It’s hard to write in one page or less about all of the goings-on at CJ this week. Instead, I’ve collected quotes from a few campers and staff members to highlight a couple of the special events and moments that occurred during the first week of the session.  Additionally, our CJ News crew worked hard all week to produce this week’s video.  Enjoy!

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Kesher Hatzagah

“This was my third time helping put on a Kesher hatzagah. I must admit, in the beginning of the day, I was a little stressed. There are so many aspects to putting on a hatzagah to show the entire camp! I needed to make sure the actors knew their blocking, that the rikkud group was prepared for their dance, the omanut groups get all of the artwork complete, and that the entire eda knows their song. But, after a very long and hard day of working with Kesher, I can proudly say that “A Kesher Karol” was a hit!
Every eda here at Camp Judaea has a theme that we, as madrichim, want the chanichim to understand. Kesher’s theme is Jewish identity, which is all about realizing who they are as a Jewish person and who they are as a person at camp. So, “A Kesher Karol” portrayed a “what if” scenario in which Jonathan Burger never came back to CJ as the Kesher Merakez or even to CJ at all. Throughout the show, Jonathan was visited by the Ghost of Kesher Merakzim Past, Present, and Future. At the end, Jonathan realized how important it was to come to CJ and come back as Kesher Merakez. The main message that I wanted the Kesher chanichim and all the chanichim in the audience to understand is that every single camper that comes through the camp gates has the amazing potential to start, create, and carry new traditions. It doesn’t matter which eda you are in, everyone has the ability to leave a lasting imprint on camp.”—Matthew Kaplan, Head of Drama

Yom Yachad (Part 1)

“Yesterday, I had the privilege of traveling with our Bogrim eda to visit Camp Living Wonders. Camp Living Wonders offers a safe, loving overnight camp experience for high-functioning Jewish children, ages 7-25 years old with developmental disabilities, regardless of affiliation or background. Despite the rain, the Bogies rose to the occasion and acted as wonderful leaders and dugmot ishit (personal examples) to the campers at CLW. The Bogies taught them Israeli dances that we do during our rikkud sessions, Israeli songs that we learn during our shira peulot, and everyone made pita together. Then the Camp Living Wonders campers and staff members invited us to their “Wonder Garden” where the campers were delighted to find that their squash were fully grown and ready! We ate dinner all together in their chadar ochel. It was beautiful to see how open and willing our campers were to help guide the CLW campers. It was equally as impressive to witness the eventual openness of their campers to ours. On Sunday, Camp Living Wonders will travel here to Camp Judaea to participate in other activities, and I am really looking forward to having them here.”—Elana Pollack, Communications Director

“I was playing ping-pong with a boy named Austin. I was really playing the best that I could, but he kept beating me! At first, I thought that coming to this camp would make me sad, but now I see how happy the campers are here and how happy the counselors are. It makes me happy to know that there are cool people like this out there who make a special place for these kids.”—Sofia Feldman, Bogrim chanicha

“I danced with Rebecca and Ilan. They were so open and willing and excited to learn from me. I couldn’t help but smile because of how much I could see Ilan enjoying himself. Coming here was a great opportunity for them, but also for us to see how other campers live. Just like we have our special place at CJ, they have their special place here.”—Solana Roitman, Bogrim chanicha

BO Night/Bowling (Bogrim/Offarim Buddies)

“It was surprising because I didn’t expect it to happen last night, but I had a fun time meeting my BO, Shaul. He’s nice. He thinks it is cool that I can name all of the Presidents, states, and capitals in order! I really liked making s’mores on real sticks. This morning, I beat Shaul in bowling 29-18! He’s going to bring me back a soda from DC. When he comes back from Washington, I hope we can do activities like basketball and art together. WARNING to future Offies: If you come to camp in Offarim, be prepared to be woken up in the middle of the night for BO night!”—Ryder Zufi, Offarim chanich

“Seeing the kids’ faces light up when they saw their BO’s was so indescribable because its the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. They were all so excited! They weren’t nervous, but they were definitely surprised because the counselors tricked them into thinking it wasn’t last night. Bowling was fun— they all had a great time!” —Haley Kaplan, Offarim madricha

Since arriving on Monday, campers have eaten 13 meals at camp, gone swimming at least 3 times, learned the names of all of their counselors, gone bowling, and will celebrate their first Shabbat of the session tonight. Tomorrow night, we say goodbye to our Kesher and Bogrim edot as they embark on their trips to New York City and Washington, DC. We will miss them, but we know they’ll have a blast and bring back lots of stories to share! There’s never a dull moment at Camp Judaea, so we are looking forward to a peaceful Shabbat and wishing you all the same!