e g n a h C d n a h t w o r G : d e t p i s m i a v e C R r e e k m a m L u Limud by the Lake Revisited: e S h t h y s b i d w u e J m Growth and Change i t a L r d e at Jewish n x a o l B e u w m e a Summer Camp h t S t a e l o M c i N , D h P , s e l a AMY L. S ALES , P HD S . L ICOLE AMUEL y N S m A and MATTHEW BOXER Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies Brandeis University Adar II 5771 March 2011 Limud by the Lake Revisited: Growth and Change at Jewish Summer Camp AMY L. S ALES , P HD NICOLE SAMUEL and MATTHEW BOXER Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies Brandeis University Adar II 5771 March 2011 Table of Contents Introduction 1 Limud by the Lake Revisited: Growth and Change at Jewish Summer Camp 3 Method 3 Changes Observed 2000-2008 4 Campers and their Families 11 Staff 13 Factors in Camper and Staff Retention 18 Gains from the Summer Experience 19 Lessons Learned 2000-2008 21 Into the Future 26 Conclusion 29 References 30 Research Team 31 Participant-Observation Field Workers 32 List of Tables and Figures Table 1: Total Excess Capacity 2008 6 Table 2: Child’s Denomination by Type of Camp 11 Table 3: Jewish Activities (% Occasionally or Frequently) 13 Table 4: Staff Denomination by Camp Denomination (All staff) 14 Table 5: Jewish Connections 15 Table 6: To What Extent Do the Following Define You and Your Life? 16 Table 7: Jewish Observance at Camp versus What the Parent Would Like for Child 19 Table 8: Camp Learning 21 Figure 1 : Jewish Observance at Camp versus Home 18 Introduction o learn about the field of Jewish overnight summer camps and explore its potential addition to our philanthropic portfolio, AVI CHAI commissioned Tleading researchers Leonard Saxe, PhD and Amy Sales, PhD from Brandeis University to spend time visiting 18 Jewish camps during Summer 2000 and report what they saw. Their findings were included in a study called Limud by the Lake: Fulfilling the Potential of Jewish Summer Camps and in a subsequent book, “How Goodly Are Thy Tents”: Summer Camps as Jewish Socializing Experiences. In addition to a survey of best practices and standards, the study contained rich insights about the needs of the camps and how they can become more effective in creating and delivering memorable Jewish experience s for their campers. The researchers offered specific suggestions for growing and strengthening the field, and their recommendations guided the Foundation’s initial investments for helping camps deliver a strong Jewish program, a core focus for our work. When Limud by the Lake was published, the Jewish part by an anonymous donor, dozens of communities camping field was just beginning to attract broader around the country have made “camperships” — attention and philanthropic support. What a difference subsidies for first-time camper s— available to a decade can make! The Foundation for Jewish Camp , thousands of Jewish families. By all measures, which was started by philanthropic visionaries Rob these are indeed exciting times for Jewish camps. and Elisa Bildner just two years before the Brandeis study was conducted, has become a powerhouse in During the past decade AVI CHAI has focused on the Jewish communal world, a much admired and helping camps deliver an engaging and powerful effective advocate and fundraiser for the camps. Jewish experience. Because of the programming Other philanthropists have joined pioneers such as creativity and training skills of staff from the FJC, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation to invest in the the Jewish Agency for Israel, the JCCA, and the camps’ infrastructure and to assist with recruitment, various Jewish camping movement s— our partners marketing, fundraising, board development, alumni in developing additional resources for the fiel d— outreach, and other needs of a vibrant and sustainable many camp directors have raised the bar for creating field. The Marcus Foundation has invested in senior a lasting impression on their campers and staff. camp professional leadership development and expansion The yearly reports and thoughtful reflections we of camp capacity. The Jim Joseph Foundation helped receive from Aileen Goldstein, AVI CHAI’s camp seed new specialty camps to attract Jewish families programs evaluator and a former camp director who that in the past would have looked elsewhere to send has visited dozens of camps for us over the past six their child for the summer. Inspired and funded in years, attests to positive changes in the Jewish and Introduction 1 Israel education programming in many camps and in Because of their 24/7 controlled environment, we the enhanced skills of staff to initiate and implement anticipate that Jewish overnight camps will continue new programs. to offer exceptional opportunities for children to grow Jewishly, make new Jewish friends, and deepen For an updated snapshot of the field, in Summer connections with Israel and the Israelis who work in 2008 we commissioned Amy Sales and her Brandeis camp. We hope that gains in the field will continue colleagues to revisit many of the same camps and for many decades, with more children experiencing some new ones to report on progress and changes. the magic created every summer at Jewish camps Using the baseline developed during the first study, across North America. the new research looks at changes over time and also expands the scope of inquiry to cover new ground, including the attitudes of staff before and after their summer experience and the considerations of families who are choosing between Jewish and non-Jewish summer camps. Many of the findings within this extensive report add to the growing body of knowledge about excellence in Jewish camps and opportunities for further enhancement. We hope you will enjoy Joel Einleger reading the study and discover new opportunities Director of Strategy, Camp Programs to strengthen this vibrant and growing field. The AVI CHAI Foundation 2 Introduction Limud by the Lake Revisited: Growth and Change at Jewish Summer Camp t is a bright blue-green day in Summer 2008 as we leave the highway and head up into the foothills toward camp. We have not been here for eight years, but the image in I our minds is so vivid and the sights and smells so familiar, it could have been yesterday. We expect (and hope) that the camp will be unchanged. After all, in How Goodly Are Thy Tents , we documented summer camps’ “vigorous adherence to tradition” and the power of camp culture (Sales & Saxe, 2004). The affection that members of the camp community have for the camp would surely maintain everything as we had last seen it. At the same time, we expect (and hope) that it will be Findings, first presented in Limud by the Lake: Fulfilling different, closer to its full potential as an educational the Educational Potential of Jewish Summer Camps and socializing institution. Indeed, we had also written (Sales & Saxe, 2002), led to seven recommendations: about summer camps’ “great flexibility and openness to experimentation.” Eight years marks a generation 1. Expand the reach of Jewish camping. of campers and staff, and it seems only reasonable to us that as members of the camp community have 2. Make camp a model of Jewish education. grown and changed, the camp too will have evolved. 3. Prepare directors to enhance Jewish life at camp. This report presents the results of our Summer 2008 study of Jewish summer camps. It describes changes in 4. Focus on Jewish staff as a target group in their the field over the previous eight years and presents new own right. data on the families and staff that comprise the camp 5. Bring more Jewish counselors to camp. community. It concludes with a set of questions about the future of the field and five recommendations for expand - 6. Provide the training and support counselors ing and deepening the Jewish summer camp experience. need to advance on their personal Jewish journeys and flourish in their work as Jewish role models. 7. Conduct research to inform the field of Jewish METHOD 1 camping and ground its future development in n 2000, The AVI CHAI Foundation asked the reliable information. Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies to Iundertake a study of Jewish summer camp with the purpose of mapping the landscape of Jewish residential camps and exploring how these camps socialize 1 More information on method can be found at http://bir.brandeis.edu/ young people as members of the Jewish community. bitstream/handle/10192/24197/Limud.Revisited.Method.01.31.11.pdf Growth and Change at Jewish Summer Camp 3 Eight years after our first foray into the camp world, The multi-method approach enabled us to examine the Foundation asked us to return to camp to examine the camp experience from various perspectives, while how much progress has been made in these areas and the replication of methods and questions from the what lies ahead for the field. The new study is based earlier study enabled us to document changes between on field observations at 22 Jewish overnight camps 2001 and 2008. selected to represent different types of camps in three regions of the country (Northeast, South, and West). Fourteen of these camps took part in the original study . Four were added to round out our sample and three CHANGES OBSERVED 2000-2008 other camps, new on the landscape, were added so he very beginnings of the new study that we might learn how startup camps think about hinted at change in the Jewish camp world.