Summer 2012: Are YOU In?
With almost 500 Jewish teenagers from across the United States and around the world (welcome Guatemala this year), already registered, we want to know: ARE YOU IN? Join the most diverse and eclectic mix of Jewish teens anywhere in the world for an amazing summer at Tel Yehudah.
Learn about about all of our first session and second session programs, including our newest programs: Tzedek: Alternative Summer Break – an immersive community-service program, Solelim – a challenging, outdoor adventure program, Sayeret Olami, our International Leadership and Activism Institute, and Havurah – our program for campers from the Russian-speaking community
You can also read about the wide variety of specialty areas each camper will experience at camp and find out what a typical day at TY might be like.
New Online TY Store Opens
We are excited to announce the opening of the all-new TY CampSpot online store for shirts, shorts, sweatshirts, hats and more with TY logos as well as other great camp gear. A portion of each order supports the Tel Yehudah Scholarship Fund. Show the world your love for TY and support your camp!
Begin shopping HERE.
Breaking News: Young Judaea Moves Closer Toward Operating Independently
The Zionist Youth Movement Has been under the auspices of Hadassah for more than 70 years
NEW YORK (April 20, 2012) – Young Judaea inked an agreement this week that positions it “a short time away” from becoming an independent organization, the youth movement said today in a joint announcement with Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, which has been its parent and sole sponsor since 1967.
Following Hadassah’s historic decision in June to create an independent Young Judaea, the new founding board of the youth movement worked with Hadassah on an accord that addresses all issues for Young Judaea to become autonomous, such as transitional support, property and asset transfers, trademark use, and the continued strategic partnership between the two organizations.
“We are now just a short time away from bringing Young Judaea to full independence,” said Hadassah National President Marcie Natan, adding that both organizations are focused on ensuring the smoothest transition possible and the youth movement’s future success. “We at Hadassah are very excited about our continued support of and involvement with Young Judaea, which is well known for developing many of the foremost Jewish leaders in the United States and in Israel.”
Young Judaea, the world’s premiere Zionist youth movement, reaches more than 5,000 Jewish youth each year from grade school through post-college. Its programs include five Jewish camps nationwide, including its national teen leadership camp, Tel Yehudah; year-round activities such as Alternative Winter Break, which gives students the opportunity to engage in social action during school breaks; and such Israel offerings as Year Course, the leading freshman gap-year program, Taglit-Birthright trips, and WUJS Israel post-college internships and arts programs.
The arrangement is expected to be finalized this summer, when inaugural executive director Simon Klarfeld will take the helm of the 103-year-old youth movement. Klarfeld, whose most recent professional accomplishments include transforming the Hillel at Columbia University, was named to the post in November. Since then, he has been working with the nine-member founding board of Young Judaea to navigate the transition and plan for the future of the movement, which has been associated with Hadassah for more than 70 years.
Don Ashkenase, a Young Judaea Founding Board member who heads the board's Finance Committee, signs the U.S. portion of the accord that gives the youth movement independence from its parent organization, Hadassah. Hadassah National President Marcie Natan (far right) signed on behalf of Hadassah. The accord was signed at Hadassah headquarters in New York on April 11, 2012. A second part of the accord was recently completed in Israel. Two other Founding Board members - Roni Schwartz (left), Hadassah Vice President and Coordinator of Young Judaea; and Shelley Sherman, Hadassah Vice President and former Coordinator of Young Judaea - also were present at the New York signing of the historic agreement.
If you have additional questions, please send them to answers@youngjudaea.org or call us at 212-303-7448.
For more information, please visit www.youngjudaea.org
Z’man Heiruteinu and Camp – Passover Insights from TY’s Director
April 2012/Nisan 5772
As we approach Pesach, I have been thinking about one of the names of this holiday – z’man heiruteinu – the time of our liberation. For our teenagers, what does it mean in these modern days to really feel and experience liberation? From what do our teens need or seek liberation? Where is Mitzrayim (Egypt) and where is the (possible) Promised Land(s) in their lives?
I would certainly not want to compare the lives of our teenagers to the hardships our ancestors endured in Mitzrayim. However, we might want to also think about the idea of Mitzrayim from its Hebrew root which refers to a narrow, confining place. It also refers to straits or distress. We know that the teenage years are challenging with so many pressures from school, peers, family and society. Compounding these pressures are the physical, emotional and intellectual changes our teens experience. These pressures and changes can sometimes create feelings of being limited, trapped, shuttered and distressed – in a sense, being in a state of Mitzrayim.
Just as we experience Pesach each year, we know that the process of moving from Mitzrayim to liberation is a perpetual one – we always exist between those conditions and circumstances in our lives that confine and limit us and those forces and experiences which liberate us and allow us to live to our potential. The challenge is to continually see ourselves as if we went out of Mitzrayim and to do the hard work of actually participating in our own liberation.
Let me be so bold as to suggest that Jewish summer camp – and especially Tel Yehudah as an intentional community of Jewish teens – offers one possible experience in this never ending process of liberation for our teenagers. There are reasons that so many of campers are counting down the days till camp, and not all of those reasons have to do with being done with homework or the great food at camp. So the following are just some of forces that our campers might feel liberation from during their time at camp:
Liberation from the Market Place: Our teens are constantly bombarded with messages about what they need to buy, wear, look like, download, etc. Camp offers a break from the perpetual pressures of an economy and society driven by the need to always have the newest gadget or fashion. Besides buying a soda or ice cream at the canteen, our teens have an opportunity to put away their wallets, avoid television commercials and exist with the material items they brought with them. It is a time where our teens can be freed from the pressure of feeling that they need something new and can appreciate the community and natural environment in which they live at camp.
Liberation from Technology: In these days of social media and cell phones, I am continually surprised at how little complaining we hear from our campers about missing Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, foursquare, Instagram, BBM or their cell phones. (We remain blessed with practically no cell phone reception at Tel Yehudah.) While we know our campers miss their friends and family they are used to being instantly connected to through technology, they also have the opportunity to un-plug and live within a more natural, real-time community of their peers. Deep and rich conversations take place under apple trees on Shabbat or in bunks late at night. This liberation from following the news feeds and tweets of hundreds of friends provides the opportunity to form meaningful and long-lasting friendships built on a set of common experiences in a shared community. (Of course when summer ends, these technologies will help keep them in touch until the next summer together.)
Liberation from Jewish Confusion: For most Jewish teens growing up in North America, it is challenging to understand when their “Jewish lives” start and end. They might feel Jewish when they are in Hebrew School or Day School, or in synagogue or sharing Shabbat dinner at home. But does this sense of being Jewish extend to the basketball court, science class or their community service project? Often Jewish identity is confined to those times of the day and week when are children and teens are “doing Jewish” but it does not seem to pervade their lives as a whole. Camp offers a break from this split between their Jewish lives and everything else. In a community built on Jewish values and Jewish time, we are living Jewishly at camp whether we are celebrating havdalah on Saturday evening or if we are in the brecha (swimming pool). Our teens never have to stop what they are doing to go somewhere to be Jewish. It is built into the very fabric of their lives at camp.
Liberation from Family: As a parent of teens, I appreciate that we play a critical role in the healthy development of our children. But as our children grow up they also need opportunities to step out on their own, build new relationships, make mistakes, and sharpen their judgment, all not under the watchful eyes of parents and family members. This is part of the process of maturing into responsible young adults. But this is not a Lord of the Flies experience. Our campers are blessed with madrichim (counselors/guides) who are slightly older but are further along in this process of self-actualization and can provide guidance, support, fun and humor as our teens make their way along their individual journeys. (I am also sure that most parents don’t mind a little liberation from their own children in the summer time as well. We are happy to provide that service.)
Liberation from Themselves: Camp provides an opportunity for our teens to shed some of the personality and characteristics they have developed at home and in school. They are liberated from certain expectations that others have of them outside of camp and can “try on” new ways of being and acting in the supportive environment of camp. Campers who struggle socially at home often make deep and meaningful friendships at camp. Our teens “try on” new ideas – social, political, Jewish, Zionist, activist, ideological – which might never have felt comfortable outside of camp. Camp provides liberation from feeling trapped and the opportunity to grow and change.
I am looking forward to celebrating Pesach with my own teenagers but I am also thankful that they will have the opportunity to experience the liberation of camp during the summer. I wish you and your family a meaningful z’man heiruteinu – may this truly be a time of liberation for you, the people of Israel and the world.
Chag Peseach Sameach
David Weinstein
Director, Camp Tel Yehudah
Pictures – TY Benefit 2.29.12
TY Benefit 2.29.12, a set on Flickr.
Last Wednesday night, February, 29, 2012, was the first Tel Yehudah Benefit at the Jewish Heritage Museum in New York City. Over 150 alumni, parents and friends of TY gathered together to honor TY’s past and celebrate our future. We also presented the first TY Im Tirzu Award to Yosef Abramowitz. Check out pictures from the event. If you were there, thanks for coming and please click on the flickr album and start tagging yourself and your friends in the photos. And if you missed it, we invite you to make a donation on honor of TY and Yossi and we hope to see you at next year’s benefit.
Save the Date to Celebrate!
Join us on February 29, 2012 in New York City for an exciting event to celebrate TY’s past, present and future!
Get more information, register or make a donation here.
If you are interested in helping with or supporting the event, please email us at telyehudah@youngjudaea.org or call 212-303-4579.
Tel Yehudah Campers Spend Winter Break in New Orleans and the Navajo Nation
Yesterday, 53 Young Judaeans arrived in New Orleans and another 26 arrived in the Navajo Nation, Arizona for YJ’s annual Alternative Winter Break: a unique five day program for Jewish teens to engage in enriching, intensive and transformative community service. Only a few hours into the program, the New Orleans contingent already made the local news.
Watch the video here:
NEW ORLEANS — For a second year in a row, Jewish high school students from across the country are spending their winter break volunteering in New Orleans.
Monday, they were in the Holy Cross neighborhood, helping Georgia Johnson.
“I feel very special and very blessed to be picked for them to come and do something in my yard,” said Johnson. “I have a big yard and I can’t do very much myself.”
The young people removed debris and weeds and cleaned up the wheelchair bound Johnson’s property.
“A lot of the kids spend their break partying and hanging out with each other,” said Merav David from New Jersey. “Last year, I really didn’t do much, but this year I decided I have time, I have the power, why don’t I just make a difference for someone else.”
“It’s awesome that we’re doing this during Christmas because you see, like, people who are less fortunate, and they say for Christmas, I just want my family to have a better life, I want my house to repaired. And we’re here, and we’re going to make those Christmas wishes come true,” said Anna Horowitz also from New Jersey.
The students say they were surprised that more than six years after Hurricane Katrina, the rebuilding continues in the hard hit areas of the city.
“Before I came here, I thought, oh New Orleans, they fixed it,” said Horowitz. “It’s been so many years after, there can’t be anything bad, why am I coming here? Now, I’m here and I’m seeing, wow, this place really needs our help and all I want to do is help these people and make a difference in the world.”
Another group of students spent the morning painting inside the Battle Ground Baptist Church on Flood Street in the Lower 9th Ward.
“It was humbling to see all the damage and people are still recovering from it years later,” said Evan Coleman. “I’d just like to be able to help, to be able to make an impact on the world in some way, you know.”
“You could be doing many things as far as enjoying yourself and young kids, there’s many things you could be involved in beside helping someone, so I just thank God for what they have done and are still doing for New Orleans,” said Battle Ground member Robert Jackson.
Alternative Winter Break is designed to help the teens learn first-hand about the issues affecting those who live in recovering and struggling areas.
“A lot of what we stand for is helping other people, peer leadership and working together,” said David. “I think this really embodies what we’re trying to do.”
Georgia Johnson called the teens a gift from God.
“I’m so glad you all came down here,” said Johnson. “You all volunteer for me, it makes my cry.”
A second group of Young Judaea students are spending their winter break in Arizona participating in hands on service projects within the Navajo Nation.
Chag Chanukah Sameach
As we celebrate Chanukah this year and rededicate ourselves to the Tel Yehudah community, we don’t have to look farther than our own backyard to witness miracles.
Some of our 2011 Parents shared:
“I feel like TY allowed our son to feel part of something that is much bigger than himself…TY set an example and exemplified the strength of the movement, its leadership potential and various ways of expressing ones Judaism that does not necessarily rest solely on religious practice.”
“TY’s major strength is the continual reinforcement of Jewish identity, the building of friendships and the focus on Tikun Olam. The camp provides a positive environment for teens to be themselves and become secure in who they are as both a person and as a Jew.”
”Tel Yehudah offers a challenging rigorous environment, where the bar is constantly raised, and the opportunities for success are many.”
”Being able to provide an environment where the kids are proud of being Jewish. Being able to interact with other Jewish kids who come from the former Soviet Union and who are not ordinarily active in Jewish life. Great activities that get more challenging every year and are geared towards kids who are growing up and who are able to handle increased challenges. Varied activities from active to artistic designed to develop well-rounded individuals. Great Job!!”
”One of the first things [our daughter] said on the trip home was I love Shabbat at camp. If you’re looking for a Jewish experience for your child, what’s better than that? She loved the people, the trip, the activities…and came home happy and sharing a million stories.”
YOUNG JUDAEA NAMES INAUGURAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Hadassah and Young Judaea jointly announce Simon Klarfeld to lead the national Zionist youth movement
NEW YORK (November 21, 2011) - In its latest move toward independence, Young Judaea announced today that Simon Klarfeld, a highly regarded community builder and innovative educator with critical skills in organizational change, will become its inaugural executive director. Klarfeld is taking the reins at a momentous time in the youth movement’s 102-year history, as it branches off from its longtime parent organization, Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.
In a joint announcement, the two organizations said Klarfeld was chosen for his more than 20 years of experience in working with pluralistic Jewish communities around the world and his vision for Young Judaea’s five Jewish camps nationwide, year-round activities, and preeminent Israel programs, including the most successful freshman gap-year program, Year Course in Israel. Young Judaea reaches more than 5,000 Jewish youth each year from grade school through post-college.
Simon Klarfeld, new Young Judaea Executive Director
“Having lived a life devoted to pluralistic Jewish, Zionist ideals, leading Young Judaea is a real honor for me,” Klarfeld said. “This is an absolutely crucial time for us to refocus and redefine our commitment to helping young Jews explore their identities and connections to Israel in profound, experiential ways. I take great pride in the work I have done in building and strengthening vital, passionate Jewish communities, and Young Judaea is the premier place to continue that work.”
Klarfeld, 44, is a native of London, England, where as a teen, he ran his first overnight summer camp for Jewish teens from across Europe, and chaired the Zionist Youth Council of Great Britain. As a young adult, he lived in Russia, directing activities on behalf of the Soviet Jewry movement there. His work included the training of Jewish youth leaders throughout the then-Soviet Union.
“Simon Klarfeld brings a breadth of inclusive leadership that will inspire Jewish youth to engage at the highest levels possible, something for which Young Judaea has long been known,” said David Bechhofer, president of Young Judaea’s founding board. “He is precisely the right person to pilot Young Judaea at a time when developing leadership – true leadership as Young Judaea has always defined it – is critical to the Jewish community worldwide.”
Marcie Natan, national president of Hadassah, said Klarfeld’s appointment is one of the final steps in Young Judaea’s path to independence. In June, Hadassah, which had supported Young Judaea for more than 70 years and had been its sole sponsor since 1967, approved a three-year transition toward autonomy that includes significant financial and organizational support to help the youth movement achieve continued success.
“Simon’s passionate devotion to young people and to Israel truly shines through in everything he does,” said Natan, who was involved in the search process to fill the position. “I am confident that he will empower the youth, the staff, and the lay leaders to fashion important conversations and programs about Israel, and I could not be more excited about working together.”
Alan Hoffmann, director-general of the Jewish Agency for Israel, also praised the move: “I know Simon well, and I am more confident than ever about Young Judaea’s prospects as an independent organization under Simon’s leadership.”
Klarfeld, who most recently transformed the Hillel at Columbia University and Barnard College during his seven-year tenure as its executive director, has taught courses on Jewish Perspectives on Leadership, Contemporary Israel, Zionist History and Ideas, and Jewish Philosophy of Freedom, at conferences, universities, and institutes throughout the world. He also has trained informal Jewish educators through the Institute for Informal Jewish Education, the iCenter, Foundation for Jewish Camp, North American Alliance for Jewish Youth, Brandeis University’s Hornstein Program in Jewish Communal Service, and Machon L’Madrichei Chutz La’Aretz.
Prior to Columbia/Barnard Hillel, Klarfeld professionally served as director of the Soviet Jewry movement in both England and Northern California, vice president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, interim vice president of Birthright Israel North America, and founding director of Genesis at Brandeis – a summer program for high school students.
He lives in Teaneck, N.J., with his wife, Dara Klarfeld (nee Zabb), an alumna of Young Judaea’s Camp Sprout Lake and national high school leadership camp, Tel Yehudah, and their three young children. Klarfeld, who is fluent in Russian and also speaks Hebrew and French, holds a bachelor’s degree in politics, philosophy and economics from the University of Keele in England, as well as a master’s in Jewish communal service from Brandeis.
Klarfeld will start his new position on December 1 and will work together with Steve Goldberg, Young Judaea’s interim executive director, who was appointed this summer to oversee the transition. Goldberg recently accepted the executive directorship of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York City.
Young Judaea, the premier Zionist youth movement worldwide, challenges young people from grade school through post-college to become involved in social and educational activities that sharpen their senses of Jewish and Zionist identity. Young Judaea programs include year-round activities; five summer camps - Camp Judaea, Camp Tel Yehudah, Camp Young Judaea Midwest, Camp Young Judaea Sprout Lake and Camp Young Judaea Texas; Alternative Winter Break; Year Course in Israel freshman gap-year program, including its Shalem Modern Orthodox initiative; Israel summer programs for teens, including YJ Discovery, YJ Machon, and I Speak Israel; Taglit-Birthright “To Israel Now” trips; Amirim college summer offerings; and WUJS Israel post-college internship and study programs. For more information, please visit www.youngjudaea.org.
If you have additional questions, please send them to answers@youngjudaea.org
or call us at 212-303-7448
For more information, please visit www.youngjudaea.org.
