After filling out two blue books worth of information and medical history on my 1st grader, and after paying a year’s writer salary (okay five), this summer my son will spend three weeks at the same Jewish day camp I attended throughout grade school. Jewish day camp holds no comparison to Jewish overnight camp–it merely serves as the gateway. The gateway to Cool Jews.
Growing up in Madison, Wisconsin in the 1980s, temple and summer camp provided the main exposure to my fellow Jews. We saw each other at Hebrew school, Sunday School, and spent our summers on the “shores” of Lake Monona for Red Cross swimming and capture the flag. A couple of us went to the same school, and took turns representing the tribe during Dreidel season, with a tacit understanding among us—Hebrew sounded really weird and we’d rather not ccchhhhuhhh in mixed company. (Except Naomi, bless her heart, who played her acoustic guitar in front of the whole school for Fine Arts Week, strumming and baseboard slapping through which 1960’s era Israeli folk song I can’t recall. Choose one from your ipod favorites.)
The Jews I grew up with and went to day camp with seemed more like third cousins at the kids’ table than actual friends. We were familiar and nice enough, but only because DNA and parental mandate required it.
Enter overnight camp. The summer after fourth grade I packed my Peanuts sheets and sleeping bag into my trunk (or “footlocker” as my Dad called it), I put my man’s v-neck undershirt on backwards, paired it with my faux-Ocean-Pacific Hawaiian shorts, squeezed some DippityDo onto my hair feathers, and landed at one of many summer camps run by the Union for Reform Judaism.
As I hugged my Dad goodbye, I noticed other kids sprinting from their their cars—barely slapping their parents high five in their fervor to greet one another. They embraced each other with the passion of soldiers reuniting with their families. Counselors cheered and chanted without even a whiff of embarrassment over congregating in large numbers and singing Hebrew songs at the top of their lungs.
I had just entered the habitat of The Cool Jews.
These Jews! They hailed from exotic places—Evanston and Wilmette, Highland Park, Northbrook, Skokie and Edina. Some of them spoke Hebrew fluently. They not only knew their “Baruch Ata Adonais” and didn’t mumble the rest, but also knew the extended directors cut versions of prayers that went on for so long any network would’ve required two commercial breaks. They added flourishes–harmonies and table claps–even covert jokes!
Not only would camp prove a Hebrew language immersion, but also a Cool Jew Immersion. The Cool Jews told tales of private Jewish Day schools, and public school calendars revolving around the Jewish calendar. So many Jews lived in these enclaves with magical places called Bennigans, The Gap, and Target, they had to close the public schools on Yom Kippur. Cool Jews wore clothes by the name of ROOTS, and their arms boasted multiple swatch watches. The girls shaved their legs like professionals and threw themed Bat Mitzvahs with hired entertainment and caricature artists. Most notably, MORE THAN ONE CUTE BOY EXISTED AMONG THEM.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gemmawh/5441345340/
I fell in love with these Jews, and longed to be among them by year two. I didn’t know what a Hard Rock Café was, but dammit if I wasn’t going to find a way into one of those t-shirts. I made mental notes—say “amazing” often and with conviction, get a necklace of my Hebrew name–or at the very least get my hands on one of those fashionable Soviet Refusnik bracelets. The Lance Armstrong cancer “LiveStrong” bracelet equivalent for 1980s Jews, kids wore the names of Soviet Jews refused emigration status on metal bracelets to demonstrate our solidarity and accessorize-ability.
Each summer I emulated The Cool Jews, and along the way I formed a Jewish Identity–at first their Jewish identity. Regardless of how much I focused on the aesthetics of these Coolio Jewlios, being immersed in a wholly-Jewish experience for the summer drew out a sense of pride about my otherness I’m not so sure would’ve been cultivated otherwise. Spending the summer where I didn’t feel like an outsider due to my heritage, and moreover where being Jewish was celebrated and practiced all day and every day, I slowly became more confident about being Jewish at home and all year round.
My overnight summer camp days vanished when Comedy and Tragedy became my Thespian lovers in college theater (and let’s all Baruch Atah Adonai that I never got them tattooed on my nethers). Most of those camp friendships lasted only as long as the fashion trends I so admired and TJMaxx-emulated, but camp with The Cool Jews left me with a strong Jewish identity and pride for my people.
Thank you Cool Jews, I hope my sons walk among you one day. Bring on the camp forms!
About Ann Imig
“Evanston and Wilmette, Highland Park, Northbrook, Skokie and Edina.” Ha, I know all of those places. Edina the cake-eaters. I’ve attended more Bat Mitzvahs in my life then Baptisms.
Growing up Christian in Highland Park with the cool Jews was hard for me because I never fit in. Which is why I loved attending summer camps for Polish children in WI. It was my tribe. And makes writing that check out for overnight camp for my kids a little easier.
Awesome post Ann!
Twitter Name: OHmommy
Thanks Pauline! I remember nodding and laughing through your 2009 keynote speech about Polish Camp–TOTALLY GETTING IT. I love it.
Twitter Name: annsrants
I have nothing to add to this post, but I liked it nonetheless.
Twitter Name: themuskrat
I spent many summers at GUCI in Indiana, a sister camp to yours, and I could have written this exact post. I’d go back there right now if they’d take me! And I can’t wait to send my children to Jewish overnight camp some day. Such an amazing experience!
Twitter Name: cherylstober
I too spent my summers at GUCI! My oldest boy will attend this summer and I can’t wait to take him. It will be my first time back at camp since 1987. I wonder whether any of my old campmates’ kids will be there with him.
I’m sure he will love it there. My first summer there was in 1989. The new director was our group leader back then! Have fun visiting!
Twitter Name: cherylstober
Thanks Muskrat. They had hot non-Jewish boys working in the kitchen. You would’ve had a blast.
LilMissBusy–Did you have a Refusnik bracelet? I couldn’t find any images online. What a piece of history.
Twitter Name: annsrants
No, a bit too young I think. But I remember the Roots clothing and stories of the glory of Target so well.
Twitter Name: cherylstober
Nothing about “working in the kitchen” and “a blast” goes together.
Twitter Name: themuskrat
This kitchen was vile–I worked in it. However the flirting that went on made up.
Twitter Name: annsrants
I was in one of those camps in Russia (back in the 90s). It really helped me build my identity as well. I am totally signing up my son, when he grows up, even if it costs me my whole salary :). Great post! I really enjoyed it. Thank You.
Twitter Name: 1ForeignMama
A whole salary is right, Irina. #OY
Twitter Name: annsrants
I love this… Especially that awesome photo of multiple Swatches… Seriously, those camps were a saving grace for me. And I continue on the dor l’dor tradition of payment plans for my own kids.
I love this and though I never went to overnight camp with my Jewish peers, I knew what I was missing. In the 70′s it wasn’t the thing to do, send your kids to overnight jew camp. But I know where you are coming from having met those cool Jews from Highland Park, Wilmette etc and New York when I went to school in Madison.
Ps I grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio close to Beachwood, the first suburb to close for the High Holidays.
Two things: a) I’m pretty sure the Beastie Boys went to your camp, and loving them as I did only made it harder to be a non-Jew, especially without a gold necklace with the Hebrew name for “Tracey” on it.
b) I loved this post so much, Ann. Hee!!
I went to a Jewish day school through fourth grade and had many Jews in my public school. I miss that feeling of belonging. I miss the shared cultural rituals.
I just loved this post.
MSTY / NFTY
My sister went to OSRUI, by the way… I started going to Kutz Camp in New York for my dose of the Cool Jews. My nerdliness and folk musicality there blossomed. As did my understanding of casual hookups and mild casual drug use.
I love how the cool Jew camp experience sounds so identical regardless of where you lived and which camp you went to. I went to Camp Harlam in the Poconos and still have friends from those days. My 3 kids now go to Greene – also a URJ camp here in Texas and I love hearing all their stories when they get home. Its so nostalgic! Costs us an arm and a leg but I’d give up just about everything to keep them going! My girls will love and identify with your post. Thanks!
Twitter Name: Mara Van Nostrand
Love this post! I grew up in a suburb of NYC so there were lots of fellow tribesmen around, but going to sleepaway camp in Maine In the earyl 80′s summer was the best. It wasn’t a Jewish camp per se, but all of us girls were Jewish ( yup, ALL GIRLS). We wore Dolphin shorts and Champion sweats, swatches and those black rubber bracelets, and had dances with the boys camps (also all Jews). We were mainly from the New York area nut there were quite a few from. Highland park and lake shore drive. One of my fellow campers moms actually made a documentary about it last year called “Camp Girls.” ahhh what memories…
I love this post! I grew up in Atlanta, so I was one of a few Jewish people in my class year after year, and I wondered where the rest of my people lived. I went on to Camp Barney Mednitz in Cleveland, GA, where the rest of the Southern Jewish population congregated during the summer which made me very happy and it was an incredible experiene. But for me, Young Judea changed my life. I started in a small group of Zionists when I was a Junior and went on to Jewish sleepaway camps in NY and then to Israel for my freshman year of college. The experience changed my life and I came out of my shell in every sense of the word
Even though I’m Greek Orthodox, I’ve always felt close to the Jewish people I know and am friends with, and same with my family. There is something so very familiar about how we are raised.
Also, the swatch watches, my God. I had so many. God only knows where they are now…
I cannot keep up with the awesomeness of the comments.
YES nerdliness, folk songs, and most importantly belonging.
Twitter Name: annsrants
Ann – you always get the exact essence of the feelings from those days just right. I wasn’t lucky enough to go to overnight camp – being an only child – my parents were so overprotective. But my cousin went every summer and I was so jealous! She was a super cool Jew with lots of hot Jewish boyfriends from camp.
The only thing I got to do was go to these overnight Shabbatones (Shabbat weekends) with NCSY. Super Jews for sure but not so cool – a bit more nerdy for sure. I went to Hebrew Academy til 8th grade. I can relate well to the fluent hebrew and songs/jokes over the “extended version” prayers.
Oy vey – the swatch watches! I also remember those Russian jewry bracelets.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I look forward to an equally fun post about Pesach!
I love this post and it is me. Chalitzim in 1981, i married a habonim boy from camp tavor and we called it a “mixed marriage” so now our kids go to Camp JRF and argue with their friends on FB the merrits or different jewish camps, but have not yet learned the magnificent unverisality of progressive jewish summer camps.
My brother went to Camp Tavor and has built a life in Israel.
I can vouch for the fact that Habonim boasts even COOLER JEWS than URJ. I am still a little in love with all of my brother’s camp friends.
Twitter Name: annsrants
Wow, Ann. You’ve got me wondering if I was any one’s “Cool Jew”. I grew up in the Highland Park of Washington DC–there must have been some Hagerstown, Maryland Jews who thought I was the cats meow.
I was a bit before Roots and refusnik bracelets, but I sure knew what to do with a bottle of sun-in.
Did you go to Camp Louise, by chance? I worked there for a year (I was dating a boy who’d gone to Airy for his entire childhood, so he convinced me to work at Louise while he was at Airy so that we didn’t have to spend the summer apart). I was not surprised to have over half my bunk come from Potomac and Pikesville, but I was surprised at how many campers came down from Long Island and NJ to spend a month or two in the boondocks of Maryland!
Twitter Name: MamaKaren
How funny, Camp Louise–my Mom went there in, it must have been the 40s and 50s, I guess.
I escaped Potomac for many a 70s and 80s summer to West Virginia (it really is “Almost Heaven”). The Timber Ridge Camps–Greenbriar and Teen Town to be specific.
My best friend was from nearby Bethesda, but I never saw her during the school year–it was a magical summer friendship. That’s what camp is all about :)
I have no doubt you were someone’s Cool Jew Sari.
I mean you’re BLOND for Chrissakes.
Twitter Name: annsrants
“These Jews! They hailed from exotic places—Evanston and Wilmette, Highland Park, Northbrook, Skokie and Edina”
HA! I *may* have grown up in one of those exotic places. I *may* even live in one of those exotic places now.
I probably went to high school and/or college with half of those people in your OSRUI picture. Quite a few of them have that same picture posted on their Facebook page.
Great post!
Twitter Name: DrLori71
What a wonderful read! My husband is Jewish (although not practicing) and I am not. We have a 7 month old baby and I know his parents are concerned that she will not be exposed to Judaism. Perhaps I should send her off to Cool Jew camp when she’s old enough!
Yes, yes! I totally get it! I didn’t discover the coolness of Jews until I went to a college that had to close for Yom Kippur, where it was cool to have Shabbat dinner at Hillel. That was where I learned to appreciate the subtle connections between Jews coming from entirely different corners of the world. That’s the bond I want for my kids.
So I’m a little jealous because I didn’t have The Cool Jew upbringing that you did; but I hope to give it to my children. I know lots of people who went to camps similar to yours and always heard it was a phenomenal experience. Maybe they need one for grown up Jews, too. Maybe I could even dig up my old Swatches to wear?
;-)
Twitter Name: erinmargolin
Only a matter of time until someone I dated at camp or one of my siblings dated at camp comments on this post.
Twitter Name: annsrants
And I was the Cool Jew who didn’t like Jewish camp, but when to camp where 75 percent of the girls were Jewish. But since I now live in a place where there aren’t many Jews, it is my mission for my girls to love Jewish summer camp! Oh, and I’m from one of the aforementioned places as well … Great post!
Twitter Name: Laura Weisskopf Bleill
Love this post—it bring back such memories—I grew up as a Cool Jew, in Miami Beach and went to Cool Jew camp in the Borscht Belt. My kids had the opposite experience growing up in a small town where they both went to Christian schools—so I tried to give them a little Cool Jewishness at summer camps.
Just wait till they’re old enough to go on a Birthright trip to Israel as one of my kids just did. Guaranteed to make any kid really appreciate being Jewish.
i am not a cool jew, but very close to them. I finally left USSR back in 1991. Such a great post, thanks for sharing!
I will be a Tzofim Madricha at OSRUI this summer, and it will be my tenth summer at OSRUI. Your article was humorous and honest, I loved it! Camp is such a fantastic place to explore Judaism and feel 100% comfortable with it. I know your son will have an amazing summer because the staff this year (as it is every year) is amazing.
I was at OSRUI for seven years. My son is just 7, so he goes to a local Jewish day camp–the Jewish summer camp gateway drug ;)
I’d love to send him to OSRUI some day.
Twitter Name: annsrants
Ann,
I love this! It’s sooooo true!! I went to girl scout camp and Jewish camp and I’m still friends with people from my Jewish camp. There’s just something about being among other Jewish kids and knowing that it’s cool to be Jewish. Really appreciate this post!
Twitter Name: saving4someday
Until 9th grade, I lived in a Florida community that was heavily Jewish and I was always so envious of the Jewish kids with their Hebrew school and Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and JCC activities. Even though many were my good friends, it was a club in which I’d never be a member *sob*
I love the pix, by the way! We must be close in age judging by the fashions, big hair and Swatchapalooza on that arm!
Twitter Name: izzymom
I’m 36. I’m also awake at 4:30 am. boo.
Twitter Name: annsrants
Great post. I’ve already shared this all over the place. I grew up in one of the Cool Jew towns and even though our school has few Jews, they still get off Yom Kippur and one day for Rosh Hashanah.
If we manage to buy a house one of these days, I hope your family will drop down for a Shabbat dinner.
I’m not sure how this applies beyond Chicago and Midwest, but there is an A-MAZING program that provides generous amounts of funding for first-time (and sometimes 2nd time) Jewish Overnight Campers. See
http://www.jewishcamp.org//one-happy-camper/
for details.
Overnight camp is still pricey, but this is going to help us this summer and I know several friends who have benefited as well.
Twitter Name: renovatorkim
Kim, thanks for sharing!!! That is a great resource to know about.
Twitter Name: annsrants
This post is perfection.
I’m an alum of UAHC Camp Harlaam myself, although my time was over a decade before yours. I remember worrying about having my period on Shabbat, because we had to wear white pants to Friday evening services.
What a stupid memory…
LOVE this, Ann! You not only captured the era, you captured my heart as you figured out what this meant to you and will to your little boy!
I have to get in on this. I went to Camp Ramah in California as a camper and a counselor and worked at Ramah in Canada.
Spent a thousand years in USY and worked as a youth director too.
And now Jewish Day School tuition is kicking my ass but damn I love being able to pass some of this on to my kids.
I remember the kids from Skokie, Highland Park and Buffalo Grove. I may be an LA boy but I have a mother who went to New Trier and ten thousand relatives in Chicago.
Side note- Pesach cleaning is killing me. Almost time for our week of Atkins and constipation. Good times, no really I mean it. Kugel, brisket et al.
Twitter Name: thejackb
Ha! Ann! You so nailed it. First of all, I’m from Highland Park. Most people I knew went to camps full of Jews in Eagle River, WI, but they weren’t Jewish camps. It was sort of a strange thing when you think about it. But my husband went to Ramah and swears he knew kids from HP. So I believe both of you. HOWEVER, living in Edina now, there are seriously no Jews. Maybe a few–namely my family. ;) And of course now my kids go to day school and will go to Jewish camp and will totally be those kids pounding the table during birkat (who I thought were so strange when I got to WashU and met all those Jewish camp/day school Jews for the first time!)
Look how this post is making all of us talk about ourselves. Sorry–I couldn’t resist either.
Great post!
Twitter Name: NinaBadzin
It is Amazing how much of yourself seems to already exist inside you.
I remember the first time I went to South America.
I had never been there before, but I felt it to be HOME.
My people, my people…I embarrassed the heck out of my family. But, still, yeah, “my people, my people, take me to my people.”
Twitter Name: gdrpempress
Night camps are always great than day camps. Great to read this blog.
Well, this is making Memorial Drive Methodist’s Confirmation Camp in Houston, Texas look pret-ty stiff. All we did was swat skeeters and play kickball.
Awesome post, Ann.
~ A.
Twitter Name: AnnaLefler
Depending on your age, you may have gone to camp with my husband. Which freaks me out because no one liked him.
Ojibwa?
Twitter Name: TamingInsanity
First, “Coolio Jewlios”. Heh heh heh. Secondly, I went to one Christian sleep-away camp in my youth. It was for seven days. I cried in homesick anguish for six. But I did make a sit-upon and a cross out of yarn and sticks. Neither of which made me stop crying in homesick anguish. I just sat-upon, weeping for my marginally Catholic parents, my somewhat demon-possessed sister, and my certifiably insane dalmatian. Thanks for the memories.
Fantastic post. As always.
Love this. I am a Greene Family Camp alum in Texas – and now my daughter is going there. SUCH a bizarre feeling to run into everyone you went to camp with each summer.
Truth be told, though? We are all jealous and would love to come back again.
And I love a good “refusnik bracelet” reference on a Wednesday. Awesome.
Twitter Name: outsidevoice
Someone remembers the bracelet! *validation*
Twitter Name: annsrants
Having went to college with a very high Jewish population, I remember desperately wishing I were part of the tribe. Like your Coolio Jewlios, these people were very cool. Like…Steve Madden-shoe-and-Northface jacket-wearing. Sigh. The closest I got was having a crush on this guy in the Jewish fraternity.
Loved the post – and the glimpse at your past!
Twitter Name: theflyingchlupa
This post is perfection.
It makes me wish I was Jewish. I never fit in at the WASPy camps my parents sent me to, no matter how many Swatches I stacked on my wrist.
-Ellie
Amazing, perfect, and beautifully written. As an OSRUI gal, from Skokie, I appreciated every comment. Thanks!!!
Dude. I am jealous. I never had a cool camping experience like that. :( I want to be Jewish and 14, too!
Twitter Name: justanothermom
Coolio Jewlios. Awesome.
Love this, Ann.
Twitter Name: claritychaos
Awesome. I’m not Jewish and I never went to summer camp, but this all reminds me of my rich, Jewish friend Jackie Phillips. She was always clad in Benetton, Camp Beverly Hills or Naf Naf and she was COOOOOOL. I didn’t know how to dress because I was attending Catholic school and was forced to wear a uniform. Jackie taught me that it was cool to wear two tank tops at the same time and to sport many, many rubber bangles. I didn’t pull it off the way she could. She had such confidence…
Oy Vey. Too funny. I am shiksa who many years ago dated a cool Jew. If there were such things in Texas. Great post.
Twitter Name: southmainmuse
ben went to guci!! he’s good friends with the director’s younger son. now that we’ve moved to arizona, we’ll have to search for overnight camps out west. there’s a camp in colorado, i think it’s livingston, that we might look into. now, i didn’t go to overnight camp, so it’ll be a new experience for me to send my babies away. at least my first kids are twins & will have each other the first time out.
I grew up in an overwhelmingly Christian area, but I knew the Cool Jews from all of my Gifted & Talented classes, which were probably about 30% Jewish. I was so jealous of them because Judaism seemed interesting and historic and worldly, where Christian students just seemed boring with their constant bible study. Also? Bar and Bat Mitzvahs – what kid doesn’t want to get showered with gifts when they are 13?
Twitter Name: suebob
I worked as a lifeguard at a Jewish day camp near Montreal and was the camp shiksa. :P My mom also worked as the camp nurse at a Jewish overnight camp, so I guess it runs in the family.
Three years I spent dating guys whose mothers would never let them marry me…oh well, it was fun!
Twitter Name: phdinparenting
Wow what an amazing piece! I went to OSRUI in 99 and I can relate to everything you say! I grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan… aka Dutch Christian Mecca, so I ALWAYS felt like an outsider. Even when I was amongst the kids I went to Sunday School with, it was kind of an unspoken agreement that we don’t talk about anything relating to being Jewish (to avoid the usual ignorant comments like ‘you’re a Jesus killer! I’m telling teacher, I’ll have you know, she’s a very good Christian and won’t appreciate having a Jesus killer in her class’.
When I went to Jew camp, I finally felt like being Jewish was actually cool! ‘This one time, at band camp…’ was quickly replaced with ‘jew camp’ and it seemed to be all I could talk about.
One of the most interesting parts of this post is your reference to the refusenik bracelets. I emigrated to the USA from Russia in 1989. The reason I am here in America today could very well be because of those fashionable bracelets. The human rights movement played a huge part in Soviet Jews being able to emigrate. Especially the efforts made in the US, since Gorbachev was so eager to improve relations in the west.
Thanks for your awesome comment Julia. I got married in 1999, so I’m thrilled to hear how as much as things change they stay the same.
Fortunately many of us were educated either at Camp or at Temple about the refusnik situation, and conscious or not those bracelets were perfect teen marketing. Many kids “twined” their bar/bat mitzvahs with kids the same age in the USSR–acknowledging the religious freedom many of us took for granted. It wasn’t until I was much older–of course–that the magnitude of the situation (especially occurring SO RECENTLY) sunk in.
Thanks for reading!
Twitter Name: annsrants
Hey, I sent my kid to GUCI in July. He had an asthma attack; they failed to diagnose or treat it; they lost his rescue inhaler; they sent him home terribly ill; and they take no responsibility for the whole affair. It has become a bad camp.
Here’s the story: http://dinnersbyjodi.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-happened-to-josh-at-camp-july-2011.html
Please read and ask me any questions you may have. People need to be aware that their children could be at risk.
I’m sorry to hear you had such a terrible experience at your Son’s camp.
What a shame. So glad he is okay now.
Twitter Name: annsrants
It’s so nice to see that other people who learn to spell Oconomowoc can still turn out ok. :)
That, my friend, is entirely subjective.
Twitter Name: annsrants
:)
I love this article. Thanks, Ann.
Thanks Nicole!! Congrats on your success–just checked out your site.
Twitter Name: annsrants
Interesting post and comments. I also went to Jewish Summer Camp in the 80′s and had a completely different experience. Mine was in California and run by horrible militant Zionists who made kids dress up like “Palestinians” and pretend to spit on the “Jewish” kids. It was basically a lot of “Cowboys and Indians” activities for a week that I didn’t understand until years later. I knew it was wrong at the time and the counselors were all creepy and way too into, but I felt like I couldn’t say anything because I thought the other kids identified with it. It wasn’t until nearly 20 years later that my friend and I talked about it openly with each other. She had the same feelings I did but was afraid to show it. We both swore never to send our kids to any Jewish camp, even the “good” ones where people just pretend to share DNA. It’s all a farse.