FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY (August 18, 2022)—Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) has been awarded a three-year expansive research grant from the John Templeton Foundation to explore how the activities and rituals at Jewish overnight camp nurture and promote character development in adolescent campers and camp staff.   

Findings of an earlier landscape survey of current virtue development practices at Jewish camps and a series of interviews with camp professionals identified kindness as the most common virtue camps desire to nurture in their communities. This next phase of in-depth research will focus on understanding how kindness is embedded into the structure of Jewish camp, how character virtues are taught, practiced, and modeled by camp leadership and staff, and how staff and campers are impacted.   

“We want to surface exemplary practices that support young adult camp staff to model and nurture kindness in themselves and others. Our research will allow us to learn with the camps and develop additional resources and practices to elevate emerging and promising character development at camps across North America,” says Nila Rosen, FJC’s Director of Learning and Research. These resources will expand on FJC’s Making Mensches Periodic Table—the resource bank for camp staff and educators to engage in the work of character development whose popularity served as the basis for this inquiry. 

FJC has selected five camps that are intentional in their construction and cultivation of a culture of kindness in their community. These camps will conduct a thorough exploration of how that shows up in their staff selection and training, relationship building, camp rituals, peer-to-peer support, professional development, branding materials, camp artifacts, signage, or explicit language used by leadership teams. 

The camps involved in this research are: 

• Camp Ramah Wisconsin (Conover, WI) 
• Camp Laurelwood (Madison, CT) 
• Emma Kaufman Camp (Morgantown, WV) 
• URJ 6 Points Sports Academy (Greensboro, NC) 
• URJ Crane Lake Camp (West Stockbridge, MA) 

Richard Bollinger, PhD, Senior Program Officer of Character Virtue Development at the John Templeton Foundation adds, “We are excited about the potential impact of this project because spreading kindness within a community can create ripples of a ‘pay-it-forward’ nature that extend far beyond the initial kind actions. Along with the hundreds of thousands of campers, families, and staff who participate in 300+ Jewish camps across North America each year, we are eager to share and learn with FJC and the field.”  

This December, FJC will gather the first cohort of camps participating in this research phase along with multi-disciplinary advisors who sit at the nexus of Judaism and character development as a community of practice at their biennial conference, Leaders Assembly in Atlanta, GA. Together, they will develop ways to measure the intersections of character, kindness, and community within Jewish camps and undercover practices that allow camps to cultivate individuals with a deepened sense of humanity, justice, and transcendence.  

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About Foundation for Jewish Camp  

Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) fosters excellence and accelerates innovation at Jewish camps across North America by developing adaptive talent, deepening immersive learning experiences, and catalyzing field growth. Founded in 1998, FJC elevates Jewish camp on the cultural and philanthropic agenda, creating opportunities to engage even more young people in Jewish camp through groundbreaking programs such as One Happy Camper® and FJC’s Specialty Camps Incubator.  FJC advocates for over 300 day and overnight camps that provide nearly 180,000 campers and young staff each summer with a meaningful, personal, and lifelong connection to Judaism. FJC is a public 501(c)(3) charitable organization. For more information, please visit: jewishcamp.org.   

Media Contact

Aimee Lerner, Marketing Director
aimee@jewishcamp.org
(646) 278-4518

By Stacy Seltzer

Twenty years ago, in 2002, we met at Camp Ramah in the Poconos. Kelly Clarkson became the first American Idol winner, introducing, “A Moment Like This” into our lives. A Walk to Remember, Catch me if you Can, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding were popular movies. And everyone loved playing “snake” on their Nokia cell phones.

Stacy had just graduated from high school and was headed to Muhlenberg College that fall. Before college, she was excited to head back to Ramah, her home away from home, to be on staff at the same place where she had spent almost every summer since she was ten.

Matt had just completed his freshman year at the University of Maryland and was returning staff. Though he didn’t grow up at Ramah, many of his cousins were there and camp was becoming part of his story.

Little did they know that this summer at Ramah would change the trajectory of their lives.

Camp is a special place. Hours feel like days and days feel like weeks. The time spent there is magical. You are unplugged from the hustle bustle of daily life, surrounded by picturesque scenery and integrated into a beautiful community full of fun, energy and spirit.

When we met, we thought we would date ‘just for the summer’ and go our separate ways… and we almost did! We officially ‘broke up’ as Stacy headed off to school. But somehow, our hearts knew there was more to this relationship. Shortly after arriving back at school, we decided to give long distance dating a try. We dated through college and got engaged right after.

Ramah not only set the stage for us to meet, but it also continues to influence our observance and love for Judaism. We got married in 2007 and knew we wanted to have a family. Our goal was (and still is!) to raise our kids in a Jewish home filled with the same energy and excitement for Judaism that Ramah instilled in us.

Our oldest daughter was born in 2013. Last summer she told us, “I’m ready for Ramah!” At the start of the summer, we packed her bags and sent her off to create her own experiences. There were tears as her bus drove away but those tears quickly turned into smiles as real experiences replaced her (and our!) imagination! Watching her love camp in her own way has been one of the best parts of parenthood. Watching her live independently for four weeks, growing as an individual, is incredible! The icing on the cake were the tears that flowed upon her return home. Yes, she was thrilled to be home and happy to be with her family but even more so, she missed her new home away from home. She declared herself “camp sick!” She is already counting down the days until next summer and her siblings can’t wait to join her in a few years.

If someone would have told us back in 2002 that our ‘just for the summer’ relationship would lead to a life together and that our children would follow in our footsteps at Ramah 20 years later, we would have laughed. Our story shows the power of camp!