Far from intimidating Jewish camps, the events of Sept. 11 have provided the camps with new challenges that directors are looking forward to meeting this summer.
Summer may still be five months away, but overnight camps that serve Bay Area Jewish youth are busy getting ready. Enrollment is up, staff assignments are being set and campgrounds are undergoing their annual inspections. But in the shadow of Sept. 11, summer 2002 promises to be a bit different from years gone by.
Obviously, security is foremost on the minds of most camp executives, but on the whole, they feel that the issue is under control. According to Rabbi Ramie Arian, executive director of the New York-based National Foundation for Jewish Camping, security was tight at Jewish camps even before the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
“Jewish camps around the country had their wake-up call in 1999,” says Arian, referring to the shooting at the Los Angeles-area Jewish community center day camp, where five people were wounded. Since then, some parents’ organizations have provided security consultants to camps, and many groups have brought in security specialists to check out their campsites and to make recommendations to upgrade security.
Although security discussions are still in the early stages, Arian believes that the challenges today are different from those in years past. “Five or 10 years ago, we were worried about uninvited ‘guests’ — usually local teenagers or young adults — that would enter a compound to stir up trouble. Today, I believe that most of our campsites are physically secure. Today, the biggest challenge facing camp directors is anthrax.”
With the memory of the October-November anthrax scare still fresh, many camps have started to reassess mail policies for campers. Proposals range from accepting only mail with approved return addresses to requiring parents to notify the camp office before posting a package. Some camps are even considering rejecting any unexpected mail.
“Packages from home have always been one of the highlights of the camping experience,” says Arian. “Now we just have to be more careful.”
Most camp directors say that the Sept. 11 attacks have not affected enrollment, but the ongoing violence in Israel has, increasing interest in programs closer to home.
With the 16-month-old intifada showing no signs of abating, participation in summer trips to Israel is expected to fall to record lows in 2002. The result is that American camps are filling up at higher-than-average levels, despite the security concerns of many parents. No area Jewish camps have reported drops in registration for summer, and local UAHC camps director Ruben Arquilevich says that year-round programming at the Reform movement’s camps Swig in Saratoga and Newman in Santa Rosa is as popular as ever.
At the Conservative movement’s Camp Ramah in California, in Ojai, David Ross, the cultural arts director, said enrollment is up. However, he does not attribute it directly to the intifada.
“If anything, our numbers are up because people are not flying and not taking trips they planned,” he said. “My personal feeling is that…people are looking to connect or reconnect to the community, and basically a lot of families have decided not to go away.”
The drop in Israel-bound teenagers also has longer-range ramifications for American camping. Most organizations, including the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and the independent Camp Tawonga, recruit staffers with strong Israel experience. With fewer American students traveling to Israel, camps are seeking to compensate by providing intensive Jewish experiences closer to home.
Already this year, they have had to bolster stateside camp programs that previously drew fewer participants. For instance, UAHC’s 11th-grade leadership training seminar, Avodah (work), usually has between 15 to 20 participants. This year the organization is planning for 50.
“We have to address the needs of our ‘would-be’ Israel kids,” says Deborah Newbrun, Tawonga director.
One of Tawonga’s new Quest programs, which are conducted offsite, will be “much more overtly Jewish,” according to Ann Gonski, associate director. Titled Kadima, the program in the Pacific Northwest will involve kashrut observance and “a much more focused Shabbat celebration.”
As far as the camp itself, “I think the program will be the same, safety and security will be the same and we will do additional training for our staff on the kind of impact [Sept. 11] may have had on some kids,” Gonski added.
And while the camp program itself is not changing, Tawonga runs a “Grief and Growing” weekend for bereaved families in May, which will probably include a workshop on traumatic loss.
Other camps are also planning significant programming changes to compensate for the decline of Israel experience among staffers and to address what camp directors feel is a new reality for American Jews. Arian reports the Federation for Jewish Camping plans to stress, for the first time, Jewish-American patriotism, and plans to make up some of the kids’ lost Israel experience by hosting visits by Israeli representatives.
At Camp Ramah, Ross said a social-action program may be offered for entering 11th-graders who might otherwise have gone to Israel. In addition, he expects some programs will address many of the issues raised by Sept. 11.
Arquilevich says traditional Jewish themes such as justice and peace will take on new meaning. “The hunt for [Osama] bin Laden, the war in Afghanistan, the possible military tribunals of captured Al Qaida fighters, all of these give us a fresh context in which to discuss the Bible’s command “justice, justice shall you pursue.”