Camp Newman dedicates $4M retreat center

A $4 million conference center will be dedicated this weekend at Camp Newman, the Reform movement camp in Santa Rosa.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, will be at Shabbat services Saturday, Nov. 5 when the center is formally dedicated. Also attending will be Peninsula resident Daryl Messinger, chair of the URJ board of trustees, who as chair of the Camp Newman advisory grant has helped raise more than $22 million to date for the camp’s renovation.

The $4 million grant for the center — the single largest gift ever received by Camp Newman, as reported in this publication — was donated in 2015 by the San Francisco-based Koret Foundation.  The center will allow the sleep-away camp, which serves children entering grades 3-12, to accommodate more than 13,000 people annually, more than triple its current retreat usage.

It is part of a $30 million Reform movement project to enhance Jewish life in Northern California.