I am a product of the Jewish summer camp movement. I attended Camp Ramahs in New England (Palmer, MA), American Seminar (Nyack, NY) and Glen Spey, NY between 1967 and 1970. They played a formative role in the development of my Jewish, spiritual and intellectual identity. My teachers and counselors taught me to think, they taught me to pray, they taught me to make friends, they taught me to develop myself creatively. To this day names like Louis Hartman, Stuart Kelman, Alan Mintz, Joseph Lukinsky, Robert Cover, Neal Kaunfer, Joseph Riemer, Jonathan Fenster, Daniel Matt, Raphael Artz and many others are etched fondly in my mind (and a few tyrants like David Mogilner and Seymour Fox, not so fondly).
They taught me to inquire about the world. Not just to ask probing questions, but to expose uncomfortable truths, to resist injustice wherever we found it, to questions our elders and the religious tradition. They taught us to be brave in this pursuit and to let the chips fall where they may. All of this left an indelible impression and created the adult I am. It is truly an amazing legacy.
Under Joe Lukinsky’s tutelage I rebelled against the course offerings at the Nyack Ramah and he helped me develop an independent study course in which I read some of the major tracts of Zionist thought and history, at the end of which I wrote a paper, some of whose ideas you’ll find in this blog. Rabbi Lukinsky encouraged me to send the paper to Prof. Ernst Simon, one of the co-founders of Brit Shalom, who actually wrote me a lovely reply on receiving it! Joe took a defiant, confused, and perhaps angry boy and turned him into a disciplined thinking Jew. For that I am eternally grateful. And without this Tikun Olam would not exist.
Fortunately for me, I attended these campus during the apogee of the student anti-war movement of the late 1960s, when provocative intellectual questioning was de rigeur. At no other time in the history of Camp Ramah would it allow a staging of Hair! (in English, no less!). Unfortunately, that production caused such a severe backlash among parents and perhaps the Jewish Theological Seminary staff who sponsored the camp, that they stopped sending their children and it closed down for a few years after that.
When the camp reopened it was shorn of the bold experimentation that characterized the Palmer Ramah of the past. Instead, it became a place devoted to rigorous adherence to Conservative theological Orthodoxy and sexual decorum.
I now have young children of my own, and naturally I think about what types of Jewish and camp experiences I’d like them to have. In fact, my oldest son last summer attended Camp Solomon Schechter here in the Northwest. But he surprised me this year when he said he didn’t want to go. He wasn’t able to articulate why and I didn’t probe, so I don’t want to assume on his behalf the reasons why he declined. But this camp, as good and earnest as it might be, is inculcating in children not just the good values we want them to have as educated American Jews, but also the impoverished consensus values of liberal Zionism so characteristic of the organized Jewish community.
This is what Allison Benedikt railed against in her essay, Life After Zionist Summer Camp, and what Mira Sucharov crowed about in her bit of toxic nostalgia, In Defense of Zionist Summer Camp, in Haaretz. I actually come down somewhere in between the two of them (though I’m more sympathetic to Benedikt) because unlike Benedikt, I think Camp Ramah did lay the groundwork for the bold, questioning Jew I am today. But unlike Sucharov I don’t believe the Zionist summer camps teach diversity or probing ideas as they might’ve in the 1960s. And if Sucharov’s essay is any indication, she’s still stuck in a time warp that prevents her from fully recognizing the dolorousness of so much of contemporary Zionist thought.
This summer my son will attend a local Mideast Peace Camp where he will hear different messages and learn a different value system than he would at a traditional Jewish summer camp. I will not encourage him to attend a Camp Ramah, though if he wanted to I would be willing to send him. I do not want to put him in a situation in which his political views would be in the minority and he might be pressured or ostracized to adapt to the majority.
I want my son to think for himself. I want to introduce him to as many different ways of looking at the Jewish world as possible. That’s why he attended Solomon Schechter and why he continues to attend Hebrew school. That’s why I expect he will pursue Jewish studies courses in college. But I will not allow my son to fall prey to the nostalgia for a liberal Zionist past that exists only in the minds of people like Sucharov and Gershom Gorenberg. Unfortunately, there is too much rote thought and acceptance of stale consensus views in the mainstream Jewish community when it comes to Israel. I want my children to go beyond this and see more of the world than the little window offered by today’s Camp Ramah. I want them to know Arab-Americans and Palestinians. Of course, I also want them to know their fellow Jews. But their relationships must not stop there as they so often do in the Jewish summer camp movement.
Reading your article reminded me of the heyday of seminary and school religious training in the Catholic Church post Vatican II. It seems there was a similar spirit of openness to the world, questioning, solidarity with the poor and oppressed – ‘aggiornamento’ as Paul VI called it.
Since then, the church too has been ‘hijacked’ by conservatives, drowning the brave strains of ‘GODSPELL’ under the heavy monotones of Latin Mass chants. And of course, the ‘witchunts’ of unorthodox bishops and clergy that have accompanied the slamming doors of the church as it reverts back to its comfortable state of being a ‘mausoleum’ rather than a beacon of light in the world… a loss. I am looking for other schools for my children…
In a very funny way, that traces my life history, as well.
At least one set of my grandparents met at a camp like that. So did my parents. I’m not terribly fond of it, but I do owe my existence to its.
And I spent the best day of 2006 at the Mideast Peace Camp. It’s a totally magical program.
Richard, thanks for this post. I grew up (and fairly old) without having any idea of the meaning of Judaism. I worked with many Jews, had a serious relationship with a young New York Jewish fellow who later became a Rabbi, At no time did any of us every talk about our religious differences. My boyfriend’s parents were totally accepting of me. I attended seders at their home, and again nobody referred to the fact I was raised Catholic. Instead they explained the meaning of some of the rituals and made me feel totally included.
It was only after I started visiting Palestine that I became part of various activist groups, made up primarily of Jews. Only then did I learn words like “zionist” and “settlement” sand “occupation” and later (as I saw it being built) “apartheid wall.) All of this has been a great gift to me as it has continued to open my mind to understanding the difference between Judaism and Zionism, not to mention learning to appreciate some of the beauty of the Jewish religion.
I enjoyed reading of your experience at various camps. As a child I never knew here were such things as summer camps, but I know I would have loved to attend one. Perhaps they didn’t exiist in England, and if they did I imagine they weren’t happening during the war when I would have been the right age to go.
Clearly your experiences at camp have been very important in many ways, and I am glad this blog is one result of all that canp life.
“But unlike Sucharov I don’t believe the Zionist summer camps teach diversity or probing ideas as they might’ve in the 1960s.”
Chaver Richard
Believe what you want, but the plain facts are that you would rapidly change your mind if you sat in on any of the many Israel-related sichot at any of North America’s 7 Habonim Dror machanot. Diversity – yes. Probing ideas – yes. Better than the 60’s – yes. Allow me to arrange a visit for you. All 7 camps are in vibrant session.
Chaver Steve, Executive Director
Habonim Dror Camp Association
And what should the average non-Jewish American conclude about Zionist Camps and their graduates? There are many kinds of summer camps, but I know of only one kind (Zionist) where a reasonable argument can be made that there is a focus on the politics of foreign-nation patriotism, i.e. Israel. This may seem theoretical, but when you are a non-Jew (like me) who has been on the receiving end of domestic Zionist inspired (and implemented) repression of open discussion about Israel in an otherwise supposedly neutral American academic setting, one has grave doubts about the capacity of graduates of these camps to handle, as adults, sensitive responsibilities where conflicting interests between Israel and US policy are in the mix. Having seen repressive Zionism thwart free and open discussion in the “land of the free”, unless you can convince me otherwise, I would have a threshhold doubts about the capacity of any Zionist camp graduate to balance objectively with any issue relating to Israel or its ardent “supporters” in the US.
Now, show me how I am unrealistic.
my mother was the camp Solomon Schector nurse on Whidbey Island, Washington state. It was Fort Casy, and the colonel’s house is still there, along with some of the barracks that were used as housing for campers. I as a girl of 6, 7, 8, and visted there a few days ago. I am trying to find out if there are any records of the camp from the early 60’s, not having any luck. Camp Solomon Schector is still active in the Seattle area.