Research

CAMP WORKS provides systematic and quantitative evidence that summers at Jewish camp create adults who are committed to the Jewish community and engaged in Jewish practice. Utilizing the most recent National Jewish Population Survey and 25 local community studies completed between 2000–2008, this report offers the fullest picture to date of the impact of Jewish summer camp.

The influence of summer camp on the ways in which adult Jews choose to engage with the community and the degree to which they associate with other Jews can be felt long after the last sunset of the summer. The impact is striking, especially when compared to their peers who did not spend their summer months at Jewish camp.

Camp attendance increases the likelihood of adult participation and identification in every one of these areas. As adults, campers are:

30% more likely to donate to a Jewish charity;

37% more likely to light Shabbat candles;

45% more likely to attend synagogue monthly or more; and

55% more likely to be very emotionally attached to Israel.

Please download the full CAMP WORKS study below, and share it with your community.

This brochure offers a graphic view of the findings of CAMP WORKS: The Long-term Impact of Jewish Overnight Camp, and folds out into a 12x16” poster. You can download this below as well. 

An entertaining ethnographic study of how Jewish summer camps foster Jewish sensibilities and education. Written for social scientists, educators, community professionals and lay leaders concerned with informal education, camping, children, ethnicity, and religion, this book will be of special interest to those interested in how culture and traditions are passed on to the next generation.

Click here to read more about this book or order copies.

Click here to read a summary or the full report.

One in every six Jews in North America is from a Russian-speaking family. But Jewish communal institutions--including schools, synagogues, and camps--have met with little success in engaging this population in cultural and social activities. We wonder: Why aren’t Russian Jews participating in Jewish institutional life in numbers proportionate to the size of their population?

With the goal of attracting a substantially higher number of children from Russian-speaking families to overnight camp, the Foundation for Jewish Camp, with the support of the Genesis Philanthropy Group, commissioned a study of Russian-speaking parents to begin to learn about their attitudes toward camp.  This research also has the added benefit of being the first national survey of Russian-speaking Jewish parents that explores the decisions they are making with respect to Jewish education and recreation for their children, as well as the potential there may be to tip the scales in favor of Jewish choices in the future.

This study is the third in an ongoing series of market research studies the Foundation for Jewish Camp has commissioned in the last five years to learn more about parents attitudes and behaviors towards Jewish summer camp. Written by Dr. Steven Cohen and Judith Veinstein, the report provides the field of Jewish camp with a deeper understanding of Midwestern Jewish families and their connection to the Jewish community, particularly exploring intermarried families--families in which one parent is Jewish and the other is not.  Together, with the analyses of Los Angeles and Toronto parents, this report moves the field closer to a complete picture, illuminating both the particularities and similarities of Jewish parents across North America.

We are grateful to the Jack and Goldie Wolfe Miller Fund for their support of this new research.  It will enable camps in the Midwest and beyond to develop the appropriate strategies to reach a broad Jewish audience, increasing the number of Jewish children influenced and shaped by summers at Jewish camp.

Due to the generosity of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, FJC conducted a market study of the Jewish community in Greater Los Angeles. This study, led by Dr. Steven M. Cohen, investigated motivating factors behind parents' decisions to send their children to Jewish summer camp. This important first study continues to serve as a template for how FJC conducts community-based studies.

This study was conducted by FJC in partnership with the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, an organization dedicated to improving access to and attendance at Jewish summer camps. Lead researcher and preeminent North American Jewish sociologist Dr. Steven M. Cohen and co-author Judith Veinstein revealed the needs and consumer practices of the Jewish parents in the Greater Toronto area. While almost one-in-four Jewish camper-aged children in the Toronto area attended a Jewish summer camp in summer 2008, many parents are concerned with the cost of camp, and those unconcerned with cost tend to believe that non-sectarian camps can provide their children with higher-quality activities and facilities.

This research will enable the camps in and around Toronto, as well as across North America, to develop the appropriate strategies to better reach their audience and thereby increase the number of Jewish children influenced and shaped by summers at Jewish camp.

In September 2010, the AVI CHAI Foundation released “Generation of Change: How Leaders in their Twenties and Thirties are Reshaping American Jewish Life,” written by Jack Wertheimer. The study examines the identities and attitudes of this young cohort of leaders, and explains the effect of their childhood involvement in Jewish activities on their adult leadership behavior. A whopping 71 percent of young leaders surveyed attended Jewish summer camp, as the study explains: “The rates of participation by these leaders in Jewish summer camps, youth movements, Hillel, and other forms of Jewish education are extraordinarily high, suggesting that many of the young leaders were groomed rather than having bloomed on their own.” Clearly, the potential of raising leaders at Jewish camp is enormous, and we look forward to helping camps harness this potential.