This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teenagers around the world to report on issues that affect their lives.
This summer I will be a counselor at the camp I have been attending for eight years. It was there that I developed my Jewish identity and my love for the community that promotes Jewish values. At camp I also learned about different opinions on Israel, from Israelis, former IDF soldiers and Jewish day school students to American Jews who grew up without a Zionist perspective at the forefront of their education.
At Camp Yavneh in Northwood, New Hampshire, I am tasked with providing campers with a summer of joy, learning, and community growth (Subscribe to). This is especially important this year, the first camp season since the October 7 tragedies. Some families who send their children to camp are without relatives, their relatives scattered throughout Israel and in communities divided by party politics.
Given the war, it is inevitable that Israel will be a topic of intense conversation at camp. To learn how I will approach the discussion about Israel this summer, I spoke with camp members about their concerns and strategies.
“Everyone comes to camp a little nervous and a little shaken because it’s been such a tough year,” says Jane-Rachel Schonbrun, the director of Camp Yavneh. Yavneh counselors come from stressful college campuses, active service in the Israel Defense Forces, and fight for Judaism and Zionism around the world.
Schonbrun has added training to the staff week that will enable counselors to conduct sophisticated conversations. With the support of professional facilitators and social workers, the team will discuss approaches to Israel-related conversations.
A little further north in Maine, 16-year-old Declan Rowles will work at Center Day Camp with campers ages six to eight. Although his children are still young, he still sees potential for conflict in their extremist statements. “With young children, that discourse is happening, but in a different way,” he said. “They repeat a lot of what their parents say, and they may do that with regard to Israel as well.”
The camp, about a half-hour northwest of Portland, focuses on Jewish culture, Israeli games and songs with the help of Israeli counselors. There is less focus on religion than at other camps. Rowles said training in healthy dialogue should be a top priority in staff orientation.
Over in Teaneck, New Jersey, Batsheva Perelis shares my own fears: She worries about how to create a fun and energetic camp atmosphere in a post-October 7 world.
“This, combined with all the other responsibilities that come with being a consultant, presents an additional challenge,” Perelis said.
Perelis, 17, attended Camp Stone, a modern Orthodox summer camp in Pennsylvania, as a young child and thrived there because the counselors managed to make the practice of Judaism a positive and exciting experience for the children.
This summer she will return to the camp as a staff member and will also work at Camp Lavi as a counselor within her Yachad program. Camp Stone views Israel as a crucial facet of Judaism, more so than a secular or pluralistic Jewish camp would, and Perelis supports the unconditional love of Israel that the camp inspires. But she says there needs to be “space for respectful conversations — talking about the other side and talking about the suffering of Palestinians.” Camps need to take a nuanced approach, resist group polarization and encourage conscientiousness during their pre-summer training week for staff, Perelis says.
In the counselor training Perelis received, organizers discussed how many campers have experienced a traumatic year. Given children’s heightened sensitivity and greater vulnerability to triggers, it’s even more important that counselors use effective therapeutic tools.
Education and mentoring play a big part in the program at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack, New York, where 17-year-old Jonathan Korinman will be working. As a counselor of fourth-year elementary school-aged campers, Korinman’s job is to “drive the camp curriculum and make sure the kids are having fun,” he said. Nyack is a conservative movement camp north of Manhattan that is home to 17,000 children. Shiurim (lessons) and events.
Outside of camp, Korinman attends the High School of American Studies at Lehman College, a public high school in the Bronx. When the conflict in Israel and Palestine comes up in class or during conversations at school, he learns that “if you express your opinion as respectfully as possible, the feeling of vitriol and hatred that is sometimes found in such conversations disappears and is replaced by mutual respect.”
Based on his experiences at camp and in school, Korinman expects that there should be some level of discussion about Israel at camps. “If they take a very strong pro-Israel position, they can’t justify it without justifying it,” he said. There needs to be some context and explanation for the stance they’re taking. But, Korinman said, while camp provides a good learning opportunity, “it’s not necessarily the responsibility of the counselors to equip the kids with the knowledge to defend the State of Israel.”
Conversations about Israel are often controversial, especially in an environment that encourages curiosity and values diversity, said Elisha Baker. He is a rising junior at Columbia University and has experience encouraging dialogue and promoting education about Israel. As a former camper and counselor at Camp Yavneh, Baker sees education as a critical component of the roles of counselors and administrators at camp. They have the opportunity to impart skills and knowledge to the next generation of Jewish leaders.
“It is the camp’s responsibility to anticipate this and prepare counselors to not only listen but also be active participants, facilitators and mediators,” Baker says. That role “must start with basic education.” Baker says counselors should prepare by acquiring more substantive knowledge about Israel, and camps should provide resources and guidance to encourage that learning.
Schonbrun of Camp Yavneh agrees with Baker that preparation is key. “It’s important that we tackle it head-on,” she said. “If not, it (Israel) will come out, and in a less productive and less healthy way.”
Through conversations with people from around the world of camp, I’ve learned that fostering healthy dialogue among campers is an important part of what I’ll bring with me this summer. As counselors, we can help build a habit of openness and willingness to listen by applying these values to both everyday camp squabbles and deeper discussions. Personally, I have trouble with the one-sided approach that Zionist camps sometimes take when teaching about Israel. My goal is to approach the topic with compassion and humility, focusing on tempering my own knee-jerk defensiveness that so often accompanies conversations about this sensitive subject.
I hope campers and their peers can follow this example. We all come from different schools and have different backgrounds, different religious views, and different views on Israel. Given the diversity of our community, this summer could be exactly what Jewish youth need: time away from the secular world to come back together as a community despite our differences and thrive in the strength of one another.
