Inclusion at Jewish Summer Camp

Like so many others I read about Rafi Daugherty's amazing story with great interest. Rafi is the Jewish man who recently gave birth to a baby girl. A queer transgender Jewish man becoming pregnant is certainly deserving of the news headlines, but after meeting Rafi earlier this week I must say that I was more interested in the important work he's doing at summer camp. At the Foundation for Jewish Camp's Leaders Assembly this past week I was so inspired listening to Rafi's story. The Foundation has launched the "I Belong to Jewish Camp" incentive program aimed at promoting inclusion at Jewish summer camps. I wrote about this new initiative in The Times of Israel.

Jewish Summer Camps Prioritize Inclusion in 2016

As New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was signing an executive order requiring NYC agencies give access to single-sex bathroom facilities consistent with people's gender identity, across the Hudson River over 750 Jewish camp professionals were likewise pledging increased inclusion at their summer camps. For the first time, a gender neutral bathroom was made available at the Foundation for Jewish Camp's Leaders Assembly conference in East Brunswick, New Jersey to ensure transgender individuals were comfortable during FJC's biennial gathering.

More than that, the Foundation launched its "I Belong to Jewish Camp" initiative which will offer significant grants to organizations like day camps, overnight camps, Jewish federations, and other camp partners to strongly encourage a new commitment to inclusion. Up to $25,000 in seed-funding is being offered by FJC for new outreach and/or programmatic initiatives that engage such constituencies as LGBTQ, Interfaith, Multi-ethnic, and campers with disabilities.

This new initiative was announced by Jeremy Fingerman, CEO of FJC, following a dynamic series of presentations by individuals who had historically been marginalized because of their differences. The highlights of these impassioned talks were given by a young woman with Tourette's Syndrome and a transgender man who recently gave birth to his baby daughter.

With a delightful amount of humor, Pamela Schuller shared her experiences as a camper and staff member at Jewish summer camps. With her Tourette's Syndrome causing her to bark like a dog uncontrollably, Pamela found it too big of a challenge to survive in her family's synagogue and at her school because of her condition. However, summer after summer she found a comfortable euphoria at her Jewish camp where she went from camper to camp professional. She's now the full-time Inclusion Specialist for the Union for Reform Judaism and a standup comedian to boot. Despite struggling with Tourette's Syndrome, Pamela found a home at camp.

Rafi Daugherty and Rabbi Jason Miller

When Rafi Daugherty took the stage next, he acknowledged that an introduction of his personal story was likely unnecessary since it had been covered so widely in the media recently. As a queer transgender man, Rafi grew up in summer camps. In his youth, as an ultra-Orthodox Jewish girl, summers were spent at all-girls overnight camps where Rafi was a tomboy and felt uncomfortable as a girl. After leaving the Orthodox world of his childhood, coming out of the closet and eventually transitioning to a man, Rafi's journey led him toward finding unexpected connections to spirituality. While he's making headlines because he recently delivered a beautiful baby girl, the real story is that Rafi is doing important work as the Director of Camper Care at Ramah Outdoor Adventure, an overnight camp in Colorado, and feels accepted as a queer transgender man who was respected last summer when he explained to his fellow camp staff members and the oldest campers that he was pregnant.

Whether it is children of intermarried parents, counselors with physical disabilities, LGBTQ individuals, campers from multiracial families or any other people who feel as if they've been missing from these dynamic summer camp communities, Jewish summer camps are poised to increase the diversity in their institutions this summer and beyond. All sociology experts on the future of the Jewish community point to the integral role that summer camp plays in the development of strong Jewish identities. With the encouragement of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, camp professionals are now recognizing their responsibility to ensure all young people in the Jewish community are included in the magic that is Jewish camp.

Summer Camp's Expensive. Is Crowdfunding the Answer?

I was talking recently about Camp Inc., the Jewish summer camp in Colorado for kids interested in business and entrepreneurship. The conversation turned to the high cost of tuition for summer camp and how some kids are choosing to work all summer long so they can pay for their summer camp experience or trip to Israel the following year. The problem with that of course is that they miss out on an entire summer of camp memories.

That's when I learned about an 11-year-old kid from the Bay Area named (ironically) Cash, who in true entrepreneurial fashion, has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for his Camp Inc. tuition. As soon as he launched his fundraising page I reached out to his mother to learn more about this innovative young man who just might be on to something here. Will we see more kids take to the internet to make their case on crowdfunding websites and solicit funds for their summer camp experience? What about Spring Break vacations or college tuition?

I look at the concept of crowdfunding for summer camp in my recent article on Time.com:

The Next Mark Zuckerberg? Meet the Kid Crowdfunding His Way to Summer Camp

It’s a known fact that many Jewish kids head out to overnight camp each summer. In fact, Jeremy J. Fingerman, the CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, believes that in any one summer, as many as 11% of the approximately 700,000 Jewish kids ages 7-17 in North America are enrolled in a Jewish camp. These are no longer simply the traditional overnight summer camps of previous generations in which campers and counselors swim, sail, and sing Jewish songs by the campfire while roasting s’mores.

Today’s listing of Jewish summer camps includes dozens of “specialty camps” that focus on specific interest groups like science and technology, the culinary arts, health and wellness, and sports. These camps, which run anywhere from one to eight-week sessions, require a significant financial investment from parents who want their children to enjoy meaningful experiences over the summer vacation. Financial scholarships and significant subsidy programs like the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s BunkConnect help defray a portion of the tuition costs, but money is still an impediment for many families.

Technology and Electronics at Summer Camp: Will Policy Change?

School is back in session in many parts of the country and that means the summer camp season has come to a close. With each passing summer, I try to evaluate the role that technology plays at sleep-away camp. It seems that each year more summer camps institute "screen free policies" concerning the use of technology and electronics at camp, but other camps are gradually relaxing their policies (e.g., letting staff keep a cellphone in their pockets during the day, not checking for campers' Wi-Fi-enabled devices on trips out of camp, etc.). Last week I published the following piece on The Huffington Post's website about technology and summer camp. It has already generated a lot of discussion about appropriate use of technology at summer camp and what the future might look like.

Sitting with my wife by the lake in Northern Michigan at the beginning of the summer I listened as the director of our family camp, Camp Michigania, recited the rules for the week. "One final thing we ask everyone to abide by," he said to the assembled adults, "please keep your children from using any technology this week and try not to use your own cellphones and computers in public." I noted the irony that he had just read his annual list of policies and procedures from his iPhone.

Is it hypocrisy when a camp director asks campers to unplug while being tethered to his own smartphone? I contemplated this from my spot on the beach watching my kids kayak and paddleboard as I tapped away at my notebook computer, enjoying the gorgeous surroundings as I put the finishing touches on a blog entry.

I am a techie, but I am also an advocate for summer camp. I respect those who believe that our kids should leave anything that requires a rechargeable battery at home before getting on the bus to sleep away camp -- hard as that may be. But I also wonder if we're setting ourselves up for failure. Just how far into the future will we be able to continue banning communication devices from these children of the digital age?

The argument against allowing these young campers to import their technology to camp is that they need a chance to unplug and to be fully present without any influences from the outside world. But those influences inevitably sneak into summer camps each year. Overnight camp counselors use the Internet after hours and on days off and then keep the campers abreast of what's happening in the world. Communiques in the form of one-way email messages, faxes and even hand-written letters from family members alert them to the goings on back home. Summer camp for our children is akin to a vacation for us, but aren't we all guilty of sneaking a peek at our email while on vacation? Is the expectation that our kids shouldn't have that ability a double standard?

Startup Entrepreneurship at Summer Camp in the Rocky Mountains

After finally making my way up the mountain in Golden, Colorado (just outside of Boulder) the other night, I pulled my rental car into the parking lot of Camp Inc., the world's first Jewish specialty summer camp with an emphasis on entrepreneurship. My interest was piqued half a year ago when I met with the leadership team of Camp Inc. and heard about their lofty plans for their inaugural summer. It all seemed like a great idea conceptually, but I didn't know quite what to expect when I arrived.

I stepped out of the car and walked into the "Ulam" (Hebrew for meeting hall) where the music was blaring and dozens of Jewish teenage boys and girls were dancing. I was greeted by Josh Pierce, the camp director, who yelled to me over the music, "Welcome to MJ's bat mitzvah party!" The campers and staff of Camp Inc. were holding a mock bat mitzvah party for one of the camp's counselors, complete with a bat mitzvah candle-lighting ceremony, a DJ playing the standard bar mitzvah music, and the hoisting of Jewish teens in a chair for the Hora dance. Meals at Camp Inc. start and end with Jewish blessings. Morning flagpole includes several Jewish prayers and Hebrew songs. Signs around camp are in both English and Hebrew. And a number of the counselors are Israeli, part of the Jewish Agency's Summer Shlichim (emissary) Program. I have been to countless Jewish overnight camps and, at first glance, Camp Inc. seemed no different from the rest. Until...

What I then saw was amazing. At the end of the evening's activity the campers begged their counselors to not make them go back to their bunks for "lights out." However, they didn't want to go on a night hike or stay up late playing card games in their cabin. Rather, these campers pleaded with the camp staff to let them stay up for another hour so they could work on their logos for their new startup companies. These Jewish campers, ranging in age from 12-17, morphed from your typical summer campers to CEO's, CFO's and Marketing Directors right in front of my eyes. They grabbed their black leather portfolios emblazoned with the Camp Inc. logo and fully charged notebook computers and headed to their workspace. There they met with their startup teams to put the finishing touches on their logos which will be printed on different colored t-shirts for them to wear at their pitches to business mentors and startup investors at the conclusion of the camp session.

Camp Inc. campers pitch DiabeTech at a practice pitch day in Boulder, Colorado

Summer Camps Use Technology to Operate More Effectively

As Jewish camp leaders once again convened at Leaders Assembly, the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s biennial conference here in New Brunswick, there was a lot of networking taking place – both in person and via social media. The dozens of ad hoc camp reunions taking place in the hallways of the hotel also materialized into an exchange of best practices for these Jewish camp professionals. The hot topic this year was the use of technology, both in the back office of the camp operations and front and center for campers, their parents and alumni.

What role all of this new technology plays for the Jewish summer camp industry was hashed out in breakout sessions at the camp confab in what were termed “Hot Topics” and also discussed in the “Shuk” where the companies that provide this new technology were camped out. “Do you keep your camper registrations and medical forms in the cloud?”, “Who manages your alumni Facebook page?”, “Have you started Instagram or Pinterest accounts,” and “Which online service do you use for staff background checks” were just some of the questions overheard at the conference.

While many don’t typically associate high tech with the camp world, which for generations was thought of as a low tech industry, there’s no question that camps have come to depend on the latest support applications in the technology world to run their camps efficiently, effectively and safely in the 21st century. After all, while one of the core missions of the overnight summer camp experience may continue to be allowing our youth to unplug from their electronic gadgets for several weeks each summer, the camps charged with that mission must be run like businesses. And that means using the best technology to manage everything from security, registration, financials and medical information to social network engagement, summertime communication and alumni relations.