by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer

Three legendary Jewish sports figures will lend their expertise as New Jersey YM-YWHA Camps inaugurate specialty summer programs designed to develop skills in sports and other areas.

Former Yankee Ron Blomberg, NBA basketball coach Herb Brown, and Olympic swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg will headline Totally (Fantastic) Specialty Camps, or TSC, at the Y summer camps in New Milford, Pa. They will each appear for two one-week sessions this summer; each session will carry an additional fee on top of the regular cost of enrollment. Campers who sign up will spend four hours a day in the specialty of their choice, receiving individualized training and feedback.

In addition to baseball, basketball, and swimming, TSC programs include soccer, tennis, ceramics, painting, jewelry making, astronomy, and cinematography.

Y Camp board members and staffers met the trio at a May 4 open house held at the home of the NJ Y Camps’ executive director, Leonard Robinson and his wife, Carol.

While the extended sessions are available to children who pay the extra fee, Robinson said, all campers will be able to participate, although not as intensively as those who sign up. “We are providing the highest quality we can for all our children,” he said.

Blomberg, Brown, and Krayzelburg swapped stories as they sat in a private room autographing books and posters. As they discussed shared acquaintances and experiences, Brown, an assistant coach for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, related how his grandparents escaped from tsarist Russia. Blomberg, whose new autobiography, Designated Hebrew, is already in its second printing, noted how well the trio had done, both professionally and in the eyes of the Jewish community.

“You know what, guys?” said the former Yankee first baseman. “We’re pretty lucky.”

Speaking under the limbs of a massive oak tree in the Robinson backyard, NJ Y Camps president Bruce Nussman called the men “role models who would inspire young people to be the best they can be in life, as people and as Jews.”

Robinson expressed similar sentiments. “This [will] help our kids be better human beings — the kids who are Jewish to be better Jews and proud of being Jewish, and the kids who are not Jewish, to have a better understanding of Jews and want to emulate the values that we stand for….”

He praised Brown, 70, head coach for the Detroit Pistons from 1976 to 1978 and now an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks, for the courageous stand he took in 2001 as the Intifada raged in Israel. Robinson told the crowd of about 75 how Brown agreed to lead the United States basketball squad at the Maccabiah Games after the original coach “bailed out and told his players not to go because it was too dangerous…. Brown took over the team in some of the worst times and coached them to a gold medal.”

Robinson said Krayzelburg, 31, a product of JCC swim teams in Los Angeles, is well known for running JCC MetroWest camps as well as clinics across the country.

Although he said he didn’t know Blomberg, 58, as well the other two guests of honor, Robinson said, “We’re really fortunate…to find him” and noted his place in baseball history as the game’s first designated hitter.

Krayzelburg, a four-time Olympic Gold medalist, told NJJN how much he was looking forward to the chance the new program would give him to reach more kids.

“It’s special that people consider me a role model,” he said. “I just happen to be really good at what I do. You have to believe in yourself, have a vision of what you want to do in life, and stay on that path and not give in to whatever disappointments will come along the way.

“I didn’t have a big Jewish identity growing up in the Soviet Union; it wasn’t talked about a lot,” said the swimmer, who grew up in Odessa. “I really felt special when I came [to the United States]. My education in becoming a Jew has really grown in the past 10 years or so.”

Likewise, his participation in the Maccabiah Games in 2001, a year after winning three of his Olympic gold medals, offered him “an incredible experience. At that stage of my career, it was a unique and special experience that obviously will last for a very long time.”

The suggestion that he might be working with a future Olympic swimmer made Krayzelburg smile. “That’s always something — having an opportunity to give back, to pass my experiences along, is a great opportunity.”

Jerry Silverman, president of the Foundation for Jewish Camping, called Robinson “a pioneer and visionary in the camping industry.” In an e-mail to NJJN, Silverman said the approach “is completely in tune with the market and its trends. Specialty camping is a powerful tool for camps to offer their campers innovative and expert programming while simultaneously increasing their numbers and reach. The TSC programs launching this summer are cutting-edge and of the highest quality and will set a model for other Jewish camps across the country.”

More information on the NJ Y camp programs or call 973-575-3333.

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