Camp Miriam celebrates 60

KELLEY KORBIN

In the same year the state of Israel was established, a microcosm of the paradise that the chalutzim (pioneers) tried to create on a patch of desert on the Mediterranean was formed on a patch of paradise on the West Coast of Canada.

Sixty years ago, Camp Miriam was sown from the seeds of dreams of labor Zionists like Marion Margolis, who was a leader in Vancouver's Jewish community and who dreamt of a Jewish summer camp to imbue in Jewish children a love of the ideal of a Jewish homeland.

"To me, when 1948 happened and that ugly yellow armband was converted into that beautiful white and blue swag of the Israeli flag, it was such a moment," mused the 88-year-old Margolis, who was raised with a picture of Theodor Herzl on the wall of her family home. She also told the Independent that although she grew up in a very poor family, there was always a pushkah, or charity box, in her house and, like many other Jewish children, she was brought up with a great sense of tzedakah.

These were the ideals upon which Camp Miriam was born. Today, Camp Miriam remains a part of the Habonim Dror Zionist youth movement, which has summer camps all over the world, including seven in North America, a summer program in Israel and a year-long Israel program for high school graduates. It runs on a "youth leading youth" philosophy to support its pillars of Zionism, Judaism, socialism, social justice and self-actualization. Even today, the camps are loosely run on a kibbutz model and campers are expected to share, work and learn together, along with having fun.

Margolis, the first "Camp Mother" at Miriam, in 1950, and whom longtime Miriam supporter Bernie Simpson dubbed a "pillar of Camp Miriam in the early years," described some of the primitive conditions in the first summers at Miriam's Gabriola Island site. There was no refrigeration, and the campers lived on a diet of salmon, bought for a dollar each and kept in salt water in a tub on the porch, and porridge.

One of the camp's early directors, Slavia Ben-David, who made aliyah to a Habonim kibbutz, Gesher Haziv, right after working at Miriam, also recollected the rough conditions of the early days. In 1957, the then-23-year-old woman made her way by train from Minneapolis to Vancouver for the summer.

"That summer, it rained every single day of the camp season – not all day, every day, fortunately. We played 'ga-ga' [a ball game] in the moadon [lounge] until it was coming out of our ears. We went swimming only a few times, fortunate for me – I was allergic to the Pacific Ocean, or maybe only to the cold water. The Mediterranean is better. ... Like any good business manager, Max Langer got bargains, one of which was a stock of huge cans of jam – a very important item on the menu at any camp is peanut butter and jam sandwiches. I couldn't figure out why kids weren't coming to arucht arbah [snack time], until I discovered that the jam was yellow (orange marmalade), and the kids hated it. But the business manager refused to buy any other jam until the old stuff was finished."

In 60 summers, countless memories like Ben-David's have been nurtured. Koomzits (sing-alongs), AEPEPS (after evening program evening programs), raids, revolution, kupa, Shabbat at the point – if any of this makes sense to you, then you can count yourself among the thousands of lucky children who have experienced summers on Gabriola Island over the past six decades. But among these happy experiences, Miriam has also endured its share of challenges, most having to do with raising enough funds to keep the camp going. As well, it's no secret that, for many years, Miriam was the black sheep of summer camps within the Vancouver Jewish community – perhaps because it openly promotes socialism and goes so far as to confiscate and redistribute treats sent to campers by their parents.

Nevertheless, Miriam has survived, mainly due to the hard work and dedication of former campers, who recognized the vital role camp played in their personal development. These days, Miriam is still going strong and yet its ideals and even its daily schedule haven't changed much over the years. How has this seemingly basic camp managed to stay relevant?

Ben-David said that, in the early days, "Camp was the pinnacle of the Habonim experience and by far the best educational tool we had. In one summer month, we educated – indoctrinated positively and creatively – values such as humanism, Judaism, Zionism, socialism, friendship, Hebrew and labor as a value."

Most would agree that Miriam is still in that business. Camp registrar Leah Levi told the Independent that the parents she meets are looking for "a camp that gives kids more than just fun, they're looking for a Jewish camp where ideas are floating around." This philosophy must work for the kids, too, because they keep coming back summer after summer.

Margolis mused that Camp Miriam "imbues in children a love of Israel and saves children that are poor. Habonim looks after kids who can't afford camp and who can't keep up with the Joneses. They see they are Jews, they have a purpose and it helps them with the rest of their lives."

In fact, Simpson said that this is the real story of Camp Miriam. For 50 years, one-third of the kids who attended Miriam have done so on camperships, or scholarships, full or partial, provided to assist families who otherwise couldn't afford the luxury of sending their children to camp. In fact, Camp Miriam's motto is "No child turned away for lack of funds." So far, the camp has been able to keep this promise. What's more, no one except those who sit on the campership committee knows who these children are, so they are not treated any differently than the other campers.

"These kids can be from broken homes, some of them are disenfranchised," explained Simpson, a successful Vancouver lawyer, who himself attended Miriam on a campership decades ago and who said the experience of going to camp had a "profound influence" on his life. He even went so far as to say, "I owe everything to Camp Miriam."

Many other Jewish philanthropists are now recognizing the significant role that Jewish camping plays in supporting the growth of Jewish community, and this trend has benefited Camp Miriam, which is now in the throws of a fundraising campaign to maintain its campership program and to upgrade some of its facilities.

Camp Miriam is celebrating its diamond anniversary with a party on Sunday, April 6, at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver at 7 p.m. For tickets or more information, contact Binki Segal at 604-875-6560 or e-mail [email protected].

Kelley Korbin is a Vancouver freelance writer.

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