Jewish camp: It's officially awesome

As many of you in the blogosphere may already know, I am a HUGE fan of Jewish camp. I never attended as a child but began to experience its magic at weekend retreats during the school year in college. Then last summer I worked as a Rosh Eidah (unit head) URJ Camp Newman in Santa Rosa and had the time of my life. I walked away from the experience a total camp convert and full-fledged member of the cult. I'll be returning to Newman this summer as its Education Director and could not possibly be more excited about it.

For me, camp was a phenomenal experience on so many levels. Spiritually, personally, and socially, it filled me with a certain joy and comfort that I had never experienced in my life. My consistent feeling of happiness, acceptance, and empowerment often shocked and moved me. I felt like I was bouncing around on my own cloud 9 nearly every morning and night. And, since I was surrounded by such like-minded and good, kind, passionate people, it felt as if each of us was a Mexican jumping bean, constantly hopping onto each others' respective clouds.

All that jumping does wonders for the soul.

Educationally speaking, camp altered my perception of what it means to teach Jews Judaism. Watching young children up through college-aged staffers experience the joy and passion of their own Jewish identity in a safe, nurturing environment was nothing short of inspiring. Day in and day out, campers and staffers were constantly filled to the brim. Nearly every activity was infused with Jewishness. This was a complete departure for me and my experience in religious school teaching. There were no separated time periods devoted to "Jewish education" and everything else. There was, simply, camp. And as the motto at Newman goes, "Camp is life. The rest is just details."

One of the things I pondered (and wrote about) upon my departure from camp last summer was the rate of Jewish involvement following camp's end. I wondered how Judaism would factor into the lives of campers and staffers once they left their safe summer enclaves. How active were these children and young adults in their respective home congregations or Jewish communities? Was Judaism something that was merely isolated to summer?

Recently the JTA (a news source on all things Jewish) published an article on the success of Jewish camps. Under a survey titled "Camp Works," generated by the Foundation for Jewish Camp, it was found that statistically speaking, those with camp experience have a higher rate of involvement and connection to Judaism and/or Israel. Children and adults with camp backgrounds and experiences are far more likely to embrace their religious identity in the greater world. Through this survey we now can identify that camp, with its myriad social and spiritual offerings, has the statistical backing to affirm its influence on Jewish identity.

Simply put, this article makes it official: camp is one big, lean, mean, successful, identity-forming machine. And for those of us lucky enough to spend summers beneath the redwood trees of Northern California (or Wisconsin... or upstate New York...) we now have proof that our time is time well spent. For the Jewish community to acknowledge the success rate of something so intrinsic to our very fabric is exciting, validating, and downright cool.

You can read the article here. Please feel free to post comments, etc.!

L'machaneh, l'chaim!

To camp, to life!

Jaclyn