Originally published on ejewishphilanphohy.com – 12.12.2024

The temperature in Chicago may have been well below freezing, but summer was on the minds of the hundreds of Jewish professionals who came to the Windy City this week for a first-of-its-kind Jewish camp summit hosted by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s JCamp 180 and the Foundation for Jewish Camp, writes eJewishPhilanthropy Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross.

The summit — really two conferences crammed together — offered discussions, panels and networking opportunities for both sides of the Jewish camp industry, from the practitioners to the funders who support them. Bringing together the two events, which are normally held at different times of the year, apparently maximized the number of attendees, with record high numbers for each.

This all comes as Jewish sumer camps have seen significant growth, surpassing pre-pandemic numbers — driven perhaps by the precipitous drop in Israel travel this past summer, as well as “The Surge” in Jewish engagement post-Oct. 7.

For the camp directors, board members and other staff, the summit provided an opportunity to discuss the nitty-gritty details of running a Jewish summer camp, from better cooperation with a board and more effective fundraising to responding to the practical effects of climate change and how to use artificial intelligence and data collection, as well as more far-reaching topics like how to cultivate leadership and deepen Israel education. 

For philanthropists, bringing hundreds of Jewish camp professionals under one roof allowed them to more easily understand the field and find ways to support it. (Read more about this below.)

For the other stakeholders, it was an opportunity to consider the role of Jewish summer camps in the context of the North American Jewish community and the Jewish people more generally. On Tuesday, for instance, Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee; Eric Fingerhut, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America; and Rabbi Elka Abrahamson, president of the Wexner Foundation, discussed the role of Jewish summer camps in developing Jewish leadership.

Julie Platt, JFNA board chair and immediate past board chair of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, held an onstage discussion with her son, actor and podcast host, Jonah Platt, about the role that Jewish camp has played in their lives.

JCamp 180 and Foundation for Jewish Camp partner for Jewish Camp Summit, leading to record attendance

Originally published on ejewishphilanphohy.com – 12.12.2024

For the first time, the two organizations held their normally separate gatherings together, as Jewish camps take on outsized significance with growing attendance.

More than 900 Jewish camp professionals joined together on Monday to say Shehecheyanu.

The prayer, signifying special occasions, marked a historical partnership between the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) and Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s JCamp 180 as the organizations partnered for a joint, four-day gathering, the Jewish Camp Summit, which ended on Wednesday.

In previous years, JCamp 180 held its annual conference in the fall, while FJC held a biannual conference in late winter or early spring. This year, to both save expenses and make it easier for attendees, many of whom journey to both, the organizations opted to hold a joint gathering with a common theme: scaling new heights.

The conferences still have separate identities. The JCamp 180 Summit, which focuses on fundraising, board engagement and strategic planning, ran first, from Sunday to Monday. It was followed immediately by FJC’s Leaders Assembly, emphasizing professional development, the Jewish/Israel experience at camps and growth. But there is plenty of overlap, with presenters from JCamp 180 presenting at Leaders Assembly and vice versa.

The joint summit led to both conferences clocking record attendance, with over 500 attending the JCamp 180 Summit and over 950 attending the Leaders Assembly (some 400 attendees overlap).

“I’ve been trying to push for this for the last 10 years,” Jeremy Fingerman, CEO of FJC told eJewishPhilanthropy. “Making it easier for the field.”

A larger summit also means more exposure for attendees to philanthropists, Andrea Wasserman, the founder and president of ABW Partners, who presented at the JCamp 180 Summit and whose firm leads the strategic planning process for FJC, told eJP.

These philanthropists are hungry to invest in initiatives that allow Jews to “wear their Judaism proudly” and “move the needle on ensuring a vibrant, vital, cohesive Jewish community,” she said, especially spanning Israel and the Diaspora.  

The future of the partnership between JCamp 180 and FJC is currently being fleshed out, Sarah Eisinger, JCamp 180’s director, said. “We’re just getting started… We will be back in Massachusetts on our own next year. And I don’t know what will happen in two years,” she said. 

The summit is held after a year of rising camp attendance, surging past the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. Last summer, nearly 190,000 attended an American day or overnight camp. There’s also been an increase in camp counselors, Fingerman said. “After being on the front line of the fight on campus, [counselors] decided they wanted to be in a positive, safe, Jewish bubble.”

While welcome, this increase of staff and attendees is straining camps, with FJC estimating that a quarter of camps are at or near full capacity. As demand jumps, “the long-term prospects and the challenges that are affecting the field are really the same, they just get more and more complex,” Eisinger told eJP.

Topics discussed at the summit included emergency preparedness, working with boards, building endowments, discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at camp, cultivating an inclusive experience and how camps can use artificial intelligence. There were also sessions allowing attendees to sing favorite camp songs, create arts and crafts, and participate in a massive game of “Who Knows One,” led by Micah Hart, the host of the “Campfires and Color Wars”podcast.

Camp is one of the last tech-free places for kids, yet there is plenty of potential for AI, Fingerman said, whether it be for parent communication or organizing photos. AI can also help campers stay bonded over the year, which he said is vital, because camp is not just a summer connection, it can build lifelong relationships.

One of the themes of this past summer was the relationships cultivated between American campers and Israelis. On a typical summer, 1,500 Israeli teens visit American camps, but this year saw an additional 1,500 coming from displaced communities. Twenty representatives from Israeli summer camps attended this year’s summit to discuss North American Jews having a reverse exchange, with American teens staying at Israeli camps in future years. 

“There was a lot of anxiety going into [last] summer,” Eisinger said. “How we’re we going to get all these divergent populations together after this terrible year? And it was just much better than anyone had anticipated.”

This success led to FJC announcing a $1.475 million Teaching Israel at Camp grant on Wednesday, allowing 60 camps to hire an Israeli educator to create additional Israel programming. The grant is funded by Crown Family Philanthropies, UJA-Federation of New York, One8 Foundation, the Einstein Astrof Foundation and the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation.

Camp is the perfect safe place for attendees to hold tough conversations about Israel, Fingerman said. “You’re away from family. You have the ability to have one on one conversations or group conversations in a way that maybe you can’t do in other venues,” he said.

With increased attendance comes increased needs, including for updated infrastructure, whether it be for more bunks, a larger infirmary or to adapt to a changing climate. At the Leaders Assembly on Tuesday, FJC announced a $15 million grant, funded by Ruth and David Gottesman’s family foundation, to help over 300 camps expand their capacity and modernize their facilities.

Now is the time to invest in camps, Eisinger said. “I want to look back on this moment, this period since Oct. 7, in 50 or 100 years, and say it was a watershed moment for the camps. The camps welcomed Israelis. There was an incredible cross-cultural connection this summer at the camps, and it was a hugely healing experience for the Israelis [and] also the Americans, these young people who had experienced terrible antisemitism at their college campuses.”

Now, more than ever, camp is needed, Lee Trempeck, the CEO of Tamarack Camps, told eJP. It was a message laced throughout the summit, which was especially resonant because it brought together so many across lay leadership and professional staff.  

“Just being together allows people the opportunity to share the emotion that we’re all feeling from the weight of the world,” he said. 

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Read the entire article, “JCamp 180 and Foundation for Jewish Camp partner for Jewish Camp Summit, leading to record attendance”, on ejewishphilanthropy.com.