By Andrew Adler
Community Editor
Center: Dara Woods, flanked by daughter Hailey, left and son Charley, right. (Photo courtesy of Dara Woods)
It was a snowy, frigid February morning, the kind of weather that makes a teenager want to crawl back into bed and be thankful that school has been cancelled in favor of hot chocolate and cuddles with the family dog. But all 15-year-old Hailey Woods wanted to do was count the 111 days until it was time for another month of summer at Camp Livingston.
Seven years ago, Hailey’s parents had driven their daughter to Bennington, Indiana – about a 70-mile, 90-minute jaunt from Louisville – for her debut experience at a Jewish overnight camp. There were tears that first night — “I honestly cried in my bed, missing my mom,” she recalls. Four weeks later there were more tears: this time, from having to say goodbye to newfound friends and the myriad joys of camp life.
Jewish camps, particular sleepaway camps like Livingston, Ramah, GUCI, Beber Camp and others, are often the most direct route to cementing a young person’s connection to Judaism. “I love it so much,” says Woods, a freshman at North Oldham High School. “I look forward to it the whole, entire year. It’s where all my best friends are, and camp makes me feel so much closer to the Jewish community. I just love being surrounded by all those people.”
Hailey and her 13-year-old brother Charley are alumni of One Happy Camper, a program administered by the Foundation for Jewish Camp that — in Kentucky and Southern Indiana –partners with the Jewish Federation of Louisville, which provides grants of $1,500 for children attending 11-to-18-day overnight camps for the first time. Primary support comes from the Jewish Heritage Fund, which also makes it possible to up the initial subsidy to $2,500 for those attending sessions of 19 days or more.
Follow-up subsidies are available to eligible second and third-year Kentucky campers.
“We’re the leaders in the nation,” says Alison Roemer who administers One Happy Camper as Senior Director of Jewish Journeys & Experiences at the Federation and the Trager Family JCC. “In December I attended the Foundation’s Leaders Assembly in Chicago,” Roemer says, “and they used us as an example.”
One Happy Camper grants apply to a broad range of Jewish overnight camps. Some are affiliated with Reform, Conservative or traditional and modern Orthodox movements; Pluralistic, Community, Non-denominational, or simply, “Other.” And while some parents opt to enroll their children in day programs like Camp J at the Trager Family JCC – the sleepaway model has powerful, multigenerational appeal.
As of mid-February, “we have 60 people who’ve applied for One Happy Camper grants,” Roemer says. “Of those, about 25 are first-year campers, and the others are returning campers. Supplementary grants are available on a case-by-case basis for families needing additional assistance.
Campers tend to be passionate about their experiences. “Religious school is going to have an impact; celebrating Shabbat will have an impact, and going to services has an impact,” Roemer acknowledges. “But the Foundation for Jewish Camp has done research showing that camp has the biggest impact on children growing into adults who choose to be Jewish and raise Jewish children – who’ll choose to attend religious services, join a synagogue or their local Jewish Community Center.”
It’s that kind of sentiment that helps drive the Jewish Heritage Fund’s support for Jewish camps. “Overnight camp has been shown time and time again to provide those kids the opportunity to engage with Jewish life in a unique and immersive way,” says Jaime Jorrisch, a JHF Program Director whose portfolio centers on Jewish Life support.
Camping for young people “pays benefits in terms of Jewish identity and connection, but also just their personhood,” Jorrisch says. “It’s such a formative experience.” Indeed, “Our funding plays the long game,” she adds. “We feel like this is a strategic investment that’s going to have lasting impact on our communities here in Kentucky.”
Parents, too, recognize the foundational value of sending their children to Jewish overnight camps. For Dara Woods – mother of Hailey and Charley in an interfaith household (she calls her husband “Big Charley”) — their “going to Jewish camp was a huge priority for me, because I know they’re not immersed in it the other 11 months of the year.”
Not even with the Covid-compromised summer of 2020 could derail the enduring impact of Jewish sleepaway camp. Dara Woods’ children had spent multiple visits with her parents in the New York City suburbs, but camp was fundamentally different. At Livingston, they could live Jewishly without the potential stressors intrinsic to life back home.
“At camp you aren’t thinking about your parents or even your phone,” Hailey says, “because with all the fun, you’re distracted from everything else. I feel calm – like I can just be myself and show my personality. Camp is my happy place.”
It’s also an opportunity to bask in the comradery of collective Judaism. “At my school, there’s like two other kids in my grade who are Jewish,” says Charley Woods. “But when I go to camp, everyone around me is Jewish, so I’m in a place with people who’ve had some of the same experiences. We have this joke where – if somebody does something (quirky), I’m like – ‘It’s because I’m Jewish.’”
At Livingston, brother and sister have the freedom to let loose with exclamations of spiritual giddiness. “During Shabbat services, it’s so fun when we’re all singing and dancing around,” Hailey says. Returning home, that pleasure remains happily potent, especially during Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat services, when “I feel the most connected to Judaism.”
There is a deliberately insular quality to camp life – the outside world is acknowledged but sobering external realities – if not ignored – tend to be deemphasized. Asked whether October 7 and its aftermath get much attention, Hailey answered, “It doesn’t get talked about that much. Honestly, at camp we really don’t talk about the bad things that are going on. We always just think about all the good things.”
Good things like being a mentor to younger campers – “my little babies,” in Hailey’s parlance. “I hang out with them – I just love them so much. They’re so cute.”
Looking ahead, she’s already anticipating returning to Livingston as a staffer. “When I’m going to college, that’s my first year I can be a counsellor. That’ll be my 10th year at camp, when I’ll get a hoodie that says, ‘Camp Livingston – 10 Years’ on it. I’m just so excited to be able to give the kids the same experience that I had and make them love it as much as I do.”
And when camp is over for the summer, goodbye hugs have been exchanged and parents have bundled their offspring into the car for the drive home, at least there’s the prospect of keeping up with friends – no matter how far-flung they may be.
Jorrisch says her 13-year-old daughter — who attends GUCI (the Reform-affiliated Goldman Union Camp Institute) in Zionsville, Indiana — remains in touch with her camp friends via texting and
WhatsApp groups.
“They don’t necessarily get to see one another,” Mom recognizes, “but they stay in contact, so it’s almost like no time has passed when they reunite at camp. Then there are the tears when you pick them up. You know they’re bonded – and I think they’re bonded for life.”
For more information about One Happy Camper, email Alison Roemer at
aroemer@jewishlouisville.org.