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July 18, 2008
Camp Camp
Meredith Jacobs
Special to the Jewish Times
Let’s see … the third weekend in July puts us deeply in the midst of Parents Visiting Day at sleepaway camps.
Two summers ago, when visiting my daughter Sofie at sleep-away camp for the first time, we were not prepared. We had arrived on time with the requested homemade chocolate chip cake, fresh Archie comics and additional pairs of underwear (also requested).
We pressed into the locked gates with hundreds of other parents, but they were seasoned. As the gates opened, they dashed to the dining hall, secured tables and filled said tables with delicacies from every known restaurant in New York City. Out came deli and bagels and lox and even sushi!
And don’t get me started about the balloon centerpieces and gifts. Mini-b’nai mitzvah were being hosted around the room. There we were with my little homemade cake.
We spent the rest of the day touring the camp with Sofie, seeing where she played tennis, watching a reprise of the camp play, meeting her friends and counselors, and gathering finished craft projects to bring home.
What is it about summer camp? We’ve learned from various demographic studies that sending our children to them is one of the (if not the) best ways to ensure they will remain connected Jewish adults.
But what happens at camp that does not happen at home?
I contacted Roger Bennett, co-author with Jules Shell of “Camp Camp: Where Fantasy Island Meets Lord of the Flies.” They also did the very funny book “Bar Mitzvah Disco.” Mr. Bennett, by the way, was named one of Forward newspaper’s 50 most influential people in Jewish philanthropy in 2007. He is a vice president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies.
This photo album of white lipstick, big hair, sweat socks and scrunchies is a tribute to my generation. If you grew up in the’80s, you will find yourself reminiscing about summer camp (even if you didn’t attend one!).
I had expected Mr. Bennett to talk about how camp gives kids that vital Jewish life immersion that they may not get at home. But he explained that camp is the American story — well-lived by Jews in America. It’s a four-generation journey from tradition to modernity, the quintessential suburban story, from city to suburbs, poverty to affluence.
“Camp Camp” is a humorous book, but underlying it are questions about how we became who we are. The work was the natural follow-up to “Bar Mitzvah Disco.” He explained that b’nai mitzvah is a wonderful piece of ritual where overnight children are called adults. Jewish children have to face their adolescent selves in the spotlight, but after the spotlight is turned off, they are no longer men and women.
Camp is when children truly came of age. Campers told Mr. Bennett that they lived their life for 10 months in black and white and two months in color in a compressed world run by kids. Camp allowed them to try on new personas — a cut-up, a ladies man, a clotheshorse. So many former campers shared stories of “at home I was a nerd, at camp I was an incredible athlete.”
True, at the end of summer, we went back to being nerds, the last picked for the team in gym. But the feeling, the knowing that we didn’t have to be the little, nerdy Jewish boy or girl, that we could be so much more than the stereotype, stayed with us as much as singing K’chol v’Lavan for color war or having races that pitted the fasters against the non-fasters on Tisha B’Av.
It’s a world where we tried on adult hats with a confidence and cockiness allowed only because it would only last for the summer.
Meredith Jacobs is the author of “The Modern Jewish Mom’s Guide to Shabbat” (HarperCollins) and the host of “Connecting Family” on WYPR-FM, Wednesdays at 9:36 a.m.