I love this time of year. Sure, the weather is pretty nice and the number of night meetings/events in the Jewish community drops over the summer, but what I really love is seeing Jewish camp updates all over my Facebook feed. From the camp where my son is, to the Jewish camps where my friends’ kids are, the pictures show children smiling and “doing Jewish together”.

Jewish camping is one of those powerful, identity building experiences. I see pictures on Facebook of Jewish kids at Shabbat services, doing Israeli dancing, studying Jewish texts, singing Jewish songs and frankly, just having fun with each other.

I am really proud that with the generous help and support of the Papernick Family Foundation and the Centennial Fund for a Jewish Future (an important initiative within our Jewish Community Foundation), we provide One Happy Camper incentive grants to encourage families to choose a Jewish camp experience. The $1,000 grants we provide are proven by research conducted by the Foundation for Jewish Camp to be effective tools that get our kids into this positive Jewish environment.

Let’s keep encouraging our young families to choose a Jewish camp. Who knows, maybe like me, they’ll be lucky enough to meet their spouse there!

Shabbat Shalom.