This resource allows us to teach and learn middot (values) through the approach of traditional text study, using contemporary texts as a point of focus.

On-going reflection, application, and skill development – with your guidance – will grow your staff’s ability to support their campers and peers well-being and help them through mental health crises. The goal of these resources is to support your guiding staff through applying the ALGEE action plan, identify concerning behaviors, grow their skills and practice how to approach the variety of different behavior they will encounter in their roles.

This outline and the accompanying resources are meant as suggestions to support your work. While weekly meetings for ongoing support and training are a part of this pilot, following this outline or utilizing these resources is not a mandatory part of the program.

In efforts to make our spaces welcoming and inclusive, we offer gender pronoun stickers for participants to place on their name tags.

These stickers can be printed directly onto Avery 6450 labels.

Download the PDF below to view B’Nai B’Rith Camp’s policies regarding serving transgender and gender non-conforming campers.

Jewish Queer Youth’s “Yom Kippur Sheet” offers insight into the thoughts, feelings, desires, and fears of various LGBTQ youth on Yom Kippur.

Jewish Queer Youth’s “On being LGBTQ at Jewish summer camp” offers insight into the wants, needs, fears, experiences, and feelings of various LGBTQ youth at Jewish summer camp.

Habonim Dror North America’s “Curriculum For Fostering Healthier Masculinities” is designed to aid camp staff in creating the platforms upon which masculine youth can learn to defy unhealthy masculine expectations and instead live freer lives. Its contents can bring up questions that masculine youth may have never been given the space to think about before – questions about interpersonal support, body image, and emotional expression. We acknowledge that there is still a universe to be explored, especially in regards to intersections of masculinity and race, queerness, ethnicity, and class. This curriculum is meant to be first step that will inspire more projects that further explore what healthy masculinities look like.

Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Shmira Initiative is dedicated to making our camps a safe place for all who enter them.  Click the video below for a presentation by Moving Traditions exploring how Jewish summer camp professionals can address “Gender, Sex, & Power”, and download the attached resources to view supplemental tools.

Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Shmira Initiative is dedicated to making our camps a safe place for all who enter them. In order to do that, we need to have real conversations with our campers and staff around what safe and positive behavior and interactions look like – “A Better Playlist” is just one approach to having these conversations.

We are all constantly taking in media messages and learning through societal examples. We know that our campers and staff are watching movies, reading books, and listening to music that give them examples of how to, and how not to, act. The 12 songs that make up this playlist represent a variety of situations and provide some sort of message around consent. Consent is permission for something to happen or agreement to do something. By studying songs about consent as we would a Jewish text, we, and our campers and staff, can have conversations around suitable behavior, while also providing sex-positive messages.

It is up to your digression which songs you’d like to explore based on your camp culture and the age groups you want to engage. We have actively not provided suggested audiences for this material, as it will differ from community to community.

Looking to plan a hands-on volunteer experience for your campers or staff? This resource guide developed by Repair the World and Jewish Volunteer Connection will give you insight into all aspects of the service experience from planning the project, making the experience meaningful, and inspire future service. Included are pre and post project learning experiences that focus on themes of partnership, respect, and listening, that can be used in a variety of volunteer project settings.