March 06, 2008
JEWISH CAMPING — whose effectiveness as an educational option was emphasized at the Feb. 27 session of the New Jersey Jewish Leadership Forum — has received a boost from United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.
The New Jersey Y Camps — working with area donors, UJC MetroWest, and two national groups — has secured $270,000 to offer grants of as much as $1,500 each for up to 180 new campers from local communities.
Donations totaling $135,000 from four leading donors have been approved for one-to-one matching funds from the Foundation for Jewish Camping, through a program administered by the Jewish Funders Network.
“The incentive grants — combined with the popularity of our expanding specialty programs in sports, arts, and sciences — are going to translate to significant enrollment growth,” said NJ Y Camps executive director Leonard Robinson. “We know our camps are a perfect ‘gateway’ for families who have never before considered Jewish camp. Offering a break of as much as 25 percent in tuition in the first summer gives a family one more reason to give Jewish camp a try.”
The NJ Y Camps funds will be used over the next four years. The Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest will manage the funds.
For this coming summer, the non-need-based incentive grants are available only for youngsters attending the special-needs Round Lake Camp, run by the NJ Y camps for children with learning differences and social communication disorders.
Beginning in the summer of 2009, the incentives will be available for new campers to attend Nah-Jee-Wah, Cedar Lake, Teen Age Camp, and Specialty Camps, as well as Round Lake, according to Robinson. Parents can apply as early as this spring for summer 2009.
Grants of $1,000 will be offered to first-time campers, another $500 for the same camper to return a second summer. Eligible campers are children who have not previously spent three consecutive weeks or more in a Jewish overnight camp and who do not receive intensive Jewish exposure during the year. Campers can come from MetroWest, Clifton-Passaic, and Bergen County.
The campership program is part of an overall effort by MetroWest to send more local children to Jewish camps. “We know that Jewish camping works. It is a terrific way to engage children and their families in Jewish life. The effects of this decision — enrolling a child in Jewish camp for the first time — can last a lifetime,” said UJC MetroWest executive vice president Max L. Kleinman.
The NJ Y Camps initiative is part of a national program funded by the Foundation for Jewish Camping, which was founded by Elisa Spungen Bildner and Robert Bildner of Montclair. The FJC recently announced that a total of $2 million, including matching funds, was raised nationally from 28 donors for the national campership program. Of the total, close to 14 percent was raised for the NJ Y Camps.
NJ Y Camps donors, whose gifts were matched by the FJC, are Paula and Jerry Gottesman of Morristown, Jacqueline and former Congressman Herb Klein of Cedar Grove, Bruce and Rosalyn Nussman of Englewood, and Lee and Robert Furman of Riverdale, NY, and their children, through the New Kalman Sunshine Fund.
UJC MetroWest also has a pilot campership program underwritten with matching funds from the FJC, with incentives being offered through five synagogues. Last summer, 30 MetroWest children attended Jewish camps for the first time through this program; an additional 50 will attend this summer. This program, administered by UJC’s The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life, will be expanded in the summer of 2009 to include children from across MetroWest who choose to attend any Jewish camp.
For more information on the national campership program, contact Rina Goldberg, director of communications, The Foundation for Jewish Camping, 646-278-4504; NJ Y Camps (Robinson) at 973-575-3333; UJC MetroWest (Matthew Halpern) at 973-929-3081.
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