Dear Families,
Everyone who knows me has heard me say, “Camp is the most important experience in a child’s life!” There are so many reasons why I feel this way — camp gives so much to children, and the lessons learned (and experienced) last a lifetime. This goes double (or maybe even triple or more) for the Jewish camp experience. I write this column having just returned from my yearly “pilgrimage” to the American Camp Association Conference and as I prepare for the opening of registration for the J Summer Camps 2010. Let me share the messages from a wonderful book: “How Goodly Are Thy Tents: Summer Camps as Jewish Socializing Experiences” by Amy L. Sales and Leonard Saxe. You decide for yourself how important a summer at camp is for your children and remember how important it was for you! (For a wonderful thought-provoker, go to YouTube, “Because of Camp.”)

• “Jewish socialization involves acquiring the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable one to be an active member of the Jewish community.”
• “A community’s unity, strength, and continuation depend on its capacity to socialize new members — to build commitment to the group and to transmit its knowledge and values to each succeeding generation. Socialization is thus critical to the Jewish enterprise, which is based in community.”
• “…at camp, Judaism was ‘in the air’ — in everyday ritual practices, in Shabbat, and in the symbolism that defines the physical environment of the camp as Jewish space. When Judaism is in the air, as it is at camp, children take it in as effortlessly as breathing.”
• “Camp is a mass of contradictions, a simple enterprise that does extraordinarily complex work. Camps are rooted in tradition but also excel at creativity and experimentation. Camp is a quintessentially American invention that produces some of the most powerful Jewish experiences in a child’s life. An institution dedicated to fun, it is responsible for the most serious work of the community: building commitment to the Jewish people and transmitting Jewish knowledge and values to the young generation. These contradictions define camp’s potential as a socializing agent as well as its challenges for the future.”
• “Jewish tradition says that the study of Torah is equal to all of the other mitzvot because it leads to them all. So, too, is fun equal to all of the other purposes of camp because it leads to them all.”

At the J we are saying it loud and clear: I AM READY. We hope you are ready for a summer of life-changing experiences. You are never too old for camp. Join the spirit by coming by the J during camp — the energy is contagious!
Laura Seymour is director of camping services and Jewish life and learning at the Jewish Community Center of Dallas.