One of my favorite stories in life is Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. In the story, the main character is asked if he would try a new food. The dish was in the title, green eggs and ham – a combo for the ages. Once you get past the fact that the cuisine doesn’t prove to be as kosher as we all would like, you can really start to learn from this story. The only other character in the book, Sam, spends page after page pushing his friend to try this delicious treat and his friend just says, “I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam I am.” These words are so famous for a reason. These words help teach the important lesson that you don’t know if you like something until you try it.” Well, that couldn’t be much more relevant than right now in camp.
Playing the Gold Standards
The other formative element for the Golds, the siblings say: Camp Harlam in the Poconos. They each talked at length about how the Reform movement camp’s emphasis on musicality influenced them during their summers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Danny Gold remembers frequently coming upon Julie at the camp piano. “She would have her devotees gathered around, listening to new songs she had written.”
Living the Jewish Value of Being “Guardians of the Earth” at Camp Harlam
It was just 2 short summers ago that URJ Camp Harlam had a teensy little garden. It was a sweet plot of land with some colorful perennials and herbs for Havdalah, plus a few rows of juicy tomato plants and other green veggies basking in the summer sun. But this summer we decided to put a stake in the ground – literally! – and declare with our sweat and muscles that we are fully committing to “greening” and “growing” at camp. It has been our Jewish vision to commit ourselves to teaching about Tikkun Middot and Tikkun Olam. This means [...]
New Arts at Camp: A Look into Kivun Training
My name is Kara Weiner. I will be a second year staff member in Omanut (Arts and Crafts) this summer, and I have been a camper at Harlam since 2003. Last week, I went to OSRUI (A URJ camp in Wisconsin) for the Kivun Visual Arts retreat. The goal of the Kivun program is to network staff members from all of the URJ and Ramah camps in North America, and to provide further training in our specialty areas that will helps us to integrate Judaism into everyday lessons at camp. Kivun covers many specialties, including sports, music, hiking, and more. However, I attended the Visual Arts portion of Kivun.
New Ideas and New Experiences Thanks to Kivun
My name is Eli Pollack and 2013 will be my second summer as the Tennis Specialty Counselor at Camp Harlam. I was recently given the opportunity to attend the Kivun Fellowship Sports Training in Palmer, MA. Kivun is a joint program of the URJ and Ramah Camping programs, offering six training sessions for Camp Specialists. The Kivun program strives to enhance the skills of summer specialists, both within their specialty area, and as Jewish educators able to integrate Jewish content and knowledge as an integral part of their specialty instruction. By creating a network of camp professionals and specialists The [...]
Harlam Day Camp: The First Reform Day Camp Planned for Philly
By Bryan Schwartzman from The Jewish Exponent: The Reform movement is planning to open its first day camp in the country next year, situating it in the Philadelphia suburbs. The location of Harlam Day Camp, which will be run under the auspices of the Union for Reform Judaism’s popular Harlam overnight camp, has not yet been finalized, according to movement officials. URJ officials said that for now, they will be renting space rather than buying property. They also said they are trying to be sensitive to the locations of existing community day camps. The two largest Jewish day camps in [...]
JCC Support Offers Emotional Shelter from the Storm
Lori Zlotoff is a member of the Camp Harlam Camper Care Team and will be with us for both the first and second session in 2013. This article was posted from MerrickLife.com. We are proud to have Lori as a member of the Camp Harlam team. Rebuilding after a disaster such as superstorm Sandy usually refers to the work and expense needed to repair physical damages. But long after the walls and furnishings have been replaced, emotional suffering can linger and even worsen. Reaching out for support and rebuilding one’s personal strength should be an important part of the recovery [...]
Coming Together for Tikkun O…Camp
Last week, Camp Harlam held its first annual Tikkun O-Camp program on its camp site in Kunkletown, PA. More than 90 campers, parents, grandparents, alumni, Camp Council members and other volunteers came together to do their part in making camp beautiful for the summer of 2013 and to model one of our camp’s valued tenets of tikkun olam (repairing the world). We began our day at the new Girls Camp cabins for an opening ceremony and to thank the Men’s Cabinet of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia for their generous gift to Camp Harlam. Their $10,000 contribution, couple with [...]
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