Beginnings of Summer

My Official Start to Summer

            For many of our children, summer begins when the last exam is completed and their battle-tested backpacks are thrown into the closet until the fall. According to my wall calendar, the first day of summer is today, June 21. This is the day when the most light from the sun will reach our planet during the twenty-four hour journey around our own axis. I will gladly argue that for my internal clock, that yesterday at URJ Crane Lake Camp summer had officially began. Seemingly more light had touched down than any other day for me and I suspect many others. 

Yesterday was Yom Limmud- a day when the faculty, comprised of Rabbis, Cantors, Educators and some on the journey to these roles, come together to be introduced to the staff hired to make meaningful summer experiences for the hundreds of children that will arrive early next week. Many of us veteran faculty members have experienced Yom Limmud in various forms, some more successful than others but all with the goal of imparting some significant instructions to the staff, which is made up of former campers, other American and Israeli Jewish young adults and American and foreign non-Jewish young adults. In a few hours, we faculty are tasked with helping each of these groups gather insight into where they are working, the power each of them have in creating the future of Judaism in both obvious and unsuspecting ways. Each of these groups has a role to play and they all bring key life experiences and vital perspective to the campers who look to them for most things during their time at camp.

This year, we tried and implemented something very new. The program was made up of a collection of other smaller exercises, some of which were not so new, but arranged in such a way to be experiential, to promote free thinking and free choice while remaining to be guided and considerate to our clear overall goals of helping staff grasp the significance of working in a Jewish camp. In a tactile, frontal way we were able to ask difficult questions about God's presence in our lives, about what symbols and seasons we hold dear that might be packed in our suitcase and we discussed how different generations have played a role in making us who we are so we might better understand our roles in shaping the future generations. In one station, single statements about God and belief were put on the walls around the room along with the opportunity to place a sticker on "agree" or "disagree." No justification necessary, no judgement. Just answer. The process would come later. There were no time limits for staff to stop and ponder these questions, and they were able to move on to another area to discuss and explore other activities until ultimately coming together to sort out what they had learned. In another station, they were shown a picture of an empty suitcase and given a list of possible things they would pack that might help identify them including holidays such as Passover, ritual objects like candlesticks and other things which we use to better express who we are. The staff was also asked about where they come from, what cities their parents and grandparents have lived in so they can both visually and cognitively understand how growing up in one part of the world in a particular time in history plays a part in helping us live in this space at this time. While it is not unusual to have had great success with these programs in past years, it is important to express how good it felt this year.

I return year after year to URJ camps because as a professional, there is no greater recharging of my batteries than being around this kind of energy. The love and joy that campers and staff express towards each other is both life changing and life sustaining. But it must start somewhere, and for me- it begins now. It is easy to talk technically about what and how we learned about each other. I also think it is important to let you know how amazing it feels to be around so much light on the day before the first day of summer.

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