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The Best Gift

Posted in Guest Bloggers, Parenting, Parents, Why We Love Camp on June 12th, 2013 by alicia - No Comments »

This past Sunday I went back to camp 50 years after I had spent my first night there.

Along with more than 950 other people, my husband and I and two of our three kids made the trip to Wingdale, New York, for the celebration of Camp Ramah in the Berkshires at 50. I had been a camper at Ramah in Nyack during its brief tenure as an overnight camp, and then was among the first campers to go to Ramah in the Berkshires when it was opened by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1964, somewhat misnamed because it is really more in the foothills of the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains.

I spent three more summers as a camper there, five years on staff, and I can’t figure out how many as a visiting day parent. My husband, Richard, actually spent a few weeks there as waterfront staff member before I knew him after an illustrious career running the agam (lake) at Camp Massad. We were both devoted Jewish summer camp people, but we were not a “Ramah couple.”

Even though it has been a few years since we came to Wingdale for a visiting day, I still had the same jolt of joy and expectation as I got out of our car on what’s always been called the golf course but hasn’t seen a golf club in half a century. I felt as though I hadn’t seen my kids in four weeks (even though we had just spent Shabbat together) and worried that I didn’t have enough food to share with their bunks!

My three kids, Zachary, Rebecca and Ilana, started in the youngest edah (age group) and continued on for many, many summers. All of them returned on staff in some position or other (bunk counselors, sports, and one particularly hot summer, as a water-boy). Zach is married to Jordana Kaye, who falls somewhere in age between him and Rebecca and whom he met at the camp’s Labor Day Alumni Weekend. (For some reason, I still am not sure of all those details.) They certainly would have been in Wingdale on Sunday if they didn’t live in Utah! Rebecca has expanded her Ramah experience to become a senior program manager at the Foundation for Jewish Camp, a job that seems custom made to her skills and experiences. (And because I am a Jewish mother, I must add that Ilana is a social worker at NYU Medical Center; I don’t want her to feel left out.)

So what did I think? The camp looked beautiful (although the fact that it was the nicest day out of seven last week certainly helped). The new buildings are impressive. The numbers are reassuring. The connections are very real.

But what is most fascinating to me was not that I reconnected with people I hadn’t seen in 40 or 50 or even 10 or 15 years. What is most intriguing is the many people I saw at camp whom I see regularly but who weren’t necessarily part of my crew as a camper or staff member. They are people who share my love of things Jewish, a commitment to Jewish education, and involvement with the Jewish (and specifically Conservative/Masorti) world. We share all this now, I think, because of our individual experiences at Ramah, because of how Ramah forged our love of yiddishkeit, of Israel, of tikkun olam. We might not have done these together at camp, but we do them now because of how each of us processed the Ramah experience. I have come to appreciate how this was not by chance, that Ramah had an agenda, and that my Jewish life – and that of my family – was part of that agenda.

I’ve spent the last 25 years as a professional in the Conservative movement. Richard and I probably spent 30 years volunteering for the Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County. Richard is an officer of the Masorti Foundation. We don’t take our Judaism casually and I think our children appreciate that. But even more, they have benefited from how they, too, processed the Ramah experience. We were moved almost to tears on Sunday when they showed us the paving stone they had purchased in our honor. It said, “In honor of Richard and Rhonda Kahn for giving us the gift of camp.” They, too, have been forged by the Ramah experience and have processed their Judaism to include the same things that have been so important to their parents. What better gift could they have given us?

- Rhonda Jacobs Kahn is the Communications Director at Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, and Editor at CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism

Building Bridges to Connect Jewish Camps and Schools

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Posted in Developing Professionals, Education and Educators, FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers on March 6th, 2013 by alicia - No Comments »

The following was also posted on the Jim Joseph Foundation blog.

By Jordan Magidson, Nadiv Educator at URJ Camp Kalsman in Arlington, WA and Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle, WA. 

One idea that has been drilled into my head for the last four years is that no Jewish community is an island—or at least no community should be. Rather than hoarding our intellectual property we should be sharing it, collaborating with other Jewish organizations and learning from one another in order to create the best possible educational experience for our children. What I find unique about the Nadiv program is that it is one of the first national initiatives to begin building those bridges between Jewish organizations, recognizing that religion schools (that’s what we call it in my neck of the woods) and Jewish camps both have a lot to teach each and learn from each other when it comes to innovative and successful Jewish programming for kids.

My position as Nadiv Educator is pretty unique. I am only one of six Jewish educators who split their time between working in a school and working at camp and only one of two in this pilot that works in supplementary Jewish education. While there have been challenges, they have been minimal and hardly noteworthy. The benefits and opportunities for growth for the camp, the religion school and for me as an educator have been far more numerous.

When I am wearing my temple hat, I am thinking about what makes camp so successful and how we can start integrating that into our religion school. We send 140 students from Temple De Hirsch Sinai (TDHS) to URJ Camp Kalsman each summer. This gives us the opportunity to create a sense of year-long Jewish education for our students. With camp being located only an hour outside of Seattle, we have the chance to utilize this beautiful and uniquely Jewish setting to support what is happening in the classroom. We will begin by sending our 4th-6th graders to camp in May for a Shabbaton where we teach our students and their families about how we can address poverty in our community. Camp is a perfect setting for this as fighting hunger is a major goal of our camp community. This past year we donated roughly 1000 lbs. of food that we grew in our garden to a local shelter and we hope to double that this year. By utilizing program areas like the garden and farm, we not only teach our students about this big issue, but also literally get our hands dirty and show them how they can be change agents in our community. This will have a bigger impact than if we just stayed at our congregation. We are also, of course, hoping to garner more excitement about camp and encourage some first-time campers to try it out.

When I am wearing my camp hat, I am thinking about ways in which camp can continue to grow and be at the forefront of innovation when it comes to Jewish education. It is important that camp not simply rest on its laurels – just because something worked 20 years ago doesn’t mean it doesn’t need rejuvenating. This year at camp we are beginning to move to a fully integrated model of Jewish education, which will be a change from how we have done things in the past. It will bring a new energy to the education program. As Director of Education at camp, I am also aware that not every community I work with has the same resources available to them as available TDHS. That is why we are beginning to send out holiday recourse sheets to schools and families that will allow them to bring a little of the camp spirit into their homes. We are also going to start making available tested and approved all-school and family programming to our camp communities that would like to add more experiential programming to their schedules but may not have the time or resources to create them. This will be one way we can give all of our campers, not just TDHS campers, the ability to experience this year-long Jewish education.

All of this is just the beginning. April will mark one year in this very unique position for me. In this first year I have learned a lot and accomplished a lot. I know that in the coming years I will accomplish even more. David Berkman (Director of Camp Kalsman), Rabbi Daniel Septimus (Director of Congregational Learning at TDHS) and I are all very committed to creating endless opportunities for collaboration. I can’t wait to see where we go from here!

Can Jewish Organizations Really Work Collaboratively? Early Lessons from Nadiv

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Posted in Developing Professionals, Education and Educators, FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers, Jewish Camp in the News on February 28th, 2013 by alicia - No Comments »

The following post was originally featured on eJewish Philanthropy.

Collaboration and partnership have become the buzzwords of our time. The business world as well as the nonprofit sector heralds the advantages of collaboration: sharing resources, bringing multiple perspectives to address difficult issues, eliminating duplication, learning from one another and pooling assets.

The Jim Joseph and AVI CHAI Foundations, as funders interacting with multiple organizations across sectors, have a bird’s-eye view of what can result when organizations function from within their own separate silos: duplicate efforts on the one hand and unaddressed needs on the other. This led us to ask: can we, as funders, use our resources and influence to catalyze collaboration? And taking that one step further: can we, as funders, collaborate to more effectively advance our common goals?

On the topic of funding collaboration efforts, David La Piana, in his monograph Real Collaboration: A Guide for Grantmakers, offers a sobering observation. “Funders cannot create Real Collaboration. They can only help to enhance it. In most instances, a ‘grant for collaboration’ will not seed or create a partnership where none existed before unless the motivation to create a partnership is present and strong. ”

We are fortunate that talented professionals in the areas of Jewish education that our two foundations support were already thinking of developing and nurturing collaboration and were highly motivated to see it succeed. Jewish camp leaders wanted year-round educators devoting their skills to deepen Jewish learning in camps and Jewish school leaders wanted to inspire their students with more immersive “camp-like” Jewish experiences during the school year. To address these needs, our foundations have jointly funded a five-year grant to the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Nadiv Initiative, an experiment designed to create new connections between Jewish camps and schools, leveraging unique professional knowledge and best practices for the benefit of both.

Nadiv involves a complex array of individual, organizational and system collaboration in order to produce camp and school alumni whose Judaism deeply engages both their heads and their hearts:

  • Each of six experiential Jewish educators is “shared” by a camp and a school in the same geographic area.
  • Each camp-school pair works together to determine the role of their Nadiv educator.
  • Educators, heads of school and camp directors participate collectively in a community of practice to learn from one another’s successes and challenges.
  • The Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) and the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) together helped develop the program and are directing its implementation.
  • Two foundations have co-invested in the project, communicating regularly and learning the give-and-take required by funding partnerships.

Can so many levels of partnership succeed not only simultaneously, but in such a way that the partnerships build on each other and each strengthens the whole? While Nadiv is just in its early stages of implementation, the first evaluation report has been conducted by BTW informing change. One of the two sections of the report, “The Nadiv Story, Unfolding,” tells the story of Nadiv’s collaborative process as it unfolded, with all the turns and twists in the road. The second section, “Key Learnings from Nadiv’s Launch,” shares successes along with key learnings and offers recommendations for ongoing implementation and future partnerships.

Even in this early stage, Nadiv is turning out to be a fascinating story about collaboration, with multiple characters and plotlines. At the individual level, six educators from a range of backgrounds are working across institutions and denominational affiliations to support one another and share learnings. At an organizational level, camps and schools are leveraging their partnership to retain a talented educator and strengthen one another’s educational work, bringing more of the joy of camp to school and introducing more of the substance of school to camp. At the field level, FJC and URJ are deepening their relationship, identifying shared measures for success, and laying the groundwork for future collaborative efforts. And on the funder level, two foundations deeply committed to Jewish education are bridging their differences to enhance their leverage. While it is too early to identify concrete results, BTW’s report notes encouragingly: “The most common words used to describe the nascent partnerships are respect, communication, collaboration, support and trust.”

At the first Nadiv convening this past fall, energy and excitement ran high as school and camp heads, Nadiv educators and their mentors reached across their organizational divides and talked together about the best ways to inspire and educate Jewish youth. Participants left with a sense of being halutzim (pioneers) in a model that can bring down some of the walls that separate classroom-based and experiential education, winter and summer, teacher and counselor.

We will have to wait several years to fully understand whether this experiment to catalyze new institutional collaboration will achieve what it set out to do. If it does, we hope that other camps, schools and educational institutions will adapt elements of the Nadiv model for their own collaborative experiments. We equally hope that other funders will be inspired to invest (or even better, co-invest) in such efforts.

We will, of course, continue to “learn in public” as the project progresses and look forward to your reactions and your own stories of collaboration in the Jewish education world.

- Josh Miller is a senior program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation. Steven Green is director of grants management and administration at the Jim Joseph Foundation. Leah Nadich Meir is a program officer at The AVI CHAI Foundation. Joel Einleger is a senior program officer at The AVI CHAI Foundation.

Permission to Shine

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Posted in Guest Bloggers on February 26th, 2013 by alicia - No Comments »

In Ki Tisa, this week’s Torah portion, we read about Moses ascending Sinai and getting the Ten Commandments. It is hard to imagine anything more inspiring than being on hand for Moses receiving the Torah. But, alas we see that this did not work for the Israelites. While Moses was up getting the Tablets, they grew impatient and made a Golden Calf for themselves. If the Israelites lost their passion and commitment so soon after experiencing the miracles of the plagues in Egypt, the splitting of the Red Sea, and the victorious war with Amalek, how could we today have any hope of staying on mission?

After the resolution of the Golden Calf incident Moses returned to the people with a new set of Tablets. While the first set were made by God, this time Moses made them himself. In addition at the end of Torah portion we read:

33 And when Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. 34 But when Moses went in before the Lord that God might speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out; and spoke unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. 35 And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face sent forth beams; and Moses put the veil back upon his face, until he went in to speak with God.

This is the origin of the Michelangelo‘s depiction of Moses with horns of light. It is clearly also the source of why some people believed that Jews had horns. This is all secondary to the notion that this outpouring of light from Moses helped the Israelites see that their leader was inspired. We need our leaders to be inspired to be inspiring. There is something to the DIY ethos. We all need to have a sense of ownership in a project to be invested in its outcome. Where as in the first set of Tablets it was all about God, in the second set God had Moses and therefore the people’s buy-in.

Recently I was talking with Michael Wax an Assistant Director of Beber Camp about how he might inspire his staff to move the needle on what is an already a very good program at his camp. In my mind we need to find more ways to share our vision so that others share a sense of ownership. When we allow people to own their work they radiate their passion and joy. This attitude itself is infectious. This reminds me of one of my favorite poems, Our Deepest Fear by Marianne Williamson. We read:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

Moses’s beaming face gave permission for the Israelites to let themselves shine too. It seems that if we really want to move the needle we need to figure out how to let ourselves and those around us shine.

–Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow is the Director of Jewish Education at the Foundation for Jewish Camp

Giving, Receiving Constructive Criticism

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Posted in Developing Professionals, FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers on January 30th, 2013 by alicia - No Comments »

The following post was originally featured in The Atlanta Jewish Times

In this post-inauguration and post-election period for the United States and Israel, respectively, we are well aware that leadership styles, models and talents can vary greatly between individuals. In Parashat Yitro specifically, we are witness to the fact that the ability to listen, to hear and to convey ideas effectively are all traits of outstanding leadership.

In the chapters that precede the description of G-d’s revelation at Sinai, we read about Moses’ father-in-law and the instrumental role he played in establishing the legal system for the Jewish people in the wilderness. We are introduced to Yitro after he hears about all the things that “G-d had done for Moses and for Israel His people (Exodus 18:1).”

Yitro then brings Zipporah, Gershom and Eliezer back to Moses, and father-in-law and son-in-law soon reconnect as Moses recounts to Yitro the story of G-d’s power and the Exodus from Egypt. Finally – less than a day after being reunited – the unsolicited advice from elder to younger pours out.

In these moments, we see the mutual respect either has for the other and a model for great leadership. Yitro witnesses Moses serving as the lone judge for the people, hearing their disputes and then rendering his decisions. Then, no more than a verse passes within the text before Yitro intercedes, listens to Moses’ reasoning and then offers his own perspective.

He says, “This is not a good thing you are doing,” a gentle way of telling him that the whole manner in which Moses is going about this procedure is completely wrong (Exodus 18:17). It is not that his rulings or warnings to people are incorrect, as says the Midrash Sechel Tov (12th-century commentary), but rather that the system is untenable both for Moses and the people.

Thus, Moses develops a new system – based on Yitro’s feedback – in which the responsibility is shared with other individuals and only the major disputes come before Moses.

Yitro’s suggestions are not earth-shattering; what is most impressive about this scene is his ability to witness the pitfalls of the current structure and to share practical solutions in a way that Moses can hear them. At the same time, Moses’ ability to place his ego aside, to listen to the perspective of an “outsider” and to implement changes based on that input show his dedication to doing what is best for the people and not to making his own name great.

Indeed, after having recently returned from a conference for the Foundation for Jewish Camp, the value of having genuine leaders who both listen to and share feedback has been on my mind a good deal. I had the fortune to work with educators of varied backgrounds, skill sets and professions (all leaders in their own right) as we modeled educational programs, critiqued one another and internalized the comments that were being offered.

In this small group of Jewish leaders, I perceived Yitro’s ability to diagnose a potential problem and Moses’ ability to listen to feedback, both in group sessions and in individual conversations. Most impressively, at the core of all of these conversations was the commitment to creating outstanding experiences and training programs for others – even if it meant rethinking, refining or changing one’s own program.

Leadership manifests itself in different ways, and thus it is hard to define one style, model or talent as the most beneficial. But as we learn from Parashat Yitro, the ability to listen, to hear and to convey ideas effectively cannot be overlooked in the conversation. These talents have the power to inspire and to bring about real change in the world.

- Rabbi Marshall Lesack is the director of education at Congregation Shearith Israel and a member of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association.

 

Ah-Ha Moments

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Posted in Developing Professionals, Education and Educators, FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers on January 15th, 2013 by alicia - 1 Comment

As it is written: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.  And God saw the light that it was good.” (Bereishit, 1:3-4)

Each day, we have moments of light.  We have thoughts, ideas, and contemplations about ways to improve life.  We think about how we can help our family and friends.   We think about ways to make our jobs more meaningful or easier. We think about how to become healthier.  We think.  Not every idea is a good one.  We likely have more bad ideas than good ones.  Yet, rarely do we take the moment to reflect and determine its merit.

Human nature inherently pushes us to go and do.  Many of us attend seminars, trainings, workshops, meetings, conferences, etc.  The rooms buzz with excitement and ideas.  The hour long presentation was the best thing you ever saw.  You walk out the door energized.  You get back to your desk and realize you can’t articulate the ideas you left the room with just moments ago.  Shadows of your thoughts ruminate in your brain.  You try your hardest to put your thoughts on paper, but you can’t reach them.  It’s too late.  The moment of reflection has passed.

God teaches us reflection from the start of the Torah.  Each act of creation is followed by a recap and nod of approval.  The Yitro Leadership Program brings Assistant and Associate Camp Directors together from all parts of the US.  In a three-day seminar, not a moment is wasted.  We walk in and have agendas, workbooks, notebooks, and pens waiting for us.  The flip charts are placed at the front of the room near the PowerPoint projector.  There is a coffee table at the back of the room.  It’s time to work.  You look at the agenda, and it looks like any other schedule: three sessions before lunch, another four before dinner, and an evening program.  The agenda, however, doesn’t tell the whole story.  We revisit the content from our previous two seminars.  We look at the challenges facing our own camps today.  We build a frame, together, for what we are about to do.  We are learning as we share with each other best practices.  With each topic, we work through case studies, build skills, and develop benchmarks.

We are asked to flip to page one of our workbooks and jot down any revelations we’ve had.  The top of the page reads “Ah-Ha Moments”.  It’s a blank page in a workbook.  We are in session, but we are silent.  Many would look at this as wasted time and space.  This is intentional.  Reflection is critical to learning and development.  It underscores that which we have found most important.  It allows us to remember our thoughts at a later time.

Thinking back on our sessions, I had so many “Ah-Ha Moments”.  One of the most profound discussions and topics was about the way we train our staff.  Training is not a one week process at camp.  In fact, training is an ongoing process in life.  We coach, we teach, we cultivate, and we teach our staff to be better individuals.  We are in the business of role modeling. We are in the business of growing children into young Jewish adults.  What do we want our kids to Know, Value, and Do in their lives? These are the methods we use to train our staff as role models.

What’s an idea that you lost?  What do you wish you remembered?  What got lost between the meeting room and your desk?  Stop.  Think.  Reflect.  Write.  Imagine the good that can come from it.

- Dan Baer, Associate Director, Camp Interlaken JCC

My Heart is in the East(s)

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Posted in Guest Bloggers, Israel on November 19th, 2012 by alicia - No Comments »

This post originally appeared on Off the Rekord

My mind and heart were scattered yesterday morning as I figured out what to wear for Wear Your NFTY, Camp and Israel T-Shirt Day or, as I like to call it, wear your swag to work day.  I wrote several months ago about how camp is home to me.  And, in truth, over the years, several camps have become home to me.  I truly do believe that camp is magic and it’s important to me to support the idea of camp and its importance for our young people.  Even as I continue to develop a relationship with Jewish camp life as an adult.  NFTY, too, is an organization that is near to my heart.  Ultimately, I settled on my Camp Harlam Faculty t-shirt from this summer and a NFTY sweatshirt.  I chose that sweatshirt because it’s also a Netzer sweatshirt.

Netzer, is the international Reform Zionist youth movement, of which NFTY became a part several years ago.  Netzer stands for which stands for Noar Tzioni Reformi (Reform Zionist Youth).  I chose that sweatshirt because it didn’t only stand for NFTY, but because it also stood for the other place my mind and heart were, as the news began to come in faster and faster of the war that increasingly seems to be brewing in Israel.

For many Jews, myself included, Israel is like family…we don’t always agree with her, but we love her anyway. When she’s doing something that we disagree with, we speak out against her actions from a place of love. And when she’s being attacked, we support her and stand with her.

These past days, as hundreds of rockets have been fired into Israeli neighborhoods (in addition to the thousands of rockets over the past several years), Israel has responded by targeting terrorists and the leaders of Hamas and other terrorist organizations; dropping pamphlets over Gaza beforehand, and begging the civilians of Gaza to get to safety and move away from the areas that were to be targeted. 

Personally, I cannot just watch Israel be under attack, knowing that in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem there are sirens going off, and that rockets are attacking cities that I have been to and that I know people in, a city I’ve lived in, and not stand with Israel from wherever I find myself.

And so I found my heart (more than a little) torn yesterday, as I thought of my camp and youth group friends, many of whom I’m still friends with and I still think of as family, and my family of the Jewish people in Israel, in a land that I love.  It seemed almost silly to be wearing a camp t-shirt when I was reading horrific news.  But then I realized that it was because of that camp and that organization that I grew to love Israel in the first place.

It was at camp that I knew other Israeli kids and had Israeli counselors, it was with camp and NFTY that I first travelled to Israel in high school, and it was through NFTY that I had the opportunity to visit Israel a few summers later and work there.  It was through them that my relationship with Israel became real and became solid.  In many ways, I owe my love of Israel to the Reform Movement’s Youth Programs.  And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in that.  Indeed, that’s part of the reason why I’ve done so much to bring those experience to new generations.  And as I express my love for camp and for NFTY and for Israel, I realize that all of those thoughts of love and hope and connection are intermingled in many ways.

So yesterday, knowing that for every message I read on facebook filled with hate towards Israel, many from people I respect, filled with opinions formed on half-truths and an anti-Israel biased western media, I came to realize that it was increasingly important for me to stand by the side of my other homeland.  To try to give facts and teach and inform and to stand up for what I believe is right.  To show them MY Israel, a place that I love for a reason.

And, yes, to pray.  To pray for all the fighting to be over. To pray for peace.  To pray for the healing of ALL people in that region, so that their children can thrive away from bombs and rockets, running through playgrounds and not crouching in bomb shelters.  To pray that everyone there, regardless of nationality or religion, can live a life of peace.

So yes, my heart is in the east.  And even as I hope and pray for peace, I fight for Israel, however little power I may have to do so from the middle of Texas, to use what I do have to speak up and speak out and to stand where my heart is.

Libi b’mizrach.

- Rabbi Elisa Koppel is the Associate Rabbi and Youth Director at Temple Beth-El in Hillsborough, NJ

Doing My Stuff

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Posted in Developing Professionals, FJC Programs, Guest Bloggers on November 16th, 2012 by alicia - 1 Comment

Harry Chapin is one of the singer-songwriters whose music has provided the soundtrack to countless summers at Camp Alonim and many other Jewish camps over the years.  In one memorable tune, Harry spins a lament about the meagerness of his guitar – his “monophonic symphony,” his “six string orchestra.”  How about adding a bass, lead guitar, drums, and some strings – wouldn’t the music sound much more full that way?  “Maybe I just need a group to help me do my stuff,” sings Harry.

As a camp director, one group that helps me “do my stuff” is my cohort of FJC’s Executive Leadership Institute (ELI).   Barely a year after we first gathered to begin our learning together, my fourteen fellow directors and I recently reconvened in New Jersey along with the fantastic FJC faculty and staff for the first time since the summer.  The room was filled with hearty hugs and warm feelings.  And then, once again, we got down to work.  We continued our skill-building in the areas of board development and fundraising.  We updated one another on the various “summer change” projects we each initiated at our camps – from what worked, to what didn’t, to what’s next.  We pored over various aspects of budgeting and financial management – the toolbox both for managing a budget month-to-month and for using financial data to communicate organizational priorities and health clearly and effectively.  We learned new ways to recruit and retain campers and families – from postcards with QR codes that can be scanned to link to an online summer photo or video, to online marketing efforts that are increasingly common in the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds, to year-round efforts to connect kids and their families with each other and with camp’s joyful Judaism.  We shared what we do, and had a friendly competition about how many of our ideas we could share with one another.  “You wrote 131 retention ideas on your giant post-its?  Ha – we have more!”  Brainstorming led to “a-ha” moments and then the increasingly antsy feelings of “I want to go home and get started!”

Some of us are technically “competitors” – some are even in the same geographic markets – so why has the spirit of collaboration been so palpable since day 1 of ELI?  It’s because we all believe in the value of Jewish camp to change lives, we all believe each kid in this world is unique and might find his/her true “home away from home” in a different place, and we all know that despite the ever-improving products we’re offering, the majority of Jewish kids still don’t attend Jewish camp!

As important as ELI has been for learning best practices and refining our nitty-gritty skills both as “mayors” of our seasonal outposts and as year-round executives with multi-million dollar budgets, it’s that community that FJC has created that has made ELI such a worthwhile endeavor.  The job of a camp director can sometimes be a surprisingly lonely one, even during the summer.  Now, because of ELI, I have a cohort of colleagues across the country, each of whom is committed to excellence for their camps and any of whom I would feel comfortable calling to discuss an issue.

But it’s even more than having an expanded rolodex and the comfort of knowing I can use it.  This summer, my fellow ELI Fellows joined me at camp.  Not physically, of course, but the next best way.  I could ask myself: How would Terry warmly welcome the waves of first-time parents and campers?  How might Lewis make a necessary change and communicate it to stakeholders?  How would Anne exhibit consistency when everything seems to be descending into chaos?  How might Noah listen to this camper or that staff member who might need some special attention?  Would Melissa be satisfied with the level of intention shown to our teen programs?  I believe leadership is most effective when it is by example – and because of ELI, I had with me the examples of fourteen other stellar camp professionals with whom I could empathize imaginatively throughout the summer.

ELI has reminded me that I alone am more than a “monophonic symphony,” and it has taught me that we each need a group to help us do our stuff.  “And we would play together, like fine musicians should.  And it would sound like music, and the music would sound good.”  Thanks, ELI 3.  Thanks, FJC.  And, for what I’m sure won’t be the last time: thanks, Harry Chapin.

- Josh Levine, Director of Camp Alonim in Brandeis, CA

Camp Transforms “Me” to “We”

Posted in Guest Bloggers, Holidays, Jewish Camp in the News on September 25th, 2012 by alicia - No Comments »

by Rabbi Avi Katz Orlow

During Yom Kippur we pray the “Al Chet” confession of sins ten times. We repeat again and again the phrase, “On the sin we have sinned…”.  While there is a lot to be said about the particular sins that we are trying to atone for with this prayer, it is notable that the prayer is not in the first person singular but in the voice of “we”.  While enforcing collective punishment can be unjust, taking collective responsibility is transformative. Before we can talk about repairing our own sins, we have to spend some time repairing our sense of being part of a collective. We might struggle to get into the rhythm and tunes of the High Holidays because we have spent the rest of the year listening to our own playlists. In many ways, we are all still bowling alone.  Judaism might have lost being sticky because society in general has lost its glue.

One of the amazing aspects of Jewish camp is that it is a special place where community really comes together. And this past summer, we saw examples of camps working together on new initiatives to further expand on that idea of community. First, URJ’s Henry S. Jacobs Camp (a Reform camp based in Mississippi) and Camp Darom (an Orthodox camp based in Memphis) came together to celebrate the 4th of July (see story). We also saw a joint Maccabiah games for teens from the leadership programs of the North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) and teens from BBYO (see story). An amazing Matisyahu concert at NJY camps (Camp Cedar Lake) gathered campers from URJ Kutz Camp, Habonim Dror Camp Na’aleh, and Camp Tel Yehudah (see story).  Through these camps, an amazing “we” is developing.

When I think about the “Al Chet”, it is easy to get stuck thinking about all the bad things that I did last year. However, when I look back on this summer, I am inspired. It is at camp that the kind of community that teaches us to speak in the first person plural is created. Camp is a place where all of the “me’s” can be transformed into a “we”. Together we can accomplish anything.

May we all have a very meaningful New Year.

Thinking Outside the Tzedakah Box

Posted in Guest Bloggers, Philanthopy on September 7th, 2012 by alicia - No Comments »

By Naomi Skop Richter, Jewish Teen Funders Network Program Associate (naomi@jfunders.org)

 

“… being awarded the Jewish Teen Funders Network grant gave a group of 42 teenagers a chance to make a big difference in the world… This program taught me responsibility, appreciation, and how charity functions.”

-Rachael Cohn, URJ Camp Jacobs Camp (Utica,MS)

 

Summer camps are filled with opportunities to pair the deep bonds of friendship with formative experiential learning opportunities.  Ask a “camp person” about her formative Jewish experiences and watch her face light up as she recalls the special moment that opened her fourteen-year-old world to a new way of thinking or being Jewishly.  These experiences shape teens in significant ways – often guiding them on their professional and volunteer journeys — as many former campers can attest.

As the Jewish community becomes increasingly concerned with who will fund Jewish organizations and projects in the years to come, the Jewish Teen Funders Network (JTFN) launched a pilot program, “Think Outside the Tzedakah Box,” in 20 camps this summer, pairing hands-on learning about philanthropy and the best of camp.  In the safe space of their special immersion experiences, groups of teens learned about why giving is a Jewish value, determined funding priorities as a group, reviewed grant proposals, and went on site visits.  Operating as a “teen foundation,” they challenged each other’s assumptions, engaged in a consensus building process, and ultimately gave real grants (of real money) to non-profit organizations.  In total, over 500 teens participated in teen foundations this summer and awarded over $20,000 in grants to organizations they researched, vetted, and visited.

Ask these campers about their experience and their eyes will shine as they tell you how special and different it was to leave camp in their “Shabbat clothes” for the “real world” to meet with the staff of a non-profit.  A camper from URJ Camp Harlam (Kunkletown, PA) boasted, “We were truly treated like adults on our site visits, and the whole experience was extremely empowering.”  Site visits helped the teens wrap their heads around complex problems in their communities and provide an opportunity to learn first-hand how non-profits work to address those challenges.

At first glance, summer camp seems an unusual place to run this kind of program.  Camp is so often about the internal camp experience- group bonding and safe space- and less about the outside world.  But that is exactly what makes this program memorable and attractive.  “I liked how in depth our conversations got and how close we got [through] them.  In general, we really bonded through [the program],” wrote a camper at Camp Laurelwood (Madison, CT).

A positive group dynamic, created by the immersion experience of camp, leads to the ability to respectfully challenge one another, be honest with one’s peers, and really listen – all necessary when making difficult group decisions about limited sums of money.  A teen foundation also requires dedicated staff people who are eager to bring their own interests and passions to this process, while stepping back to allow the teens to drive the process.  Indeed, camp staff, with their diverse backgrounds and skills, helped to elevate the program as each camp built upon the standard curriculum in its own way.  At URJ Henry S. Jacobs Camp, a development professional helped the teens implement a fundraising drive in order to give away even more money, while the group at URJ Camp Harlam delved deeply into the mechanics of consensus-based decisions, building on the experience of a rabbinical student who attended a Quaker college.

This summer’s pilot program, supported by the Maimonides Fund, pulled from the “best practices” in the field of Jewish teen philanthropy.  Adapting existing curricular and programmatic materials, JTFN wanted to see how the teen foundation program model would work in the context of a Jewish summer camp. We surveyed the campers, staff, and administrators about their experience with the program, and we’ll focus on analysis of the evaluation data this fall (and build out the program for Summer 2013 accordingly).  In the meantime, we know that one day, you will come across these teens as adults. One will remember his favorite camp staff as he passionately tells a potential donor why a particular cause is so meaningful to him.  Another will smile as she sits down at her first board meeting for the non-profit she so values.  Many, we believe, will continue to give philanthropically through the lens of Jewish values.  And they will all know where their passions began, like so many other lasting interests—at Jewish summer camp.

 

Naomi Skop Richter is the program associate at the Jewish Teen Funders Network.  The Jewish Teen Funders Network (JTFN) supports a network of over 100 teen philanthropy programs.  JTFN’s mission is to provide Jewish teens with hands-on opportunities to engage in collective philanthropic giving with their peers, guided by Jewish values.  Naomi fondly remembers her days as a camper and staff at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires.  Learn more at www.jtfn.org.

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