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The Summer Camps Issue August-15-2007
Forging New Ground: Bringing Together Muslims and Jews in LABy MALKA HAYA FENYVESI and AZIZA HASAN, Co-Coordinators, NewGround Project Reprinted by permission of SocialAction.com
"We've learned from past dialogue efforts that simply talking about similarities and differences doesn't move hearts or change minds," said Progressive Jewish Alliance Executive Director Daniel Sokatch. "We're taking the next step by bringing committed people from both communities together to learn about and reflect with 'the other' - and then we're putting them to work on fixing the problems that impact their families and their neighborhoods here in Los Angeles."
On March 8, 2007, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council President Eric Garcetti proudly joined with PJA (Progressive Jewish Alliance) and MPAC (Muslim Public Affairs Council) to launch NewGround: A Muslim Jewish Partnership for Change. It was a memorable morning at the Tom Bradley Tower of City Hall, as we gathered together to bless, initiate, and celebrate NewGround.
NewGround grew out of intensive and extensive research, planning, and design based on exploring years of Muslim-Jewish efforts and relationships in the Los Angeles area. Based on the hard work and devotion of many in the community, NewGround is an innovative long-term program focused on building meaningful interfaith relationships and fostering a strong sense of civic engagement among LA's Muslims and Jews. The program engages participants in a 10-month multi-stage process of education, reflection, skill-building, and civic engagement.
The program acknowledges the ever-shifting realities of the Middle East conflicts, but rather than allowing them to dictate the state of Muslim Jewish Relations in Southern California, NewGround strives to bring together Muslims and Jews to work for the betterment of the larger, interfaith community.
Our first cohort is comprised of 18 participants—nine Jews and nine Muslims ranging in age from 22 to 3, with diverse backgrounds. We are meeting bi-monthly through November 2007 for three hour sessions that include guest educators, reflection, skills building, and dialogue. We have already spent meaningful time exploring who the participants are and what propelled them to participate, in addition to learning and practicing communication skills, and studying about our individual faiths. In the coming months we plan to continue to strengthen skills, and to learn and talk together about ourselves, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, and pertinent issues, such as immigration and homelessness, facing Los Angeles.
For more information, please visit www.newgroundproject.org
Kids Build Jewish Identity at Ukraine CampBy ABIGAIL BIMMAN, CJN Intern Thursday, 16 August 2007 Reprinted by permission of Canadian Jewish News
ODESSA — Summer camp is the same worldwide: children can learn about themselves in fun and challenging ways, while making new friends and participating in various activities.
But 10,000 children and 2,000 college students who live in the former Soviet Union (FSU) are also building Jewish identity at camp.
The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) has been operating summer camps in the FSU for the past 16 years. The 70 camps that JAFI runs focus not only on building identity but also on serving as a base for Jewish involvement during the rest of the year.
On a recent JAFI-led press tour in Ukraine, a small group of journalists visited two of the four summer camps there.
The first camp was in Odessa, a city of one million with a rich Jewish heritage and history. The camp is dubbed “Artist’s City,” and is an eight-day overnight program for children aged six to nine. Over the summer, the camp runs three sessions and serves about 300 campers.
“The camp is a very big contribution to building identity,” said Natasha Voskovoinik, who has been the camp’s director for three summers.
“Not only because we are letting these kids know that because they have Jewish roots, they are part of a global identity, but we are also building their identity for something in themselves here and now.”
(Voskovoinik spoke in Russian through a translator, like most of the people interviewed for this article.)
This camp operates out of a run-down college-dorm-style building, in which campers in groups of 15, with three counsellors, shared their artistic creations and experiences with other groups.
Odessa campers enjoy lunch at the Jewish Agency for Israel’s summer camp. [Alexander Krivonosov photo]
Every drab common area and the children’s dorms were filled with bright, creative artwork, from sailboats with painted silk sails that represent the children’s dreams to decorated Hebrew letters.
“We will come back home very joyful, and have new games and be healthy. They have a doctor here,” said Sasha, 8, from Odessa.
Vova, also 8 and from Odessa, thought for a moment before he answered what he likes about camp.
“If we just hang around on the street, we will hang around and do nothing – here we learn,” he said. “We learn about Shabbat, and I love Shabbat.”
Both boys said that after this summer experience, they would call themselves Jewish before identifying as Ukrainian.
Of the 300 campers, Voskovoinik said that 40 per cent of them have never been to a JAFI camp and half of those have not had other Jewish exposure.
The Chabad movement also runs FSU summer camps, but Voskovoinik says that the two organizations are not in competition with each other. Many children go to both camps, and the groups try not to schedule them at the same time. There are also Hebrew day schools across Ukraine where children can get a Jewish education.
Maxim Peliansky, 19, is a counsellor at the Odessa camp. The local teen has worked in as many Jewish organizations and groups as he could find, but he said JAFI changed his thinking about how he can relate to children.
“Here I can be myself as a madrich,” he said, using the Hebrew word for counsellor. “At other organizations, I was strictly instructed as to content. Here I can express myself.”
All JAFI summer camps accept children who qualify under Israel’s Right of Return law, meaning that they must have at least one Jewish grandparent. There is an interview process before registration, so that children and parents understand the educational component of the camps.
JAFI camps serves both the secular and Orthodox communities, and camp food is kosher.
The camps are free for families. In co-operation with a number of sponsors, JAFI spends about $10 million a year on the camps, which works out to about $500 per child for a weeklong session.
The high rate of intermarriage in FSU can make growing up Jewish confusing. Some campers only recently learned about their Jewish heritage, and many Jews in FSU are unaware of their heritage.
An anecdote journalists heard on our visit involved a man who, when asked by a JAFI emissary if he was Jewish, flippantly replied, “No. My mother is Jewish, that’s all.”
On the subject of intermarriage, Vosovoinik said, “We have to not cancel their world because we can’t cancel a parent, but the world they get here can be part of it. We have to be very sensitive. It’s very complex.”
The second camp the journalists visited was an hour outside of Kharkov, a city with a population of almost two million people. This weeklong camp, for teens aged 13 to 17, revolved around the theme “Israel is Real.”
The week was loosely based around life in Israel, with programs such as an end-of-high-school exam about Israel, university day, army training and a “Yad Vashem” tour.
The reporters joined the campers for several sessions, including a “Fear Factor” evening program (based on the television show) and a tour of a fabricated but realistic-looking Yad Vashem. At a dance party/evening program, the children divided into groups and gave presentations on what Israel meant to them.
The intensity of these young people’s love for Israel came through in their presentations. They included song, dance, art, humour and speech to convey the message that Israel is, in fact, real.
“One goal of the camp is to create a Jewish identity with a multi-dimensional understanding of Israel as a crucial part of that identity for the next generation,” said Jan Friedman, JAFI’s education emissary for Kharkov and Donetsk, who runs the camp with her husband, Guy.
“The position of the camp is a very strong starting point – [campers] know it’s the beginning of a process, they really get the idea of continuation,” she said, adding that JAFI holds events for campers all year long at their Kharkov office.
Sasha Blitshtein, a madrich from Kharkov, understands the importance of recognizing and building Jewish identity among teens.
“Those who are here for the first time, they can be surprised at what they find, for good or for bad. Being Jewish can be something they don’t understand or accept, or, something that makes them different. And being different at this age is an important thing,” Blitshtein said.
The campers and madrichim agreed that being Jewish is a positive way to be different.
“I don’t show my Jewishness publicly, but if someone asks me to fill out a form, I’m proud to do it,” said Ella Karnitskaya, a 17-year-old Kharkov teen who recites the Shema every day and lights Shabbat candles with her mother.
“Other kids get piercings. This is my way of being different.”
Katya Varkova, 24, is an Israeli madrich who made aliyah from Kharkov in 2000 and is back for camp. She said it’s important to focus on Jewish identity, not only in the camp but also at home during the year.
“In the small cities with no Jewish community, how free do they feel to express their identities?” she asked.
Many Ukrainian villages and towns have tiny Jewish communities, and many cities also have relatively small Jewish populations, which might naturally lead some Jews to think about aliyah.
JAFI’s goals focus on nation-building and identity-building, with Israel as a central goal to that identity. But they don’t push aliyah on anyone.
“I personally made aliyah and believe Jews can and should – but I don’t put it into the program as a message,” said Voskovoinik, who left Riga in 1993 as a teen to study in Israel.
“I don’t think there is a division – being Jewish means Israel. I believe that, but I don’t tell children and their parents,” she said.
Friedman said that “the goal is to make Israel a significant part of identity.
“This can be through aliyah, but within the overall goal of building community. Israel will be part of the community here. We really want them to make a rational choice from thinking from inside their identity.”
Friedman made aliyah from Belarus in 1990.
Several of the counsellors and campers were considering or definitely planning to make aliyah, and most want to visit Israel.
The idea of aliyah can create a confusing tension with the goal of building a Jewish community in Ukraine for young Jews.
“That is the million-dollar question,” said Rabbi Moshe Moscovitz in his Kharkov synagogue office. He came to Ukraine from Venezuela 17 years ago to head the Chabad synagogue, the only shul in the city. He arrived with one child and now has nine.
“The community is much more stable than it used to be, but everyone has at the back of their minds about going to Israel,” he said.
“I don’t tell them to go – I’m much more passive. I believe they should go, but they should come to the decision in a conscious way.”
The message can be a confusing one for the younger generation.
“Community building is postponed because community leaders keep making aliyah,” 19-year-old Edward Dolgin at the Kharkov camp summarized.
“I plan on making aliyah in two years, so it’s not so important,” he said.
“Definitely, there is a Jewish future here,” said Voskovoinik, who is clearly passionate about the work she does to further that aim.
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