Everyone who returns year after year to the same overnight camp claims theirs to be the best. Why else would they go back year after year? I agree with that sentiment; however, I’ll also flip the coin and assume that they’re all pretty similar and if Boy A started at Camp Z instead of Camp A, he’d love it just as much.
It’s what he knows, what's become habit, and of course, it’s what he cherishes about his summer.
This summer however, one of the many camps in Wisconsin started an amazing new opportunity that 53 campers were able to experience. Camp Chi in Lake Delton, Wis. offered a JCC Maccabi Israel immersion travel trip.
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Mostly subsidized by generous scholarships from Larry Goodman of the The Lillian and Larry Goodman Foundation; a four-week trip for the 17-year-old age group that takes place a year after camp's "Staff in Training" program was created.
Jamie Horwitz, a senior at , was on this phenomenal trip. She called her summer the “guinea pig” year yet she’s certain from her experience that it will be going on for years to come. Beyond the historical aspects of the trip, what Jamie loved was that Israelis traveled with them. This way she was seeing things not only as a tourist, but also through the eyes of someone in their homeland.
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Jamie shared some of her trip's highlights, “One thing that was absolutely amazing was sleeping under the stars in the Negev, which is a desert. My favorite place would have to be Mount Herzel. It is the cemetery for soldiers who have passed away. It was a very meaningful experience.”
Interestingly, Jamie was lucky enough to have her sister Becca, a senior at Indiana University, on the same trip. Becca went as a counselor. Curious about where they stayed when these kids are used to regular camp cabins, I learned that they stayed in several different places. Mostly kibbutzim, youth hostels, hotels and, according to Becca, "the coolest of all" was home stays. “This was five days where the American participants had the opportunity to stay at the Israeli participants houses. We had 16 Israelis of the same age on our trip from Chicago's sister city, Kiryat Gat.”
Like her sister, Becca appreciated having the Israelis on her trip. “What touched me most was seeing the American and Israeli participants create a bond. In my opinion nothing can bring you closer to Israel than personally knowing the people that live there. It is one thing to see all the sites and learn all about the history, but its quite another to share a bond with someone who is surrounded by it each and every day.”
She sums up their trip beautifully. “There is no way to explain how connected you, as a Jew, feel to Israel unless you are there. As we were told many times throughout the trip, whatever may happen around the world, you will ALWAYS have Israel to call home.”
As always, email me with any news, topics or ideas that you want to read about. Remember, I’d like to be the first to know! I can be reached at laurenbgpatch@aol.com.
