Written by: Sarah Noyovitz, Chizuk Fellow

My name is Sarah Noyovitz (though I’m fondly known around camp as Snoyo), and this is my first year at Camp Judaea! I am a third-year rabbinical student and Jewish educator from Boston, and I became connected with CJ through the JCC Association’s Chizuk Fellowship. Chizuk is the Hebrew word for “strengthening,” and the fellowship matches Jewish educators with Jewish camps looking to strengthen a part of the camp’s Jewish culture. This summer, my focus is on t’filot (prayers) and finding meaning in them.

Camp has added a special peulah (activity) during the daily schedule called Chizuk so that I can meet with every camper one to three times per session. The goal of my activities is to have fun while becoming more fluent with the prayers. Some of our activities have included playing T’filah Memory in which campers have to sing lines of prayers and find the person with a line from the same prayer; debating which prayers we would keep if we created a new siddur (prayer book); and writing new prayers that reflect personal values which campers then share during camp t’filot. The campers have been participating in Chizuk activities with z’rizut (zest and zeal)!

I’ve also stepped into a role as coordinator and organizer for daily and Shabbat t’filot, working to improve the process and make it a more enjoyable and spiritual experience for everyone. For example, I made every eda (age group) their own havdalah (end of Shabbat ceremony) kit, complete with brand new kiddush cups (ritual wine cups) that I hand painted, so every eda gets their own sizzle when the candle is extinguished in the juice!

For daily t’filot this summer, cabins have been receiving personal invitations to lead services – a card with their upcoming date as well as space to write down their “totally rad theme” and the cabin’s choice for an Adon Olam tune. And there are now helpful page number cheat sheets: small laminated cards that show the order of the service prayers, the page numbers, and little arrows to let the leading cabin know when to tell the community to rise or be seated.

Many of the counselors and campers have also been commenting about how much they like t’filot with the addition of my guitar! I have been a Jewish and professional songleader for over a decade, and music is important to me in a prayer setting. I’m thrilled to be able to share that musical spirituality with camp (although without guitar on Shabbat, of course!).

Perhaps most notably, I brought a new song to camp t’filot: a high-energy tune for Ashrei written by one of my role models in Jewish music, Peri Smilow. It quickly became a camp favorite at the start of both sessions, and adopting this “new Ashrei” as camp tradition was even the focus of the first-session Kesher hatzagah (play). Campers often break into singing Ashrei when they see me, and when I said goodbye to first-session campers at the airport, they all sang it down the hall to board the plane. (Are they singing it at home too?) May the osher (happiness) of Ashrei spread to every camper’s home community!

Working at CJ and meeting all the wonderful campers and staff has certainly enriched my life, and I’ll carry every bit of it home with me at the end of the summer.