But Jewish overnight camp is not about surviving the hairy chicken, the shortage of hot water or the mettlesome mosquitoes. No, Jewish summer camp signifies nothing less than the survival of American Jewry. Our grandparents and great-grandparents didn't need Jewish summer camp. But life in America is different. Here Jews live in a more integrated and secularly seductive environment.
Alienation is one of the biggest problems facing today's Jewish children.
At camp, my sons experience Judaism with their heads, their hearts and their hands. He and his bunkmates are Israeli soldiers on a dangerous mission, cutting through treacherous enemy territory to find the hidden candy. No one talks in amorphous, self-serving platitudes. Rather, my son and his friends learn about the mitzvot of preserving the earth and of being kind to animals. They learn about obligations, commanded by God, that are absolute and enduring.