Summer Camp Young Judaea Camps Update

The Sprout Camps

The Sprout Camps had quite the unusual summer! Once we all departed the NYC office and began working remotely, we brainstormed how we could best engage all of the Sprout Camps families during their time stuck indoors. From setting up bunks zoom meetings, to community wide virtual Kabbalat Shabbat’s,  Havdallah and Rikkud sessions, book clubs and virtual escape rooms, the Sprout Camps were there to support our families during this difficult time and provide meaningful, fun activities.

To stay connected with our Sprout Camps this summer we offered Sprout BaBayit  a FREE 4 week virtual program. Over the span of four weeks, we offered more than 25 virtual classes, including fitness, cooking, art, podcasting, virtual tours of Israel and so much more. With the help of more than 25 volunteer staff members, Sprout BaBayit was a tremendous success, engaging over 100 different Sprout Camps families every single day.

In the month of August over the course of 2 weeks, the Sprout Camps staff delivered special edition – Sprout Camps 2020 T-Shirts to families throughout the Northeast.  We popped up in North Jersey, Metro West NJ, Brooklyn, Long Island and Westchester. We were so excited to see our campers (from a distance!) and be able to give them a little piece of Sprout to take home and wear throughout the year.

We are proud to announce that for Rosh Hashana we are partnering with Temple Israel of Northern Westchester to produce a socially safe service at our Sprout Westchester campus.  The event is open for anyone to attend and will have shofar blowing, taschlich and a family friendly service.

For our fall program, we are offering Socially Distant Sundays at Sprout Westchester. These are courses for campers age K-5 in a safe outdoor environment led by professional instructor. Classes include art, fitness and nature.

Camp Tel Yehudah

Camp Tel Yehudah had a very successful summer of TY-fi, our three-week physically distant, socially together online session, including a special construction of the camp grounds in Minecraft!

Registration is now open for 2021 which includes our new 6-week Full Session and three 2-week Blocs.

We are also getting ready to launch Gesher TY and Gesher Israel, a new five-week opportunity for current 11th graders to spend two weeks at TY and three weeks in Israel at one amazing cost.  See more information here and stay tuned for further updates!

Camp Judaea

Camp Judaea’s registration for 2021 is OPEN! With 485 campers already enrolled, we are eagerly looking forward to returning to our beautiful summer home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Hendersonville, NC.

When the reality set in that our summer season would not be able to take place in person, our team of professionals, with the support of our volunteer board members and a talented handful of college-aged staff, put together a calendar of virtual events and programs to keep our camp community connected. In preparation for the summer, our madrichim for virtual programs participated in training and program development presented by The Nachshon Project. Each Monday and Wednesday, our campers met with their madrichim online for activities and games infused with Israel and Jewish education. In keeping with tradition, our Bogrim campers and Offarim campers were paired off and participated in BO programming each Friday– it was heartwarming to witness the high-school campers teaching the younger campers about CJ traditions and already exhibiting such wonderful leadership skills. Every weekend, our community joined us for either a peaceful Kabbalat Shabbat service or an energy-packed Shira, Havdallah, and Rikkud experience. On Sunday nights, parents and campers battled it out through games of Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Bingo, and Trivia. We were joined one weekend by the Ben Gurion Heritage Institute for a virtual tour of David Ben Gurion’s home in the Negev.

Camp Judaea received a generous amount of love and support from the CJ family this summer. Members of the CJ community shared words of encouragement and support, messages of fond memories of summers past, sentiments of excitement for future summers, and two campers even made Camp Judaea the beneficiary of their tzedakah project. Lila and Gideon from Miami, FL decided to make and sell masks as their tzedakah project to celebrate their B’nai Mitzvah. They designed masks with the Camp Judaea logo and made some with tie-dye designs! After creating a website and commercial, they made their masks available for purchase and were able to raise over $1212 that they donated to CJ.

As we shift our efforts to planning for Summer 2021, we will absolutely continue to find and create opportunities to connect with the CJ community this year. We can’t wait to finally celebrate our 60th summer — together — at Camp Judaea!

Camp Young Judaea Midwest

Camp Young Judaea Midwest Summer 2021 registration is now open! We are excited that our Session 1 and Session 2 will now offer four Shabbat experiences each!

During summer 2020, CYJ Midwest transitioned to our Virtual Explorers program, which included:

• Seven weeks of virtual programming
• Eighteen dedicated staff from nine different states and Israel connecting with our campers
• More than 30 activities offered including Top Chef: Israel Edition, krav maga, camp trivia, scavenger hunts, escape rooms and more
• Engagement from over 50 current and new familiesWhat’s Happening for the 2021 season?

• Bigger Archery Range and new location
• New shoreline area and dock exclusively for fishing
• New agriculture program for 2021 to include chickens and gardens
• Updated tiyul (camping) program for all ages
• All camper bunks have a new paint facelift
• New bike trails within camp
• Third speedboat added to the waterski and tubing program

Looking forward to seeing you at camp in Summer 2021!

Camp Young Judaea Texas

Registration is now open for CYJ Texas Summer 2021! This coming year, we have increased our 3-week program to 3 1/2 weeks.  Thats more CYJ fun for all!

Just like the year 2020, our summer at CYJ Texas was an unusual one! After we announced that we would not be opening in-person camp this summer, we quickly transitioned to planning for our Summer Virtual Experiences. We had a fantastic team of summer tzevet who put together six weeks of innovative and fun online programming for our campers over Zoom. We went into the summer with over 200 campers registered! Some of our favorite programs were Jewish Celebrity Jeopardy, a virtual escape room, an all-camp Zoom carnival, and, of course, rikud. We were so lucky to partner with our friends in the Israeli Scouts and the Jewish Agency to bring the scouts and other Israeli staff in to run Israel education programs throughout the summer as well.

Another highlight of the summer was our “Shabbat in a Box” project. With the help of summer staff member Mia Raskin, we planned a Shabbat Across CYJ weekend for our community, with the option for our families to purchase a Shabbat box to enhance their Shabbat experience. The weekend consisted of a pre-Shabbat challah bake and Kabalat Shabbat service on Friday afternoon, and Shira Shketa, Havdallah, and Rikud on Saturday night. All these events were hosted on Zoom so the entire CYJ Texas family could join in on the fun. The box itself had ritual items such as Shabbat candles, a kiddush cup, a Havdallah candle, and some do-it-yourself projects such as a challah cover and spice bag making kit. We also curated an all-encompassing Shabbat packet that had Shabbat-friendly activities, discussion questions, and prayers to help guide families through the Shabbat weekend.

Now that we’re headed into the fall, we are in full-on planning mode for Summer 2021. We cannot wait to welcome our campers back through our gates next year!