Having been a sleepaway camper myself for every summer of my childhood, I know camp will change you. I can't wait for you to come home and teach us what you have learned.

URJ Crane Lake Camp, a Reform Jewish summer camp in Stockbridge, MA, recently released this beautiful video about what it means to be a Reform Jew, both at summer camp and beyond. In sharing the video, Crane Lake posted, “We are all different and unique and yet so similar. Being Jewish isn’t about what you look like or where you come from. It’s about how it makes you feel.”

For better or for worse, my son doesn’t yet know how scary this world can be – and I’m not eager to break it to him.

My little guy and his siblings, like so many children, are full of questions about God. All day, every day, their inquiring minds want to know: Where is God? Why is God? Who is God? And the most oft-heard question of all: Is God a boy or a girl? Or neither? Or both?

I grew up in Potomac, MD, right outside of Washington, D.C. Like most young people in my area, growing up I had had little interaction with gay people, who were nearly invisible in suburbia. (Even though it was a liberal area, my public school taught “abstinence-only” education until as recently as 2004!)

“So what’s the theme of your son’s bar mitzvah?” It was such a simple question that it’s difficult to explain exactly why it stumped me. How was it that, when I was on the other side of the table, I had no idea how to respond?

Scouting promotes so many values we want for our daughter: love of nature, respect for the environment, equality and teamwork, and responsibility for our fellow humans. Judaism, of course, imparts these same teachings.

Judaism was so unfamiliar to my son that he was wary of my Hanukkah gift. I felt as though, at such a young age, he was choosing to shun my religion, to identify with Christianity. Of course, if he chooses to identify with either religion later in life, that decision will be his own – but for now, I need to at least give Judaism a fighting chance.

So how will I talk about these values with my sons amid all the shiny confetti, slick commercials, rousing music, and fun snacks? Simply put, the Super Bowl compromises my Jewish values, and I want to pass those values along to my kids.