From the 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

The following article appeared in the Winter 2011 edition of the Hadassah newsletter: “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”

Tomorrow’s Leaders
An interview with David Weinstein,
Director, Camp Tel Yehudah

“To every kid who comes to Camp Tel Yehudah, it’s the most exciting place in the world,” explained David Weinstein, Director of Camp Tel Yehudah.  “Tel Yehudah has always been the senior leadership camp of   Young Judaea.  We’ll be celebrating our 63rd year this summer; Young Judaea is 102 years old.

“This is my fourth year as director,” Weinstein pointed out, “but I spent ten summers as a camper, a counselor, a kitchen staff worker, and a unit head.  I actually went to Camp Young Judaea Sprout Lake before that.  My wife and I met there when we were eleven years old.  And our kids now go to the two camps.  My kids and others like them, are our tomorrow.”

Camp Tel Yehudah was founded in 1948 in Hendersonville, NC, and moved to Barryville, in upstate New York, in 1954. (Hadassah’s involvement with YJ started quite early as a co-sponsor with the Zionist Organization of America, and became the sole sponsor of Young Judaea in 1967.)  Tel Yehudah is deeply committed to Jewish and Zionist values and tradition.  It is dedicated to strengthening the campers’ connection to Israel by helping them discover and develop their Jewish identity and enhance their understanding of what it means to be part of a community.

“We have some very exciting things happening at Tel Yehudah,” Weinstein continued.  “Two summers ago we started havurah. (Hebrew for fellowship, or a community of like-minded Jews.) It’s a program for Russian-speaking teens from North America. Two summers ago we had 93 kids come for two weeks.  Most of them had never been to summer camp, and had very little Jewish affiliation.  This past summer we expanded the program to a full session of three ½ weeks, and we had 137 campers.  Our goal is to have at least 160 campers this summer.

“We see our involvement with the Russian-speaking community in North American as being critical to the future of the Jewish people. It also speaks to the idea of being a pluralist organization—reaching out to all segments of the Jewish community” Weinstein explained. “We feel we’re building a new generation of young Jewish leaders within the Russian community.  We’re teaching them about the religion, about Jewish people-hood, about Israel and not incidentally, about summer camp.  One year from now we’ll have our first group of kids becoming counselors—and that’s very exciting for us.

“This past summer we had 640 campers at Tel Yehudah, it’s the second year in a row that we’ve had rising numbers,” said Weinstein. “We definitely had a few years where the numbers were going down, but we’ve turned that around. In fact, we’re introducing two new programs this summer.  One is a two-week program that will be run entirely in Hebrew—Hebrew immersion– it’s mostly Israeli scouting. We’re targeting two groups:  the Israeli-American community and kids who go to Jewish Day School and want an immersion experience.  It will be all Hebrew all the time, and the counselors will be Israelis. There are no Hebrew classes, just the opportunity to speak Hebrew in a natural and fun environment.  They need some Hebrew yes, but just enough to get around.”

The second program, which Weinstein is just beginning to create is tentatively called—Alternative Summer Break.  It will be a two-week program with kids living at camp, but doing volunteer work in both the local community and in New York City.  “One project we’re working on is to create new trails in a park,” Weinstein described. “Another might be working with elderly people when they come to NYC. We’re trying to make contact with a camp for disabled Jewish kids and having our kids help out there.  There’s a strong emphasis in the Jewish community on service learning.  We hope to show that we can combine the fun of living at camp with the importance of going out and doing something to help others.

“What do our kids come away with: well, we believe our kids gain a strong Jewish identity that is rooted in a connection with the Jewish people. When they’re in camp they are living in an authentic Jewish community.  The early Zionist summer camps were actually designed to prepare kids to live on Kibbutz.  In the old days at Tel Yehudah we had a farm with cows and chickens.  When I was going to camp I thought I was getting ready to live in Israel, and in fact I spent a number of years there,” said Weinstein.

“What did I come away from camp with?” Weinstein asked.  “More than anything else, I got a community of people.  My daughter just had her Bat Mitzvah and my wife and all of our friends were people we grew up with more three decades ago at camp.  So for me being Jewish is being part of the Jewish community.  But I also learned what it really means to live Jewishly and not just be Jewish for an hour here and an hour there.  I got a deep and long commitment to Israel. Half of my friends live in Israel, and I’m there several times a year and feel completely at home. That all started by being in Young Judaea and going to summer camp.”

Weinstein believes that the difficult thing for American Jewish kids is that they have to constantly ask themselves if what they’re doing is Jewish or not Jewish. “By that I mean,” continued Weinstein, “if the kid is going Hebrew school or to synagogue, is this his Jewish time?  What kids do at Jewish summer camp is stop thinking about all that stuff…hey, they’re playing basketball and they’re still Jewish!  They don’t have to feel that while they’re at synagogue all their friends are out having fun, because at Tel Yehudah on a Friday night everybody is together for Shabbat.  That’s really powerful for our kids—they don’t have to make those distinctions.

“What else? Well they gain a very strong connection to Israel.  We have over 40 staff members who come from Israel every summer. Everywhere around them there’s Israeli culture. Most of our kids, when they’re done at Tel Yehudah, go to one of our Israel summer programs, and then to Year Course.  Almost all of our kids, after Tel Yehudah, will spend significant time in Israel and deepen that connection,” said Weinstein.  “And many of them will grow up to be tomorrow’s leaders.”