A well-wrought survey of camp life these days...but I could not help overlay my Catholic church camp experience of 60-odd years ago. Such a careful time of man we live in now compared to then. Alas.
How is it that all Jewish summer camps are so uncannily similar regardless of where they are located? I'm jealous about visiting day, though. The camps my kids attend/ed never offered one (which, I'm not complaining about not having to make the long drives, but my kids have never been great about making it into the camp photos posted online, so proof of life becomes extra important).
We're in Israel right now on a family trip we've been trying to take since 2020. Yesterday, Tisha B'Av, we were on a day long tour with a family friend who works as a tour guide. We did some archaeology, crawled 45 minutes through a dark cave that isn't yet open to the public, and then, after lunch, visited some spots in the Gaza envelope -- Sderot, where a local talked to us about the town's history and its music scene and what happened there on October 7. Then we drove to the site of the Nova music festival, and finally the lot where dozens of burned out cars from that day are arranged in a sort of junkyard/ cemetery/memorial. It didn't take much to evoke mournful feelings, even though we weren't fasting or praying.
Hope the trip is going well, don't be jealous of visiting day, it sounds way more interesting than it actually was/is! We are coming to an end of the visiting day times as the kids age out, and I don't know that I'm going to be like...missing it...exactly!
I'm a bit surprised to find out there's a Jewish summer camp where kids have to rough it in tents. Seems counterintuitive. I'm also a bit surprised, I guess, that at least judging by the Israeli flag, the camp is so overtly Zionist. I went to Camp Ramah for four years. My family was and still is deeply connected to Ramah. In retrospect it was a Zionist camp but when I was there I just saw it as some place I had to have Hebrew School in the summer, which seemed intensely unfair. I do have very strong memories of Tisha B'av. I remember being in Israel at tisha b'av one year and nobody there knew about it. And none of my friends knew about it. Jewish holidays only occur during the school year unless you are at a Jewish camp. I liked the idea that Tisha B'av commemorated everything bad that had ever happened to Jews, all in one really sombre day. They really went out of their way to make us sad that day, even getting us to fast. Obviously none of this has anything to do with your visitors day. :)
A well-wrought survey of camp life these days...but I could not help overlay my Catholic church camp experience of 60-odd years ago. Such a careful time of man we live in now compared to then. Alas.
How is it that all Jewish summer camps are so uncannily similar regardless of where they are located? I'm jealous about visiting day, though. The camps my kids attend/ed never offered one (which, I'm not complaining about not having to make the long drives, but my kids have never been great about making it into the camp photos posted online, so proof of life becomes extra important).
We're in Israel right now on a family trip we've been trying to take since 2020. Yesterday, Tisha B'Av, we were on a day long tour with a family friend who works as a tour guide. We did some archaeology, crawled 45 minutes through a dark cave that isn't yet open to the public, and then, after lunch, visited some spots in the Gaza envelope -- Sderot, where a local talked to us about the town's history and its music scene and what happened there on October 7. Then we drove to the site of the Nova music festival, and finally the lot where dozens of burned out cars from that day are arranged in a sort of junkyard/ cemetery/memorial. It didn't take much to evoke mournful feelings, even though we weren't fasting or praying.
Hope the trip is going well, don't be jealous of visiting day, it sounds way more interesting than it actually was/is! We are coming to an end of the visiting day times as the kids age out, and I don't know that I'm going to be like...missing it...exactly!
Hal, I hope you obtained permission ahead of time from Kid #2 to publish this! ;-)
Well I got the nod from W. , but I doubt Kid #2 would approve. She doesn't approve of much when it comes to her Dad!
I'm a bit surprised to find out there's a Jewish summer camp where kids have to rough it in tents. Seems counterintuitive. I'm also a bit surprised, I guess, that at least judging by the Israeli flag, the camp is so overtly Zionist. I went to Camp Ramah for four years. My family was and still is deeply connected to Ramah. In retrospect it was a Zionist camp but when I was there I just saw it as some place I had to have Hebrew School in the summer, which seemed intensely unfair. I do have very strong memories of Tisha B'av. I remember being in Israel at tisha b'av one year and nobody there knew about it. And none of my friends knew about it. Jewish holidays only occur during the school year unless you are at a Jewish camp. I liked the idea that Tisha B'av commemorated everything bad that had ever happened to Jews, all in one really sombre day. They really went out of their way to make us sad that day, even getting us to fast. Obviously none of this has anything to do with your visitors day. :)
Love this, has everything to do with my visitor's day. I love recollection of the one day they try to get all the sad over with!