Unfire: Unpacking the Jewish Camp Experience

The Miles Nadal JCC, 750 Spadina Ave, Toronto

For a complete program listing: www.mnjcc.org/tikkun

Paddling with friends, singing songs around the camp fire, cabin-fever and forming lifelong friendships are all part of the Jewish summer camp experience. How did your camp years form you? What stays with you after all these years? How was your Jewish camp experience a uniquely Jewish one? These and other ruminations, smores, camp pics and a sing-song around the “unfire” will be part of this late-night “evening program”.

Participants:

Ilana Hirt is Development Officer, Leadership Giving at the Multiple Scelerosis Society of Canada and former Manager of Jewish Life at the Miles Nadal JCC. She spent eight years as a camper in the Canadian Young Judaea movement camps, another seven as staff and four more years throughout her career as a professional in the Jewish camping and youth movement system.

Noam Katz is a Rabbi, singer-songwriter, storyteller and songleader for summer camps and congregations around North America. He currently serves as the Dean of Jewish Living at The Leo Baeck Day School. Noam grew up at URJ Eisner Camp in Great Barrington, MA, and has also spent summers at URJ Kutz and Camp George as a musician/educator.

David Koffman is an Assistant Professor of History at York University. He is a cultural and social historian of the modern Jewish experience, with expertise in Canadian and American Jewries. David spent 15 summers at Canadian Young Judea Camps in Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia.

This session was organized by the Ontario Jewish Archives, Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre