20 Jul
Arts & Culture, Culture, Latest, Misc, Religion

No Gaga Here: Extreme Summer Camps in the Middle East

By Rebecca Borison While I grew up at a Jewish summer camp playing Gaga, kids growing up in slightly (read: very) different areas than me are partaking in slightly (read: very) different activities in summer camp. The Times of Israel recently published two separate articles on Extreme Summer Camps. The first article discusses a Hamas-run Gaza summer camp, where “activities include walking on knives, cleaning beaches and experiencing life as a security prisoner in an Israeli jail.” Five days later, the Times of Israel released a second article about a right-wing camp in Ramat Migron, where the girls learn “self-defense techniques, how to construct temporary dwellings and basic agriculture.” So we have two camps representing the extremes of Israelis and Palestinians. But let’s take a closer look at these camps. We’ll start with camp “We will live honorably”...

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06 Jun
Culture, Latest

Embracing Camp

Deprecated: mysql_connect(): The mysql extension is deprecated and will be removed in the future: use mysqli or PDO instead in /home/momentma/public_html/momentmag.com/wp-includes/class-wp-mysql.php on line 32 by Sheri Oppenheimer For many women, Jewish overnight camp was the place where we felt the most beautiful. There were no Spanx underneath our Shabbat dresses. We danced in the rain because our counselors told us that it made our hair soft. In the evenings, the mountain air would cool down our sun-kissed skin, and flashlights and campfires would illuminate us. Through all of the singing and dancing, do you ever remember not feeling like yourself? Worrying about what you looked like in your bathing suit? Feeling bloated? Camp was an enchanted place where we came alive. As soon as we got out of the car and waved goodbye to our parents on arrival...

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24 Aug
Culture

Adding a Little Color to Summer Camp

by Steven Philp For centuries Jews have been the target of damaging stereotypes; yet in our effort to battle unfavorable myths, sometimes we overlook our own assumptions concerning the Jewish community. Perhaps this oversight is what makes Camp Be’chol Lashon so extraordinary. Located in the forested hills of Marin County—a short 35 miles north of San Francisco—the summer camp seeks to expand the borders of the Jewish community, to allow Jews of color to see themselves as an integral part of world Jewry. According to a New York Times article, Be’chol Lashon—which translates to “In Every Tongue”—has done in two short years what many Jewish communities have failed to accomplish: make the Jewishness of Jews of color a statement of fact, rather than a question. “If there’s Christians of all colors and all kinds, and Muslims...

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