Jewish Summer Camp Opportunities

Jewish Summer Camp

Next to your personal family connections,going to Jewish summer camp is one of the strongest life-long bonds to Jewish life!

Scholarship Opportunities!

Our congregation recognizes the positive impact that Jewish summer camp experiences can have on a young person’s lifelong commitment to Judaism; our Board of Trustees has adopted a policy of awarding $1,000 to every Shaaray Tefila child who attends a Reform Movement sleep-away camp for the first time.

Click here to read about Union for Reform Judaism’s Camps. These camps are wonderful opportunities for Jewish children to have a meaningful, traditional camp experience, while developing a deep sense of Jewish identity that lasts a lifetime.

In addition, if a student has not attended a Jewish sleepover camp before, the Foundation for Jewish Camp offers a $1,000.00 new camper incentive award. For more information and to see if you are eligible for this scholarship, please click here. 

If eligible for that award, your student could receive a total of $2,000.00 off their first summer at a URJ Camp (with both awards)! 

Shaaray Tefila will have limited amount of need-based scholarships for returning campers.  Please reach out to Hope Chernak if you have any questions.

Union for Reform Judaism’s Summer Camps:

In the northeast area, the Reform Movement has two summer camps in Berkshire County, Crane Lake Camp in West Stockbridge and Eisner Camp in Great Barrington. Both offer opportunities for children the same age as yours to live in a Jewish environment and learn about being Jewish while they enjoy all the great experiences of swimming, boating, sports and crafts that are part of summer camp. For more information about these camps please check out their website at: http://necamps.urjcamps.org/  

For High School Students, they could also attend a teen only camp experience at NFTY’s summer home the URJ Kutz Camp. Students get to choose from many different subjects and activities to create their own “college menu” of summer activities. For more information, please check out their website at: http://kutz.urjcamps.org/ 

Please make sure to let us know if you are interested in sending your child to one of these camps – we want to make this happen for them!

It is Shaaray Tefila’s hope that this gift be an incentive to find out more about the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) camps! These camps are wonderful opportunities for Jewish children to have meaningful traditional camp experience, while developing a deep sense of Jewish identity that lasts a lifetime. That truly is a gift worth giving to your child.

Other program opportunities for High School Students during the summer:

NFTY’s Mitzvah Corps: a summer experience through social action!  Click here to learn more about NFTY’s residential social action program.

·       Click here to read a blog entry by our high school teen, Talia about her summer experience at NFTY's Mitzvah Corps of the South in 2011.

WHY JEWISH CAMP?

Important information from the Foundation for Jewish Camp:

"The numbers are in..." Research indicates that Jewish camp does indeed work.
By examining and cross-tabulating the results of 26 existing Jewish
community population surveys, we compared the attitudes and behaviors of adults who had attended Jewish camp as children with those who did not. Survey responses covered 13 different areas
of adult behavior or attitude, including synagogue membership, observance of holidays, donating to Jewish charities, and connection to Israel.

Camp attendance increases the likelihood of adult participation and identification in every one of these areas.
To learn more about this study, please click here 

Read more about the power of Jewish Camping by URJ's past President by Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie: Reform Jewish Camping: The Essential Question