natural step, Landres-Schnur said. He’s also proud of the fact that, as the camp’s attendance increases, it’s attracting a more and more diverse group each year.
“We do have a fair amount of non-Jewish families now coming, and we’re pretty happy to encourage that,” he said. “We’re not a religious camp, but we’re clearly a Jewish camp, we promote Jewish values. And one of those Jewish values is community. We’re creating a community that transcends religion.”
For more information on Camp Kee Tov or the Olam rogram, visit www.campkeetov.org.