American Jewish University, which oversees a Jewish summer youth camp in Ventura County, has denied reports that it knowingly may have exposed tens of thousands of its campers to radioactive waste and toxic chemicals.
Robert Wexler, president of AJU, called a report by a Los Angeles television station “deeply flawed and entirely misleading” in a Nov. 10 statement. KNBC reported that AJU covered up evidence that its Camp Alonim may have been contaminated by a neighboring Simi Valley facility, now owned by Boeing.
“KNBC suggested strongly that AJU, and the prior managers of Brandeis-Bardin, sought to conceal evidence that our property is contaminated,” Wexler’s statement said. “Of course, nothing could be further from the truth … We are confident that our site is absolutely safe despite KNBC’s misleading report.”
The 2,800-acre property on which the camp is located is known as the Brandeis-Bardin campus, previously operated by the Brandeis-Bardin Institute. American Jewish University took over operations in 2007.
Over the years, an adjacent field lab was home to ten low-power nuclear reactors, a sodium burn pit, a plutonium fuel fabrication facility and a uranium carbide fuel fabrication facility. KNBC’s report said campers and staff could have been exposed to radioactive materials and toxic chemicals from the field lab that migrated onto the Brandeis property through groundwater, surface water and wind.
More than a dozen former Brandeis senior staff, camp families and board members told KNBC they tried to get information on the contamination and felt “stonewalled” by institute leadership. One family told the station they believed a family member developed a tumor from living on the property year-round. — jta