Late in the summer of 1987, my parents shipped me off to the Cleveland Jewish Community Center\’s cleverly named Camp Wise. It was August, the weather was hot, and the little village of wooden cabins with tent flaps for walls was a welcome change from the air-conditioned houses of the city.
Skiers and snowboarders who want vacations with fresh powder have an avalanche of options this winter. Jewish ski trips abound for teens to 40-somethings of all skill levels.
Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust-survivor-turned-Nazi hunter who always spoke of justice, not vengeance, is dead at 96.
Wiesenthal died in his sleep at his home in Vienna, his office announced Tuesday. Working with a small staff from his cramped three-room office, Wiesenthal sifted through tens of thousands of documents and followed countless leads, compiling archives that helped bring some 1,100 Nazi criminals to justice.
Josh Fields, 8, of Thousand Oaks, won the \”My Amazing Summer\” essay contest.
He wins a gift certificate to the store of his choice.
A group of 25 campers from Ramah of California\’s pilot summer in 1955 returned to camp this summer to kick off a yearlong celebration of Ramah\’s 50 years on the West Coast. The camp officially opened in 1956.
Back then, there were 62 campers and 24 staff members. Tuition for the 10 days was set at $56.16 — with scholarships available. Today, there are 1,275 campers at the Ojai location, just down the road from the original campsite and a four-week session costs $3,120.
Rabbi Jacob Pressman, director of the camp that first summer, and assistant director Miriam Wise were among the delegates this summer. Rabbi Daniel Greyber, current director, presented the two with an award of recognition for their service.
The alumni toured the camp and then spent the evening in a singalong with current campers. Young campers and alumni alike were touched and amazed to hear that they knew the same camp songs, some of them authored by the adult guests.
Mark Worland — six-foot-something, dressed in tight black and skinhead bald — grabs Navid by the arm.
\”Come with me!\” he barks.
\”No!\” screams Navid, barely 5-feet tall.
Navid throws himself on his back, locks the bottom of his feet to Worland\’s knees, and shields his face and head from Worland\’s flailing fists.
\”Great job,\” says Worland, a self-defense specialist, shaking Navid\’s hand and helping him up, as Navid\’s friends applaud.
This self-defense class is part of a repertoire of life skills that Navid and his peers are learning at Independent Living Skills, a summer program for developmentally disabled adults run by Etta Israel Center, a mid-Wilshire nonprofit for people with special needs.
After a successful career with the country\’s top basketball team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Aulcie Perry, 54, opened summer basketball clinics for children 7 to 14 years old in Tel Aviv. And he\’s about to open another one — a camp set up to attract teens from all over the world, especially observant Jews.
Teva Adventure offers a variety of wilderness programs enabling Jewish travelers to develop outdoor skills while keeping Shabbat and kashrut. While backpacking, hiking, mountain climbing and fishing, participants learn Jewish perspectives on the outdoor world. Programs for 14- to 19-year-olds include Rocky Mountain Teen Adventure and Derech Hateva in Israel.
I am a big fan of camp. Every summer from 1973 on, I packed my trunk and headed to Malibu. Camp Hess Kramer shaped my teen years and reinforced my Jewish identity. It was my second home from age 12 to 22, and to this day, whenever I catch a whiff of pancakes frying in hot oil on a griddle, I close my eyes and return to camp. My life revolved around those precious summer months. If somebody offered me a job at camp today, I\’d roll up my sleeping bag and hop on the bus.
\”Rescued From The Reich: How One of Hitler\’s Soldiers Saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe,\” by Bryan Mark Rigg, Yale University Press, 2004.
When a German army officer trawled the streets of Warsaw in 1940 looking for Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher rebbe, people either pleaded ignorance or ran away in fear.
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