Blog

As our session and summer come to a close, and we experience our “lasts” – last Shabbat, last song session, last night – it’s natural to look back and reflect on how far we’ve come and all that we have experienced throughout the summer.

Everyone knows about it and handles it differently. From to bunks to renovated pools, to new birkat traditions, campers become counselors, counselors become unit heads and after that they move on but one thing that doesn’t change is friendship.

We chose love because love is thinking about others and being together. At Camp Harlam, we experience love almost every day. We can talk and have fun together, and make lots of new friends

Building the next generation of leaders is crucial to camp as well as to our society as a whole. Many outside observers view the Gesher program as solely giving the participants experience and training in being a counselor. But the reality is that the lessons learned apply far beyond being a camp counselor.

Other counselors who thought about the campers specifically with words like: silly, adorable, enthusiastic, energetic, goofy, giggly, crazy, unpredictable, and dirty.

It’s a little bit surreal to be here, isn’t it? Whether you started way back in Carmel or started just last summer, you would look at those Chavurah campers doing their readings at their final service, and would think that the time would never come that you would be in their shoes.

You have so much enthusiasm for activities and created memories throughout them all. And more than you know, so many of these cherished memories that we all share will stick with you for years to come.

Of course, we encounter arguments like the blind men did about the elephant. We come here from different places with different perspectives. And, like the men in the story, we are all on a journey of self-discovery.

They created a mashup of serious advice, camp values, and inside jokes. Amidst images of Jewish stars and stick figures holding hands, there were reminders of everlasting friendship and advice.

I have been fascinated with the various ways our Jewish camping communities grapple with this day, trying to determine how to best observe what is traditionally known as the saddest day on the Jewish calendar in our happiest of places.