One of the greatest lessons I have learned from my years at Dream Street is, “It’s not a big deal!” Anybody who has ever attended the training sessions knows the extent at which the staff emphasizes the idea that nothing at Dream Street should be treated as a big deal. By spending one week a year focusing on taking care of one kid and making sure he has the experience of his life while devaluing my own ideas of what is important, I am able to refocus on what is truly significant rather than assuming the materialistic personality that is common in our capitalist society. Dream Street, as described by Mike Kaiser, (NFTY-SO alum and Assistant Dream Street Program Director 2013) is a reset button, and all computer technicians will tell you that a computer needs to be restarted every now and again.

-Kovi Katz
Jackson, MS

Dream Street is definitely my favorite week of the year. I love watching the campers, counselors, and upper staff grin from ear to ear throughout the whole week. This year I definitely had quite the experience.

Desi, my camper, was very independent so she really just needed a friend the whole week. We quickly bonded over nail polish and hair and by the end of the first day I truly felt like I had a best friend. When Desi’s mom dropped her off at camp, she told me that Desi didn’t know how to swim and it would be awesome if she could learn this week. Starting on the first day, I worked very hard trying to teach Desi to swim and let her know that I was not going to let her drown. Throughout the week, she would swim to me during pool time and each time I would move back a bit farther. By the last day, Desi swam the entire length of the pool all by herself. We cheered and hugged and the smile on her face was the greatest satisfaction to me.

When her parents came to pick her up on the last day, Desi proudly announced to her whole family that she could now swim like a fish. The best part about Dream Street is that kids get the opportunity to try new things that they don’t usually do at home and Desi definitely did that.

-Aimee Adler
Memphis, TN
NFTY Southern President 2013-2014

The week at Camp Dream Street was one of the most exhausting weeks of my life.  It was also one of the most rewarding weeks of my life.  Devoting myself completely to another person for a week was hard but it changed what I thought I was capable of and how I view people with disabilities.  Before Dream Street I viewed people with disabilities as someone different than myself, and in a way I pitied them.  Now I realize that they are just like me, they are regular people.  It reset my values and made me realize that I am no better than anyone else.

I am so thankful that Dream Street is NFTY Southern’s yearly mitzvah project.  NFTY is a great organization full of great people.  Being a member of NFTY-SO gave me this opportunity and if I were not a part of NFTY-SO I wouldn’t have had this amazing experience.

-Benny Meltzer,
Baton Rouge, LA

During orientation, all counselors hear from the G.E. participants (Great Expectations—a program for teens who were Dream Street campers as kids and serve as role models for current campers). One participant said, “At camp, the CP (Cerebral Palsy) goes away and I can do anything.”

To me, this is the epitome of the importance of Camp Dream Street.  This is a place where no one is limited by a disability. Only at Dream Street do you see children going from needing someone to feed them to feeding themselves in a week. Only at Dream Street do you see children who need crutches or a wheel chair on a regular basis get to the top of the Aqua-climb at the pool.  Only at Dream Street can a child experience 20+ new things in a week. THIS is the Dream Street magic—the opportunity to lose all limitations and to do anything.

Dream Street helps the campers gain independence and confidence. For example, during the “shower party” on the second night of camp, one of our campers transferred herself independently from her shower chair to her wheel chair.  Her face was beaming with pride as everyone in the cabin congratulated her. As a counselor, Dream Street is the best team building experience on earth. Everyone on staff is drawn together-counselors, upper staff, volunteer doctors. We’re all here for a common goal: to give the campers the best experience of their lives. In doing so, no one is afraid to ask for help and that help is always provided with a smile. Dream Street brings out the best in counselors and campers alike and it is truly a magical place.

-Leah Sherman
Memphis, TN

This past week I was a counselor at Camp Dream Street, a camp for disabled children where they can be treated like children. Going in I wasn’t expecting much except a week full of volunteer hours, but I was so wrong. As Social Action Vice President of the NFTY Southern Region I serve on the Board of Advisors and I get the wonderful opportunity to go to the Board of Advisors meetings. At Orientation I went to my first meeting and I was amazed at the passion people who were older than me had for this camp. I learned that the campers go for free and to run the camp each year it costs $50,000. I also thought about all the wonderful people who donate their time and money to this camp. I would’ve never got to experience this wonderful opportunity if it wasn’t for NFTY Southern. After spending a week with my wonderful camper Elycia I finally put my life into perspective. I learned so much stuff from Elycia, like how she feels about her disability, and from me she learned how to put her pants on. I notice that we all complain because our parents won’t buy us that 100 dollar jeans we want or that vacation to Europe when some of these kids don’t even get a chance to do daily activities independently. I learned so much from Elycia and all the campers and definitely left the camp a more non judgmental, happy, optimistic, and non ignorant person. I would like to thank NFTY SO for this wonderful opportunity and if so I’d love to do it again next year. Shalom!

-Daniela Berlinski
Little Rock, AR
NFTY Southern SAVP 2013-2014

I have recently started an initiative within NFTY-SO called the “Regional Waste Reduction Initiative.” It is something that I have wanted to do for the past year, and I am excited to see it come to fruition. My goal for the initiative is simple; I want to reduce the waste output of our region and influence the communities surrounding our region to do the same. I plan on posting a simple monthly goal on Facebook, twitter and our website (www.nfty.org/so/resources/nowaste) and ask our followers and friends to spread the word on their favorite social media websites.

Though the goal is simple, in practice, the initiative becomes a bit more difficult. The reason behind the difficulty is the necessary breaking of habits that exist in our lives. Our first goal, which will last throughout the entirety of February, is to unplug cell phone chargers when there is no cell phone plugged in. On one hand it seems like a simple task, but on the other it requires you to remember the difference you can make each and every day, and having to constantly be in the moment can be hard. Although unplugging one cellphone charger may seem to make a very small difference, if the United States were to unplug their cell phone chargers during the day we could power over 175,000 homes!

Overall, the process seems airtight. Now all we need to do is go forth with our plans, but in order to do that I need your help. I need you to unplug your charger. I need you to be constantly aware. I need you to make a difference. Help me, NFTY, to help us.

Follow NFTY Southern’s Regional Waste Reduction Initiative on our website and share your own plans on twitter! Use the hashtag #NoWasteinSO.

Long services, packed synagogues and fasting – let’s be honest, the High Holy days can seem unfamiliar and difficult to connect with, especially if you are accustomed to interactive and exciting NFTY services. Here are a few tips to make the High Holy Days a little less foreign, and maybe even inspirational.

5. Organize a youth service with your TYG.
Write and lead your own service! Team up with members of your TYG to come up with a service that you all would enjoy participating in. Services are always more engaging when the community is involved in planning them! Invite children to participate in the service. Talk with your rabbi about reserving a space in your temple or find another space to perform your service. For inspiration, look at NFTY’s service outlines.

Another great idea is a group fast-breaking party. There is nothing like getting together with your best friends and gorging on a great meal after a whole day of fasting,

4. Turn off your phone
As teenagers, it sometimes seems like our phones are buzzing, beeping parts of our bodies. Take a day or two and just leave your phone at home. You would be surprised at how meaningless many Facebook notifications and text messages are. Taking a break from your phone allows you to take a break from your day to day life and truly focus on the meaning of the High Holy Days.

3. Volunteer at your temple’s babysitting program
Most temples have a program where they will take care of kids during High Holy Day services. After all, no one likes a crying baby or a distracting child during services. Talk with your rabbi and volunteer to help out. Typically, High Holy daycare consists of a short service, a holiday-related craft, a snack, and a family friendly movie. You will get an opportunity to connect with the holiday in a way different than the usual lengthy service while helping out the families in your community.

2. Blow the Shofar
Every temple has them: long-time members who have blown the Shofar for God-know-how-many-years. Bring a fresh face to the bimah! Be sure to practice beforehand, though. Turn it into a personal challenge, see how long your Tekiah Gedolah can go! (My record is 36 seconds, top that!)

1. Bake round Challot.
Everyone loves challah.  Round challot symbolize the circle of life and the roundness of the year. Most round challot are also sweet, typically flavored with honey, cinnamon, or raisins. Take some time to bake one and experiment with flavors. Cranberry Challah? Chocolate Challah? You’ll never know until you try.

By Kovi Katz, NFTY-SO Social Action Vice-President

All Saints Episcopal Church recently posted a statement on their sign, “Faith does not condone bullying.” A photo of this sign was posted on Facebook by the producers of the movie Bully, a documentary aired in theaters that depicted the true horrors of bullying that exist today. When I saw this post, I quickly had a rebuttal to the church’s statement; one can have faith that a race will bully another and therefore faith can condone bullying. As the debate continued on in the comments, people began to interchange the word faith with religion. Some said that select religions, such as Christianity, do condone bullying as shown throughout history. For example, Benjamin Witte mentioned the Spanish Inquisition and all three of the crusades.

It is thoughts like these that hatred and prejudice grow. One should never single out a religion for the actions of its people, but rather single out the people who acted upon their interpretations of their religion. First of all, I would like to make an important distinction between the words faith and religion. These are not synonymous with one another.

According to Oxford Dictionaries, faith is defined as,

“Complete trust or confidence in someone or something”

…while the word religion is defined as,

“the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.”

It becomes apparent when looking at the definitions that these two are definitely not synonymous, but time and time again people mistake the words for being one in the same.

When looking at real-life applications of the words, one can see that a person with no religion can have faith, but a person with a religion must have faith in the doctrines of the religion. The line between the two words is fine, but in order to stop this prejudice we must be aware of this difference.  Some commentators have stated that Christianity has a history of bullying other religions. For example, one poster points out “the Church of England, during the time of Henry VIII, incarcerated, burned, and tortured the Catholics in order to force their support of his divorce.” Another poster, a preacher, also commented on the post stated, “I regret that so many of us have misrepresented Christ to such a degree that so many of you want nothing to do with Him.” Most of the time, the religion is not at fault, but rather it is those who misinterpret the religion that cause the bullying to occur. The poster continues with a list of apologies for the things done in the past, in the name of Christianity, and states that Christian teaching does not condone any of them.

Christianity is not alone, for there are those in all religions including Islam, Judaism, and more who distort their religion to hurt others. Faith may condone bullying, but religion does not.

 The views expressed in the NFTY Blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the North American Federation of Temple Youth.

Originally posted on the URJ Henry S. Jacobs blog.

Camp Dream Street is a week-long residential camp program for children with physical disabilities. The camp is sponsored by the Henry S. Jacobs Camp, and counselors for the camp are drawn from the teen members of NFTY’s Southern Region.

Could I Really Make This Work?
by Barrie Bauman

Barrie grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is an alumnus of URJ Henry S. Jacobs Camp and NFTY Southern. Barrie received her Doctorate in Physical Therapy at Washington University in St. Louis and is a pediatric physical therapist at Saint Louis Children’s Hospital. 

I remember reading about my first Dream Street camper. She was 9 years old, used a wheelchair, and her medical diagnosis was cerebral palsy. When I met her she was bright eyed, bubbly, and excited about camp. On the first day, I was helping her change into her swimsuit—being very slow and cautious so as not to hurt her. She finally looked up at me and said “I’m not fabric, you aren’t going to rip me in two!” At that moment I realized that she was nothing more than a kid wanting to have fun at summer camp and make new friends! I, for one, definitely made a new friend that day.

For the next 6 summers, I returned to Camp Dream Street to meet more incredible campers and help the NFTY Southern participants have a life changing experience just like I did. At some point during college it all came together. I loved being Jewish and fulfilling mitzvot, I loved my science classes, I loved working with children, and I loved Camp Dream Street. Could I really make this work? I decided I wanted to be a pediatric physical therapist and work with children with disabilities. I finished college, went to graduate school, participated in numerous internships as well as volunteering with a sports group for children with cerebral palsy. Now, this is my life. I work with an extraordinary group of children who are simply that: children. Dream Street not only changed my life but it shaped my profession and molded my career.

The Camp Dream Street participants and the children I work with today solidify what we are taught in that all people are made b’tzelem elohim—in God’s image. As Jews, we need to make it our priority to accept and assist each and every person in exploring and fulfilling his or her Jewish identity. Awareness, education, advocacy, and exposure are essential for making synagogues, camps, religious schools, and youth groups accessible to and accepting of all people. Any service or activity can be adapted so that all children and adults can participate to the best of their abilities rather than being limited due to disability.

Though each of us finds our Jewish identity differently, the themes of acceptance and accessibility are fundamental ideals of Judaism. We must apply these ideals to allow for all members of the Jewish community, with and without disabilities, to be able to develop, learn, and explore their Jewish identities together.

A Giant Game of Memory Changed My Life
by Ellie Streiffer
Ellie Streiffer lives in New Orleans with her husband, Ben Horwitz, their 6-month old, Ezra, and their dog, Inca Kola.  She is in her first year of Occupational Therapy school at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.  Ellie began volunteering at Camp Dream Street as a NFTYite in 2000.  She served as Program Director for the 2010 and 2011 summers, and is currently a member of the Board of Advisors.

If you had asked me in 2000, my first year as a volunteer, to describe how my participation in Camp Dream Street might guide my future career path, my response would have been “Huh?  I’m just here to have fun and do a mitzvah!”  But now, looking back over my 13-year involvement with the program, I am amazed at the impact Dream Street has had on my personal life and my chosen career.  The wonderful thing is that I am not an exception.  Of course, not all Dream Street volunteers choose a career in which they work with people with disabilities – though many have; NFTY-Southern has produced a fair number of occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists, doctors, nurses, and social workers, who all were guided to their careers by their experiences at camp.  But, without exception, Dream Street changes people for the better.  It impacts the way we treat people, the way we think about people, the way we see our own strengths and weaknesses, and so much more.

Camp Dream Street led me to a career working with people with disabilities – occupational therapy (OT).  In fact, my OT “ah-ha!” moment took place at camp.  I was leading an activity in which the campers played a giant Memory game with pieces laid out on the floor.  The first group played and had a good time, but many of the campers had to enlist the help of their counselors to bend over and flip the game pieces.  It was not until the OTs provided an alternative that I realized the inaccessibility of the game.  For the next group, they affixed Velcro to the game pieces and provided a broomstick with Velcro on its end.  What a simple yet effective method of providing extra reach for children with limited mobility!  No longer did they need to rely on their caretakers; the campers were given the tools to participate independently in the game.  In that moment, the kids just thought they were playing a game and having fun. 

But what I came to understand was that, by giving them an avenue to participate, they gained a sense of ownership and confidence which will spill over, not only into the other activities throughout the week, but more importantly, into their lives outside the gates of Camp Dream Street.  From this enlightening moment, I became interested in occupational therapy’s ability to provide avenues for accessibility and participation in reaching a goal.  Setting, working toward, and achieving a goal, even one as seemingly simple as flipping over a Memory piece, has a lasting, significant, and transformative effect on a person’s life, no matter their abilities.

After months of planning, the day finally came, November 18, 2011, when 143 NFTY-Southerners would be driving arriving at Temple Israel in Memphis, TN. I was ready for the weekend to begin but nervous at the same time because being the chairperson of an event like this was something that I had never done before.

When I attend a NFTY event PLANNED BY SOMEONE ELSE everything seems so effortlessly put together. The programs are well-planned and run smoothly, services are organized and enjoyable, decorations spice up the atmosphere, and those leading the weekend—whether it be the Regional Board or a TYG for a conclave—appear to be on their “A-game” and stress free. When I heard that my TYG would be hosting NFTY-SO’s Fall Conclave I was so excited to be a part of making a memorable weekend for the rest of the region; nonetheless, I did not know all the planning that a successful event entailed.

Before Conclave, I had always seen the final production of an event. But after planning an event myself and after being behind the screen, I have gained a new appreciation and perspective for NFTY events and those who plan them. Each event is an opportunity to build leaders and to impart new wisdom to participants. The theme for the weekend was Soul to Soul: Walking in Memphis—honestly, people rarely  think about concepts like their soul on a daily basis. I now understand all that goes into creating an event that runs smoothly; including all the meetings that you have to go to, all the decisions that have to be made, and all the obstacles to overcome. Once the weekend came, I was thrilled to see all our hard work pay off; I saw MEFTY underclassmen thrive as they led programs for the region, and I witnessed participants throwing themselves fully into the true soul of Memphis, TN, the “Home of the Blues.” I found it rewarding when people came up to me and said, “Hey, thanks for such an amazing weekend! This has been one of my favorite events!” Knowing people had such an enjoyable weekend made me have an even more enjoyable weekend.

After a weekend of exploring Soul and literally “Walking in Memphis,” I discovered and experienced firsthand within myself and others a passion for the essential “Shalom Ya’ll” that defines NFTY-Southern.

Joey Falk and Taylor as campers at URJ Kutz Camp

When I registered for my first summer at the URJ Kutz Camp in Warwick, NY, two years ago, I would have never imagined that today I would be serving as the North American Membership and Communications Vice President of the youth movement that changed my life.

But let’s rewind many years back when my parents enrolled me in a 10-day program, “Olim,” at the URJ Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, MS. This was my first time at a sleep-away camp and my first Jewish summer experience – two things that were not familiar to me at all. What I didn’t know then was that a fellow camper from my cabin that summer in 2001 and I would later be housed together at my first NFTY event in 2007. We went on to become very close friends, and then serve on NFTY-Southern regional board together for two years. Although I only spent ten days at Jacobs Camp more than ten years ago, that experience was transformative in terms of my perspective on friendship and Jewish community. The simple fact that we remembered each other six years later became the foundation of our friendship. My experience showed me that once you enter the URJ Camping family, you will forever be a part of it. It’s just one more piece of the web of Jewish geography that we, the Jewish people, live in, and that I love.

My decision to go to Kutz for two consecutive summers and to be a participant in the Regional Board Leadership Track brought me to where I am today. I entered Kutz in 2009 as a self-conscious, hesitant, recently installed regional board member and I left as a confident, ready, and prepared leader for my region, my temple, and the broader community. I also met my best friends, people who I consider as close as family, and certain lifelong friends at Kutz.

Kutz is not an ordinary camp. Kutz is special because the teen participants are there because they want to be. They are there to acquire leadership skills while studying a specific interest, and they are surrounded by other teens who share the same passions. Everyone leaves Kutz as a leader. My experiences with both of my URJ camps were essential in helping me become the person I am, and the life and leadership choices I have made, and will continue to make on this sacred journey.

Taylor Lyles is the NFTY North American Membership and Communications Vice President and a freshman at the University of Miami. You can find her on Twitter at @NFTYMCVP and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/NFTYMCVP.