Youth Groups
Cornwall had a number of active youth groups and organizations over the years. In 1924, one year before the Beth-El synagogue building was completed, Miss Esther Katz organized the Cornwall community's first Jewish youth group, a branch of Canadian Young Judaea. In the late 1930s, Mark Goldhamer launched a branch of the B'nai Brith youth group Aleph Zadik Alaph (AZA). Originally a fraternity for young men, AZA eventually joined with B'nai Brith Girls to form the B'nai Brith Youth Organization or BBYO. The young people met in each other's homes and from time to time organized exchanges with Potsdam, New York. They also had dances complete with an orchestra. The BBYO continued to organize social events over the years, such as the "Sweetheart Ball."
Jewish summer camp was an important way for young people to strengthen their identities and meet other Jews. Young Jews from Cornwall went to camps in Ontario or in the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal. For Sheila Whitzman, one camp experience was life-changing. At the age of 15, she was chosen to receive a two-week leadership training scholarship at Camp Hagshama near Perth. Here for the first time, she was exposed to a perspective on Jewish life that went beyond the "do's and dont's" of permitted and forbidden foods. For this teenager, the connections made at camp with Zionism and the meaning of being Jewish were so strong that they remained with her for the rest of her life.
Learning "what it meant to be a Jew"
Sheila Kastner Whitzman speaks about her life-changing experience at a Young Judea leadership camp.
Interview with Sheila Kastner Whitzman, 10 September 2007, Sharon Gubbay Helfer. OJA, Oral History #352.
Click here to watch the video
