We know that today’s university and college students have lots of choices for summer jobs – but here are 10 reasons why working at a Jewish summer camp is the absolute best opportunity for someone who’s starting to think about a professional career.
1. Leadership skills
Regardless of your major, working at a summer camp puts you in a prime place to develop job-marketable skills. As a counselor, you’ll be overseeing large groups of children, and that work translates well into excellent management and personnel skills. You may also qualify for college/university credit, so check with your adviser.
2. Change campers’ lives
Campers love coming to summer camp, which many consider a second home. Summer camps hire fun, energetic people who are motivated to give campers the best summer ever and to make them want to come back, year after year. There’s no question that campers look up to their counselors more than anyone else. You’re directly responsible for helping young people learn about themselves, challenge themselves and explore their Jewish identities. During this formative time, you have the chance to become a camper’s hero.
(photo from Camp Kalsman)
3. The great outdoors
Most summer camps give you access to the best of nature. Set among the trees with an expansive view of the sky, you can hike, swim, mountain bike, zipline through the forest, stargaze, kayak and so much more. As far as offices and work locations go, it doesn’t get much better than that.
4. Opportunity to grow
Camp staff become a community within itself. You’ll end up inspiring and learning from one another, experiencing much of the same joy and wonder as the campers. Plus, you’ll make friends with people who live across North America and even abroad, as many Jewish camps hire summer staff from Israel.
5. Bigger than yourself
Jewish camp works. Those who attend and work at camp are more likely to feel a strong connection to their Jewish community, which can mean lighting Shabbat candles, feeling a personal connection to Israel and attending a synagogue. Camp gives you the skills to change the world and connect to something bigger than yourself.
6. Save money
Think of how much you’ll save when food and housing are provided for you!
7. Be nurtured and cared for
Camps take the health and well-being of their counselors and campers very seriously. For example, URJ Camp Newman, a Reform Jewish summer camp in Santa Rosa, Calif., applies the CARE philosophy to everything they do: the philosophy is based upon the principles of community, acceptance, role-modeling, and that each and every individual is created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God.
(photo from Camp Kalsman)
8. Goals and interests
Because there are so many roles to fill and because you come with so many additional strengths and skills, camp directors will strive to match your passions to your role at camp so that you get the most out of your experience.
9. Jumpstart career
Camp is for the career-driven. Seriously!
10. Buzzfeed agrees
If you need even more reasons to apply for a camp counselor position, BuzzFeed has 20 more reasons working at a summer camp will be your best job ever: buzzfeed.com/sarahmcf/20-reasons-why-working-at-summer-camp-is-the-best-k6jl.
For information on working at URJ Camp Kalsman, which is southeast of Arlington, Wash., about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Vancouver, visit campkalsman.org/work-at-camp.
The Foundation for Jewish Camp recently released its latest census results, Trends Report: State of Jewish Camp 2023. The research indicates that Jewish camps in Canada and the United States have settled into a new normal within the post-pandemic world.
In summer 2023, the field served 3% (6,000) more campers and counselors than in summer 2022, with a total of nearly 181,000 campers, teens and college-aged staff participating in Jewish camp across 166 day camps and 158 overnight camps. Part of this new reality includes hiring more staff, since fewer are working the full summer. Camps are having to raise more money to keep up with rising costs and the increased demand for camper financial aid.
Some key takeaways from thereport are:
• Camp enrolment continues to grow, with the largest gains coming from day camps. Day camps reached pre-pandemic enrolment levels in 2023. Overnight camps enrolment remained at 96% of 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels, but 80% of overnight camps were expecting to increase their enrolment in 2024 – data for last summer are not yet available.
• Many staff are no longer working full summers, which is creating an increased need for seasonal staff positions. The total number of staff in summer 2023 was higher than in 2019 (pre-pandemic) and, given that many staff are not working a full summer, especially within overnight camps, there is a need for camps to hire more staff to fill in gaps.
• Increased turnover of Jewish camp professionals: 66% of reporting overnight camps and 58% of reporting day camps had professional staff leave their positions between fall 2022 and fall 2023.
• Families requested more financial aid from overnight camps than ever before. Overnight camps saw about a 30% increase in the amount of financial aid that families requested from their camps.
• MESSH (mental, emotional, social and spiritual) resources ranked highest in terms of the resources camps need. Camps also indicated a need for resources on character development and resilience-building; parent communication and engagement; antisemitism and bridging differences; and diversity, equity and inclusion. (It should be noted that this census was conducted before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel and the ensuing war.)
• Capital needs are a big priority for camps across the field, as camps prioritize growing camper enrolment and making camp more accessible, all while upkeeping older buildings and facilities. Staff housing is a key need, as camps are unable to grow enrolment without it.
Camper satisfaction
Overnight camp overall satisfaction and likelihood to return both increased by 2% in 2023, with levels remaining relatively consistent since 2019, in the 91-94% range for satisfaction and 84-87% range for likelihood to return.
Alongside these trends, positive impacts for Jewish camp remained high, with 93% of families reporting that overnight camp made their child feel part of the larger Jewish community and peoplehood, and 90% of families reporting that camp has built important Jewish friendships for their child.
In addition, more than half of families reported that their child’s camp experience has motivated their child to participate in other Jewish programming throughout the year.
Regarding day camps, overall camper satisfaction was 87% and the likelihood to return 82% in 2023, levels that have remained relatively consistent since 2021. Further, 82% of families reported that their day camp created a culture of belonging for their child(ren) and 89% of families reported that it is important to them that camp provide an inclusive experience for everyone.
The situation in 2024
An article in the Jerusalem Post last month reported on the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s three-day Jewish camp summit, which took place in Chicago in December. In the article, writer Howard Blas shares some data on the 2024 camp season, which was offered by the foundation’s chief executive officer, Jeremy J. Fingerman.
According to Fingerman, surveys indicated that, in 2024: “Nine in 10 families reported that camp created an environment that supported their children’s social and emotional health and well-being”; “85% of camp staff felt that camp connected them to feeling a part of the worldwide Jewish community”;“94% of parents shared that camp connected their child to the global Jewish community”; and “80% of North American overnight camp staff said camp helped them to connect to Israel and Israeli staff.”
Businesses in Valemount, BC, stepped up to help thousands of Jasper evacuees, but now find themselves struggling. (photo from Spencer Hall)
A member of the miniscule Jewish community in Valemount, a town in east-central British Columbia, reflected on the challenges of the past year and looked ahead with hope to 2025.
Spencer Hall is publisher and editor of the Rocky Mountain Goat newspaper, which serves Valemount, McBride and the Robson and North Thompson Valleys. When wildfires rampaged across the Alberta resort town of Jasper, about 90 minutes up the highway from Valemount, Hall’s newspaper was on the frontlines reporting as thousands of evacuees – residents and tourists – flowed in from the east.
On July 22, two wildfires exploded in the area around Jasper and fire officials and national park administrators evacuated the community in advance of the expanding inferno. The fire would tragically sweep away one-third of Jasper’s structures and kill one firefighter, 24-year-old Morgan Kitchen of Calgary.
A welcome centre was created in Valemount, the closest significant town to Jasper’s west. With just 1,000 full-time residents, Valemount was overwhelmed by the thousands of Jasper evacuees, but Valemountians came together to do all they could for their next-province neighbours.
“I was getting ready to get the paper out to press on a Monday night,” Hall recalled. “I just finished the layout for the evening and was about to go to bed, and then we hear that all the residents and the tourists that were in Jasper – and it was the summer, so there were many of them – were coming to Valemount. I threw on my clothes and went to the community centre. The mayor was standing in the rain directing traffic for hours in the parking lot of the community hall.”
Spencer Hall, left, seated, helps register Jasper evacuees who came to Valemount. (photo from Spencer Hall)
Townsfolk quickly responded to the newcomers, who were suffering physically and emotionally.
“To see all of us come together, that was nice, but obviously it was very devastating, as the fire raged on and decimated 30% of the town [of Jasper],” said Hall. “You’d have people crying on the side of the street, understandably, because they just lost their house or their pets. It was a very dramatic week.”
The economy of Valemount and the surrounding areas – the tourist draw of Mount Robson is just up the road – depends greatly on tourism. Valemount attracts snowmobilers in winter and counts on drivers heading to and from Jasper for restaurant and hotel business year-round. The devastation in Jasper has had repercussions on both sides of the BC-Alberta boundary.
“Even though this fire wasn’t in our province, it did impact British Columbians, especially in Valemount,” Hall said. “We are seeing a lot less tourism.… There are business owners that are really struggling. Our restaurants have been impacted. We have one grocery store and they are feeling the impact as well.”
And the newspaper isn’t immune.
“The Goat has definitely been impacted because as revenues go down, the first thing people slash is their ad budget,” said Hall. “So we’ve been seeing less ads months later.”
The tourism downturn came at a particularly bad moment, as last winter saw lower-than-average snowfall, reducing the winter vacation crowds. Local businesses had hoped for a good summer to make up for the shortfall, but the July fires gutted that hope.
It is early yet in the winter sports season, but snowfall so far is promising.
“We’ve had a few people come out for snowmobiling,” Hall said. “I know that we have more snow than we had last year, so that’s good.”
Consultants are helping local businesses and the tourism authority is working to strengthen the sector. Hall said interprovincial jurisdictional issues, as well as a provincial election in British Columbia, may have slowed economic responses for the region, but the federal government seems to be particularly slow in responding.
New Life Church in Valemount, BC, took in many evacuees and kept them fed. (photo from Spencer Hall)
The dramatic year was a trial by fire for the newspaper’s new owner, who took over the media outlet only in January. (See jewishindependent.ca/new-face-in-bc-media.)
“It was a lot,” said Hall. “I come from a radio background, where you’re able to communicate very, very quickly.”
The Goat, which is a weekly newspaper, effectively became a daily news platform during the fires. In addition to a new website, the Goat is developing a breaking news feature to respond immediately to any future events like last summer’s.
Another Jewish community member, Vancouver doctor Larry Barzelai, worries that the fires Jasper saw will be an increasingly common occurrence.
Barzelai, who is BC chair of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), said that almost every year brings a climate-related catastrophe.
“This year with Jasper, last year was West Kelowna, two years before that was Lytton that burned to the ground,” Barzelai said. “There is a pattern here. It’s not getting any better and I don’t think it will.”
CAPE has been trying to shift the dialogue, said Barzelai, but things won’t change until people change their patterns and lifestyles, massively reducing the use of fossil fuels.
“Until we get a handle on that, things are not going to improve,” said Barzelai. “I’d like to have something more optimistic to say, but it’s tough finding optimism when you see what’s going on in the world.”
A United Nations study issued recently reported that three-quarters of the earth’s surface is permanently drier than it has ever been.
“It’s just another piece of evidence that we are going in the wrong direction. The world is heating up and we’re letting it get hotter and hotter,” Barzelai said.
Rabbi Elyse Goldstein delved into the impact of women’s evolving roles in Judaism during a webinar hosted by Kolot Mayim Reform Temple on Dec. 8. Her talk – Open Doors, Open Hearts: How Women Have Enriched Judaism – was part of the Victoria synagogue’s 2024-25 lecture series.
Using her own journey, the rabbi emerita of City Shul in Toronto explored how women’s leadership and scholarship have not only enriched the Jewish community but also transformed it for the better.
From her vantage point as a (recently) retired rabbi, Goldstein asserted that Jewish feminism has been a lifeline to Judaism over the past several decades. She referred to the profound changes within Judaism regarding the involvement of women as “disruptions” in the positive sense of the word: namely, “a societal thought pattern that profoundly changes everything around it.”
Rabbi Elyse Goldstein (photo from cityshul.com)
For Goldstein personally, a disruptive point arrived during her bat mitzvah. When it was time for her speech, she announced to the congregation – to the widespread gasps of those assembled and the dismay of her rabbi – that she, too, wanted to become a rabbi.
“I never really thought when I was 13 that women becoming rabbis would shake the very foundations of Judaism,” she said. That women “would question every assumption of Jewish life, which was based on patriarchal power, that they would challenge what it means to be a Jew altogether. I didn’t realize that I was in the middle of a quiet revolution that would not remain quiet.
“One of the biggest disruptions of Jewish feminism to Jewish life is that people who identify as female are going to lead not in spite of being female but because of it. In other words, that’s a big part of who they are. That is part of their self-identity and they’re going to lead from within that identity – not push it aside.”
The changes brought about by women becoming leaders appear, Goldstein said, in the pages of prayer books, in seminaries, in the boardrooms of Jewish organizations, yeshivot and the Israeli government.
“Our liturgy would change to not only include the matriarchs,” Goldstein said. “We would use neutered language for God and start singing songs of Miriam in summer camp. We would learn Talmud from Orthodox women. We would feel empowered to create midrashim (interpretations of the Bible).”
She referred to the first stage of Jewish feminism as “equal access Judaism,” or the idea that women should be given the same religious opportunities and responsibilities as men.
The second stage, Goldstein said, went further by questioning notions, not simply behaviours.
“It challenged the way we think and our theological language in describing God,” she said. “It began to shake the foundational assumptions about women and men, Jewish tradition and Jewish law. We didn’t just have women rabbis – those rabbis made us rethink not so much about what a rabbi looks like but what a rabbi is.”
We are in the third stage of Jewish feminism, one that considers if there is more that can be done, she said. “We have to ask about violence against women in the Jewish community and if that’s ended. We have to examine the court system in Israel, where women are still routinely denied Jewish divorces. We have to talk about the ordination of Orthodox women and how that is happening … and we’re not paying attention to it.”
Goldstein went on to talk about what are, in her view, four disruptions to Jewish life brought on by Jewish feminism: the ordination of female rabbis, starting in 1972; Jewish rituals that speak more directly to the experiences of women; changes in religious garb, with, for example, women in a congregation wearing tallitot (prayer shawls); and the reshaping of the gender-related language pertaining to God.
In addition to being the founding rabbi of City Shul, Goldstein started Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning. An award-winning educator, a writer anda community activist, she has lectured across North America, Israel and the United Kingdom. Her works include ReVisions: Seeing Torah through a Feminist Lens and, as editor, The Women’s Torah Commentary.
Ben M. Freeman will present the next lecture in the Kolot Mayim series, on Jan 12. The author of the Jewish Pride trilogy, Freeman will discuss his latest book, The Jews: An Indigenous People, which will be released in February. Visit kolotmayimreformtemple.com to register for upcoming talks.
Sam Margolishas written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.
Students in the scholarship program at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, will do hands-on research and get to know the region. (photo from Weizmann Canada)
Weizmann Canada has scholarships for seven exceptional science students from Canada to participate in the Dr. Bessie F. Lawrence International Summer Science Institute (ISSI). The scholarship program – which will take place at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, from June 30 to July 25, 2025 – is open to students between the ages of 18 and 20, including graduating high school seniors, gap-year students and first-year bachelor’s degree students.
ISSI offers a rigorous scientific experience, providing students with the opportunity to participate in hands-on research. During the program, students collaborate in small research groups, guided by institute researchers, on topics matching their skills. They use the latest tools, like electron microscopes and particle accelerators. Senior scientists enhance the experience with lectures and courses. The program culminates in team presentations of group theses based on their laboratory work.
Students will also have an opportunity to immerse themselves in a diverse scientific environment at a field school located in the Judean and Negev deserts. Expert guides from the Sde Boker field school will lead hikes that focus on the ecological, geographical and archeological features of this region.
Participants selected for this program will receive a full scholarship valued at more than $10,000, which covers airfare and all expenses incurred during their stay at the institute.
BC members of Team Canada U16 Junior Girls Volleyball sell donuts to raise funds to travel to Israel next summer. (photo from Maccabi Canada)
Young volleyball players and their families are calling on the community for assistance to send their team to Israel for the 2025 Maccabiah Games next July.
Team Canada U16 Junior Girls Volleyball includes 10 athletes, including four from Vancouver, five from Toronto and one from Winnipeg. The team is fundraising to cover the expenses, which amount to almost $10,000 per participant.
“These girls are devoting themselves to bringing their best game to the Maccabiah Games next summer,” said Roman Pereyaslavsky, the team manager. “It is not only a powerful goal for them, but the celebration of international athletic competition in Israel next year is also a huge message of solidarity with the people of Israel at this time of unprecedented challenge.”
The girls and their parents do not underestimate the hurdles they face in raising the funds to make the trip to Israel possible.
“Traveling to Israel and competing as Canadian representatives with Jewish girls from around the world is a massive dream,” said Liel Lichtmann, a Richmond Grade 10 student and member of the national volleyball team. “We are fundraising every way we know how and we are confident we can make this happen. We hope our community will make our dream a reality.”
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, left, with Leslie and Gordon Diamond. (photo from Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver)
To recognize their exceptional leadership and philanthropic impact in Vancouver and across the nation, Vancouver City Council unanimously agreed to bestow the Freedom of the City upon Leslie and Gordon Diamond. They were awarded the honour on Dec.12, 2023, and the award presentation was held Oct. 29, 2024.
“Leslie and Gordon have devoted their lives to the people of Vancouver,” said Mayor Ken Sim. “Their remarkable work in health care, affordable housing, community services and beyond has made a lasting impact, shaping not only our city’s history but also its future.”
An Officer of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the Order of British Columbia, Gordon Diamond founded the Diamond Foundation in 1984. Leslie, who is also a recipient of the Order of British Columbia, has worked alongside Gordon in driving initiatives that support affordable housing, social and seniors’ services, community development, education and health care.
The Diamonds’ philanthropic vision has catalyzed critical initiatives addressing health and substance use. Their contributions include landmark donations of $20 million each to Vancouver General Hospital’s Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre and to the St. Paul Foundation’s Road to Recovery substance use disorder initiative.
As champions for the arts, the Diamonds have enabled countless underprivileged youth to access and enjoy the cultural fabric of the city. Their substantial support for the new Vancouver Art Gallery stands as a testament to their vision for arts accessibility and patronage.
“We are truly honoured to be recognized by the city we love,” said Leslie and Gordon Diamond. “To receive an award for doing what we love doing is humbling. Thank you.”
At the Jewish Family Services Vancouver’s annual general meeting on Nov. 26, several volunteers were recognized for their work, dedication and achievements. Stan Shaw received the Naomi Gropper Steiner (z’l) Award; Candice and Todd Thal, the Paula Lenga (z’l) Award; Congregation Beth Israel, the Community Partner Award; Karl Biernbrodt, Richard Fruchter Staff Recognition; and Simone Kallner, the Sara Ciacci (z’l) Women Leadership Excellence Award.
Blue Rodeo founders Greg Keelor, left, and Jim Cuddy at the Whistler Film Festival. (photo from the festival)
The music documentary Blue Rodeo: Lost Together by director Dale Heslip was named winner of the 2024 Audience Award for a feature-length film at the Whistler Film Festival last week.
“The Audience Awards are a fun, yet important, way for our guests to have their say in the programming we put together at the Whistler Film Festival,” said director of film programming Robin Smith.
The world premiere of Blue Rodeo: Lost Together was attended by band founders Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy, along with Heslip and producer Corey Russell. Francine Dibacco is also billed as a producer on the project. A Q&A with Keelor, Cuddy and Heslip was moderated by media personality and MuchMusic veteran George Stroumboulopoulos, also featured in the film.
“We were completely thrilled with having our world premiere at the Whistler Film Festival and the magical night we shared with the audience,” said Russell. “This award means so much and we want to thank the fans who took the time to see our film.”
Kelley Korbin, left, and Trilby Smith honour Bernie Simpson, who has been a longtime staunch supporter of Camp Miriam, which he attended, starting in the mid-1950s. (photo by Adi Keidar)
Hundreds gathered Dec. 7 to mark 75 years of Camp Miriam. Generations of campers convened at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver for an emotion-packed reunion of alumni and friends, in which the Habonim Dror-affiliated Labour Zionist camp was fêted for having an outsized impact on building British Columbia’s Jewish community.
The celebration actually marked 76 years since the beginning of the camp, but the event, originally scheduled for last year, was postponed as a result of the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks.
Some of those who have strengthened Camp Miriam in recent years were honoured at the celebration.
Sam Bernofsky paid tribute to Leah Levi, who retired after 17 years as camp registrar, in 2023, but continues her involvement as bookkeeper and keeper of institutional memory. She received an ovation and video-recorded greetings from alumni and friends.
Trilby Smith and Kelley Korbin honoured Bernie Simpson who, among other contributions, has ensured that camperships are available for all who need them, guaranteeing that finances are never a barrier to participation. Simpson also nurtured relationships with non-Jewish supporters of the camp, including former BC Supreme Court Justice Angelo Branca, and former Speaker of the House of Commons John Fraser, both now deceased. Through fundraising and personal contributions, Simpson is credited with playing a core role in every capital project the camp has completed in recent decades. He is also Camp Miriam’s unofficial historian and archivist.
Speaking to the Independent, Simpson credited Camp Miriam (along with his wife, Lee) for every success in his life, including his time as a member of the BC legislature.
“It means everything to me,” Simpson said of the camp, which he began attending in the mid-1950s. “It probably shaped my whole life. The Habonim leadership at that time, which was the camp leadership, took me under their wing. I came from quite a disturbed home and they had lots of patience for me and they ended up being my life.
“They had time for a shmuck like me,” he said. “That was remarkable. But I’m not the only person.”
Alan Tuffs was being physically abused in his home, Simpson said. The head of the Jewish welfare agency, Jessie Allman, called Simpson up and asked if Camp Miriam would “take this boy.”
Tuffs went on to study Judaism in Israel and recently retired as a rabbi in Hollywood, Fla., after 45 years.
Shalom Preker was another Miriam success story, according to Simpson, having overcome challenges to become a PhD and a global expert in health financing. Preker has served in senior roles at the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, focused on the health sector in developing countries.
Pioneers of the movement – often kids themselves at the time – were remembered throughout the evening. Michael Livni, né Langer, spearheaded the purchase of the camp on Gabriola Island. As a teenager, Langer/Livnicajoled philanthropists to front the money to purchase the camp’s site from the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, precursor to the New Democratic Party, in 1956.
Until then, Habonim had rented camps for summer programming, and ran youth programs in Vancouver throughout the year. Livni, who made aliyah and went on to be a leading figure in both Reform Zionism and the kibbutz movement in Israel, died this year at age 89.
Simpson credited the late Army & Navy department store founder Sam Cohen, as well as the late Ben and Esther Dayson and the late Norman Rothstein as benefactors who set the foundation for Camp Miriam’s long-term sustainability.
The anniversary event featured a display of the camp over the decades and pioneers, living and departed, were celebrated. Camp “matriarch” Gloria Levi was on hand, and the movement’s leaders of the past and present shared memories.
Miriam alumni Michael Schwartz emceed the evening, provided a moving reflection on the impacts of Oct. 7 on the Habonim community, and recalled his own memories of camp.
“I got to experience moments I will never forget,” Schwartz said, including the staging of a “show trial” of the Little Mermaid. “Through all these experiences – some absurd, yes – Miriam taught me some of life’s most important lessons. It taught me about the so-called big, important things, like history and justice, political philosophy, but it also taught me about the truly important things, like teamwork, leadership, friendship and girls.”
Jay Eidelman, the camp’s new director of fundraising and strategic planning, said that next summer’s enrolment will be a record 360, with a waiting list of others who want to come.
“That’s 5% more than last year, which was also a record enrolment,” he said. “Our retention rate is an astounding 90%.”
Especially in this time of rising antisemitism, Eidelman said, Jewish kids need safe spaces.
“Miriam is that space and for many of our campers,” he said. “Miriam is the only place where they can explore their Jewish identities, their relationship to Israel and their relationship to our community.”
He noted that 85% of Miriam campers attend public schools and more than half come from outside the city of Vancouver.
“We are growing and we need to grow sustainably,” he said. “That’s why, in 2022, with the help of the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation, we started a site master planning process to help us grow sustainably.”
Left to right at Camp Miriam’s 75th anniversary celebration are Sue Siklos (parent), Trilby Smith (past camp committee chair) and Gretchen DuMoulin. (photo by Adi Keidar)
Brian Tucker, chair of the camp’s board, and Ariella Smith-Eidelman, who is going into her second year as rosh machenah (head of camp), spoke from their respective positions. Video greetings were shared from alumni Selina Robinson, former provincial cabinet minister, and Seth Rogen, comedian and actor.
The anniversary celebration was emotional, said Leya Robinson, who took over as Camp Miriam’s community director last year, succeeding Levi. Before returning to her hometown of Vancouver, Robinson (a second-generation Habonimnik, thanks to her mother Selina) worked for the North American Habonim movement in New York as director of education and then spent five years in Israel, where she directed programs in Israel for Habonim Dror campers and university students worldwide.
“It was very heartwarming, almost in an overwhelming way,” Robinson said of the event. “Just to have that deep a sense of belonging and to look around and see how many other people felt that same sense of community and belonging to Camp Miriam. I just feel so lucky to be a part of the community and to have the experience at Camp Miriam.”
In these challenging times, she said, that connection is vital.
“It’s really easy to fall into despair seeing what’s happening, and having community helps to build up that sense of hope or to maintain that sense of hope and to see that we are not isolated and we have friends and partners and people to talk with,” she said.
David Bogdanov told the Independent that his camping experiences in the late 1970s and early ’80s were “very transformative and almost lifesaving.”
“It gave me a strong love of Israel,” he said. “It really enhanced my relationship with the Jewish community and really informed my whole life to a very large degree.”
Michelle Plotkin, a member of the committee that put the anniversary event together, wasn’t a camper herself but has seen the camp’s effects on her daughter.
“It just offers so many opportunities for the kids to be independent and learn how to be comfortable outside their comfort zone and stretch their minds and imaginations,” Plotkin said. “My daughter does things I never would have expected her to be comfortable doing.”
It was Plotkin’s idea to put together a one-time band for the event. The six-member group was made up of three professional and three amateur musicians, all of them Miriam alumni. The musicians, who dubbed themselves the Final Messiba, were Yonni Silberman (drums), Sunny Zatzick (guitar), Daniel Pimentel (bass guitar), Ira Cooper (vocals), Roy Vizer (percussion) and Jessica Stuart (lead guitar and vocals, and music director).
Gretchen DuMoulin, who chaired the evening’s organizing committee, has experienced almost all aspects of camp, from being a camper herself, a madricha (counsellor), a parent to campers and madrichim, and an organizer of family camps and then the 75th anniversary celebration.
She said Camp Miriam “is a whole Jewish and cultural experience. Every aspect of camp is thoughtfully planned with aspects of Jewish values, equality, social justice and leadership woven throughout. Every camper has an opportunity to become a leader at some level and for their voice to be heard and counted. It is 100% a youth leadership-run camp.”
DuMoulin cites lasting friendships as an enduring legacy of camp.
“There is something about spending weeks at a time, day and night, independently but together,” she said, “that just allows you to form friendships in a different way than when you are at home and in school.”
