jewishatl

To be a leader means seeking the truth and speaking the truth. It means letting go of old pieties and embracing new realities. To be a leader means dialing down the voices that say “no, we can’t” and building a consensus to move ahead fearlessly.

In the process of leading Atlanta to become a thriving and connected 21^st century Jewish community, I am guilty of all of these behaviors. I know that in my enthusiasm to build a Jewish future that will undoubtedly look and feel very different from what we know, I have upset some people. And for that I seek forgiveness.

S’lach-li, forgive me, but Jewish America is in the midst of a massive generational shift in identity and practice. Pride in Jewish identity and Jewish spirituality is growing, but young Jews are increasingly likely to say that they have “no religion,” and that they feel little connection to the organized community.

I want everyone, across the entire lifespan, to be thrilled by Jewish life and to say that their identity gives meaning to life and shapes their actions.  So, I feel driven to create new pathways to engagement that launch Jewish journeys and spark Jewish possibilities. It feels urgent to me to broaden the ways we engage with Jews and their loved ones.

As this community tries out new ideas and innovations, I am aware that some people will experience a deep sense of loss. But we cannot let our collective anxiety paralyze or demoralize us.

Great things are happening in Jewish Atlanta!

Already we are becoming a community where agencies and individuals are collaborating and partnering to actualize bold ideas that benefit everyone. We are gathering in new ways and in new places. We are building a culture of innovation that invests in the creativity of changemakers and makes room to learn from failure. We are developing a relationship with Israel that is centered on its people, not its politics.

If I haven’t listened enough, if I haven’t been empathetic enough, forgive me. If I haven’t been fearless enough, I’ll admit, sometimes it’s easier to avoid delicate issues because of their divisiveness. Yes, I have big dreams. Yes, I am impatient. But in my soul, I am a servant of this wonderful Jewish community that opened its arms to me more than 45 years ago. And everything I do comes from a place of love.

Shanah tovah!

American Jews have created, perfected, and scaled the institution of overnight summer camp.
Now it’s time for Jewish Family Camp!
By Rabbi Miriam Burg, Jeremy J. Fingerman and Eric M. Robbins
This article originally ran in eJewish Philanthropy on September 5, 2019.

It was a Jewish trifecta when three passionate advocates for Jewish camp met on the shores of Lake Waloon this August to visit Camp Michigania, the 56-year-old family camp for alumni of University of Michigan. We were excited to see this legendary camp, explicitly designed and staffed for families, and considered the gold standard for family camp programing.

Camp Michigania isn’t fancy, yet it is deeply beloved. The cabins are basic, and all meals are held in a communal dining hall.  A mix of traditional sports, arts, fitness, and discussion forums keep adults and kids of all ages busy all day – or not!  You can opt out of events and just relax. We met families who’ve been attending for 30 years or more. We saw cars in the parking lot bearing Gania4 bumper stickers — which in Michigania-speak means, “We’re a 4^th Week Family” in Camp Michigania’s 11-week summer season. And we never saw a cell phone – only one building on campus has wi-fi.

While the three of us have different personal camp experiences, we’re absolutely on the same page about the immersive benefits of Jewish overnight camp. We know there is tremendous power in stepping away from daily life and returning year after year to the same place at the same time. So, we’ve informally joined forces to be advocates and evangelists for a new model of Jewish community-building and a serious communal investment in creating week-long Jewish overnight camps for families.

Rabbi Miriam Burg, whose family has attended Camp Michigania for 37 consecutive summers, is an educator and a long-time advocate for Jewish family camp. She recently co-created the Capital Camps Institute for Leadership and Learning to skill-up Jewish camp counselors. Her current priority is building and expanding Kibbutz Camp, as a new model for Jewish overnight camps for families.

Jeremy Fingerman is CEO of Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC). He spent formative summers at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin and for the last ten years of his professional life has expanded opportunities across North America for more kids to experience Jewish camp – both day and overnight — including new specialty camps.  FJC has identified family camp as an important growth element of its strategic plan.

Eric Robbins is President and CEO of Jewish Federation of Jewish Atlanta and the former director of Camp Twin Lakes, a camp for children with serious illnesses and life challenges. Eric was shaped by his own 18 years as a camper and staff member at Camp Barney Medintz and is a founder of Limmud Atlanta, which adopts a multi-generational family camp model.

We all agree that family life in America is overscheduled and isolating. Digital devices distract and distance us. Epic traffic and long commutes chip away at family time. Moms, dads, kids, teens and grandparents desperately need to carve out more down-time and rediscover each other. A joyful, immersive Jewish family camp can be a restorative island of sacred time where we put our devices away, talk face-to-face, and simply have fun together.

Fingerman notes that while a growing number of Jewish camps run family retreats before and after the summer season, opportunities to attract a broader range of families would result from offering “vacations” throughout the summer.

Burg adds that the idea of a dedicated Jewish overnight camp for families is “wholly different and impossible to create by simply adapting kids’ camps to serve the needs of families. “Singing the same songs with our children that we sang when we were first at camp, having grandparents and grandchildren making s’mores together, are powerful memory-making experiences, unique to family camp.”

When Robbins, a former camp director, thinks about family camp he stresses that weekends don’t cut it the way a week does. “For every day away, the benefits are exponential,” he says. “Immersive, week-long opportunities for families are what we envision.”

Think about it — all that really ties Camp Michigania families together is the University of Michigan. Now imagine the power of week-long retreats where connections are rooted in Jewish wisdom and rituals. Where food and language, holidays and songs, and traditions are the foundation for friendships. Where Shabbat is the highlight of the week. Imagine a place where your sense of belonging comes from being on “Team Judaism” and the wisdom of nearly 6,000 years of tradition. What a nourishing way for families to engage with one another and build community!

Who better to create new family camp than us? From Catskill bungalow colonies to early Settlement House camps, American Jews – more than any other group – have created, perfected and scaled the institution of overnight summer camp. No surprise to us that Camp Michigania’s longtime director is Jewish, or that lots and lots of Jewish families attend year after year.

As advocates, our next step is to create a prototype of the Jewish family camp we want to see. We know we’ll have to train staff to meet the special requirements of family programming. We know we’ll need to find a beautiful and accessible site somewhere that will work for all ages. But we also know American Jewish families have never needed it more!

If you’re interested in paddling along with us, please get in touch.

I’ve heard lots of wise folks say that your checkbook register — or to be more modern, your monthly e-statement — is the document that says everything about your values and priorities.

I agree.

And that’s why, at a time when “boutique” philanthropy and direct, person-to-person giving are ascendant, I want to make the case for the ancient Jewish model of collective philanthropy that benefits the whole. In our time, it’s the Jewish Partners Fund of Federation’s Community Campaign.

Community philanthropy is sacred in the Jewish tradition, and the custom of asking individuals for a set amount “per head” dates back to the second temple period. The sum of a half shekel was an offering that everyone, rich or poor, was asked to give so that all were equal in observing this mitzvah.

The call to find meaning and purpose in community and to serve others has driven the Jewish people to be exemplars of generosity, opportunity and justice. You’ll see generosity, justice and more when you take a look at Federation’s “checkbook register.” The report, viewable online, documents our values and priorities and details all the things your Campaign dollars do for our people in Atlanta and around the world.

The Jewish Partners Fund of the Community Campaign is about the collective impact that happens when many “shekels” work together.  Through Campaign, Federation and its partners launch Jewish journeys and educate all generations. Through Campaign we welcome all Jews and their loved ones to engage meaningfully with our community. Through Campaign we rise up to help ensure that no one falls through the cracks.

And . . . this year, thanks to an anonymous donor, for new or increased gifts to the Jewish Partners Fund, those dollars will be matched 1:1 up to $100,000.

If you have particular community interests, Campaign 2020 makes it possible to target additional projects. Through Targeted Philanthropy you can support PJ Library, Jewish Overnight Camping, and AgeWell Atlanta, a collaborative partnership that helps older adults and caregivers navigate the aging process. The Jewish Innovation Fund is yet another giving option to help advance new ideas and startups that support Jewish life in Atlanta.

I believe it is a fundamental privilege, unique to the Jewish people, and virtually encoded into our DNA, to prioritize the needs of the community. Last year communal generosity hit a milestone as Federation reached $19 million in philanthropic giving. Having surpassed the previous year by $1.5 million, we have set an ambitious goal of $20 million for Campaign 2020. I know we can do it, but only together.  I am so proud of all the ways we bring Jewish possibilities to life, and I urge you to make our dynamic, welcoming and caring Atlanta Jewish community your priority by giving generously to the Jewish Partners Fund of the Community Campaign.

Most of my “superpowers” come from having been a camper and staff member at sleepaway camp.  I’m totally serious.

Over eighteen summers at Camp Barney Medintz I learned countless “soft” and human skills that have benefited me my whole life.  And because it all happened so seamlessly and joyously at camp, I didn’t even realize how much I was learning.

At Camp Barney Medintz I learned how to really be a friend. When you live in a bunk with 12 other guys, you learn how to get along with, and eventually, how to love people who aren’t exactly like you.

I learned how to be leader. At the age of ten I put myself in charge of coordinating our cabin at clean up, cookouts, and even sneak outs!

I learned how to make my bed. Admiral William H. McCraw, a Navy SEAL, wrote a book called Make Your Bed: Little Things that Can Change your Life…and Maybe the World. He calls bed-making the way to start your day with a task completed. I agree!

I learned how to be a better communicator. As a camp counselor, I had to be sensitive to all the voices and opinions in my bunk.  I had to evaluate each kid’s maturity level and respond appropriately. I couldn’t lose my cool. Sometimes I had to be a disciplinarian, sometimes I had to be as diplomatic as King Solomon. Learning this as a teenager set me up for a lifetime of good listening.

I learned about hard work. Being on the kitchen crew, helping turn out three meals a day, and cleaning up after hundreds of kids, taught me everything about showing up and pulling my weight, even when the work is tedious. To this day I consider mastering the kitchen’s Hobart dishwasher one of my greatest accomplishments.

I learned to be brave, to try new things. Ana and I recently had a little dispute over whether or not there was a rope tied to the boat when we went tubing at Camp Barney, or if we just held on to the skiing handle. (I think there were two ropes.) Either way, having a boat pull you on the lake was a thrill that took courage for a little kid. There were plenty of other scary things that I found the freedom to try, and even to fail, at camp.

I created my first network. As a kid from Pittsburgh, attending Camp Barney was my introduction to Jewish Atlanta. The kids I met at camp and the staff members who believed in me, became my Atlanta Jewish mishpocha (family). It’s no accident that one day in Pittsburgh, I literally dropped out of my local college, drove to Atlanta and registered at Georgia State and made this city my home.

I am grateful for all these profound moments of growth that shaped me into the husband, father, and community leader I am today. For all the kids who are having a blast at overnight camp this summer, someday you’ll discover, as I did, that camp teaches deep and lasting life lessons.

I’m so proud of Federation’s ambitious plan to send more of our kids to Jewish overnight camp.  This year Federation allocated $866,961 in scholarships and grants to give kids the immersive, incredible experience of camp. That included:

• 593 unique campers went to camp
• 368 One Happy Camper incentive grants of up to $1,000
• 49 camps participating in the scholarship program

Camping is one of three targeted philanthropies for the upcoming 2020 Community Campaign. If your kids or grandkids are having a summer of personal growth, Jewish learning and sheer fun, I hope you’ll think about making a targeted gift to the fund. Your generosity is an investment in lessons that will last a lifetime.