JCC Camps in Medford

[Dave]

This is where I work. It's a day camp. Kids ages 3-12 can go to camp here. CIT's are for 14-year-olds. Counselor Assistants at age 15. Junior Counselor at 16. And Senior Counselor at 17+. It is a Jewish based camp, but you need not be Jewish to work there or send campers there. I've worked there for two summers. Hopefully I'll be working there this summer as well! :D

[speedx5xracer]

I work at the NJY camps a jewish based camp in Milford Pa. Its an overnight camp and we deal alot with the JCC day camps in jersey. American staff is prefered to be Jewish but its not set in stone. How much do the medford camps emphisize religion? at my camp we say 2 prayers at every meal (hamotzi and birkat hamazon) and have services for shabbat on friday night and saturday morning as well as havdala and tisa b'av services.

[Dave]

I work at the NJY camps a jewish based camp in Milford Pa. Its an overnight camp and we deal alot with the JCC day camps in jersey. American staff is prefered to be Jewish but its not set in stone. How much do the medford camps emphisize religion? at my camp we say 2 prayers at every meal (hamotzi and birkat hamazon) and have services for shabbat on friday night and saturday morning as well as havdala and tisa b'av services.
We're only a day camp so on Fridays we have a period for Shabbat. We don't say prayers during Shabbat, just sing songs and have special guests come speak. Also during lunch, before anyone can eat we say the hamotzi as well. We also have an activity called "gan", which is where the kid learn about Israel. Other than that we don't really do a whole lot of Jewish stuff.

And as with your camp, it's preferred you're Jewish, but it's not required. Also, probably about 95% of the campers are Jewish, only because you have to be a member of the local JCC to send your child to our camp.

[camper]

my camp is not officially a jewish camp but our kids are like 98% jewish. we do friday night services and have a traditional friday night dinner and we're kosher style...no milk and meat together. our counselors are about half and half, maybe a few more than a half jewish counselors (b/c a lot of us grew up at camp) than not, the ones who aren't are usually international counselors or counselors who didn't grow up with us. we do have those few non-jewish campers too.

[speedx5xracer]

my camp is not officially a jewish camp but our kids are like 98% jewish. we do friday night services and have a traditional friday night dinner and we're kosher style...no milk and meat together. our counselors are about half and half, maybe a few more than a half jewish counselors (b/c a lot of us grew up at camp) than not, the ones who aren't are usually international counselors or counselors who didn't grow up with us. we do have those few non-jewish campers too.

So your camp keeps kosher and honors Shabbat and your NOT officially a relgious camp..... Im sorry that makes no sense to me can you please elaberate.

[camper]

lol it seems weird i guess to people that work at jewish camps but the shabbos dinner and services are more of a tradition than anything else...back when camp was a northeastern jewish phenomenon before there were "official" jewish camps out there, most camps in the area had fri night services and were completely kosher. we've just kept those traditions. we're just kosher style...we don't have a kosher kitchen we just don't serve like...cheeseburgers haha thats all a lot of parents might care about if they're sending their kids to our camp. our service is mostly in english and based on moral stuff, but we do the sh'ma and the motzi and kiddush. on the other hand, we have a few kids that aren't jewish and we're a private camp so not affiliated with any jewish organization. many camps in my area have similar programs. non-jewish campers don't have to go to services if they don't want to and neither do non-jewish counselors if they are really against it. none of our other programs have anything to do w/judaism. speedracer, i actually know a family or 2 that goes to your camp haha.

[who_stole_my_loofa]

I worked at a JCC day camp in 2003! But it was in Oklahoma where I'm from.... lol now I work at a Jewish camp in North Carolina yeah Jewish camp!

Loofa

[Dave]

My camp is the largest Jewish day camp in North America!

[CAMPFRIEND]

Dave- How many kids do you have each week. I know there is a big Jewish day camp in the chicaho lasnd area. I think that it's name is Banner Day Camp!
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[Dave]

What do you mean? In my bunk? I've had an average of 12 kids in my bunk each summer. Then there are eight bunks per division, two divisions per age group, 10 age groups. So that's a total of about 1920 campers. :eek:

[CAMPFRIEND]

What do you mean? In my bunk? I've had an average of 12 kids in my bunk each summer. Then there are eight bunks per division, two divisions per age group, 10 age groups. So that's a total of about 1920 campers. :eek:

You have 1920 campers per week!! How many staff do you have during the summer?

[Dave]

It's the same campers all summer. We don't do sessions like other camps. And that's probably about the average amount of campers that are at camp any given day.

As for staff, let's say there are three counselors per bunk. Doing the same math, there's about 480 counselors at camp on any given day.

None of these numbers include CIT's, the travel camp kids, specialists, or any other staff. There's probably about 3000 people at our camp any given day, if we include everyone.

[CAMPFRIEND]

That's a lot of people!!

[Dave]

Our camp is 120 acres big. I'm not sure how big that is compared to other camps though.

[CAMPFRIEND]

My overnight camp was of 350 acres and we only had 400 camp per week. Dave if you don't mind me asking do you have a camp web site? I would love to look at it!

[Dave]

Yeah, it's http://www.katzjcc.org/camps/homepage.asp

[CAMPFRIEND]

Dave, Your camp has a great web site! I looked at the map and it seems you pack a lot in to those acres.