Because what camp ultimately builds is resilience

What does it mean to raise proud Jewish children at a moment when so many Jews are feeling uncertain, isolated, or even afraid to openly express their connection to Israel and the Jewish people?

It is a question I find myself thinking about constantly these days.

In the wake of October 7 and the dramatic rise in antisemitism that has followed, many Jewish young people are navigating an environment that often feels confusing, lonely, and sometimes openly hostile. Increasingly, there is pressure, sometimes subtle, sometimes direct, to separate oneself from Israel, from Zionism, or even from visible Jewish identity in order to feel accepted. 

The message many Jews are hearing right now is painfully simple: if you stay quiet about Israel, if you distance yourself from Jewish peoplehood, or if you publicly denounce Israel loudly enough, maybe people will like you more.

I understand where that instinct comes from. Nobody wants to feel isolated or targeted. But over time, that instinct can quietly erode something essential within the Jewish community. Antisemitism has never depended on logic, nuance, or fairness.

Jews historically have not been hated because of a particular political opinion, but because they were Jews. And when fear causes Jews to become less connected to one another, less proud of who they are, or less willing to stand openly in their Jewish identity, the damage reaches far beyond politics. It chips away at Jewish confidence, Jewish continuity, and Jewish belonging itself.

That reality is why I believe Jewish summer camp matters now more than ever.

Recently, a broad coalition of Jewish educational leaders launched an initiative called “Reimagining Israel Education,” recognizing that Jewish learners today need a more holistic, authentic, and enduring connection to Israel and Jewish peoplehood. One of the core ideas in that work is that Israel education cannot simply exist as an occasional lesson or isolated conversation. It must be woven naturally into the broader fabric of Jewish life, relationships, identity, and community.

At Herzl Camp, that philosophy deeply resonates with me because, in many ways, it reflects what Jewish summer camp has always done best.

At camp, we are not teaching Israel merely as a political topic or historical subject. We are creating an immersive Jewish experience where Israel, Jewish identity, friendship, Hebrew, music, tradition, and peoplehood are lived every single day. The power of that experience is not found in lectures or talking points. It is found in relationships, joy, and authentic connection.

A camper may arrive after a difficult school year feeling conflicted about being openly Jewish or uncertain about where Israel fits into their identity. Then, over the course of a summer, they live in a community where Jewish life feels natural, joyful, and strong. They spend time with Israeli counselors and campers not as abstract representatives of a country, but as bunkmates, role models, and friends. They sit around the fire at Nir Howie singing Hebrew songs alongside Beatles songs and, of course, Bob Dylan songs (after all, as most of us know, he himself sang at Herzl years ago). They throw themselves fully into the spirit and chaos of Bikkurim. They laugh until their stomach hurts, dance or sway at a song session, celebrate Shabbat together, and build friendships rooted in Jewish community and belonging.

Through those experiences, Israel becomes personal.

I often say that the best way to help an American Jewish child understand and love Israel is to have them spend a summer with an Israeli Jewish child. Not because someone is standing in front of them delivering a perfectly crafted lesson, but because friendship humanizes what headlines often cannot. Israel stops being something distant or abstract and instead becomes connected to people they care about deeply.

Importantly, this does not mean avoiding complexity. Young people are absolutely capable of wrestling thoughtfully with nuance and difficult conversations when they do so from a place of grounding, connection, and trust. Strong Jewish identity is not built through fear or slogans. It is built through relationships, confidence, curiosity, and a sense of belonging to something larger than oneself.

 That is one of the great gifts of Jewish summer camp.

Camp creates an environment where Jewish children experience Judaism not as something defensive or burdensome, but as something joyful and alive. In a world where many young Jews increasingly feel pressure to minimize their Jewish identity, camp allows them to experience the opposite: the freedom to live openly and proudly as Jews, surrounded by a community that understands them.

There is a powerful episode of the podcast Call Me Back titled “My Diaspora Jewish World Is Crumbling” featuring Jesse Brown. The title itself captures a feeling that many Jews have struggled to articulate over the past two years. Yet listening to conversations like that only reinforces my belief that the work happening at Jewish summer camps today is not peripheral to the future of Jewish life…it is central to it.

Because what camp ultimately builds is resilience.

The world will continue to challenge our children. Social media, college campuses, peer pressure, and public discourse are not becoming simpler anytime soon. But years of immersive Jewish camp experiences create roots that hold. Those roots are built in friendship, memory, song, community, shared values, and a lived understanding that being proudly Jewish and connected to Israel is not something to apologize for.

At Herzl Camp, we often say that we raise proud Jews who learn to understand and love Israel through the lens of fun and engagement. That may sound simple, but at this moment, it may also be one of the most important forms of Jewish education we can offer.

And none of this happens without an extraordinary community standing behind it.

As we come off a tremendously successful annual campaign, I feel enormous gratitude to our donors, families, alumni, and supporters who continue to invest so deeply in this mission. At a time when raising strong Jewish children matters so profoundly, your support does far more than help send kids to camp. You are helping build resilient Jewish identity. You are helping create joyful Jewish experiences that stay with children long after summer ends. You are helping raise a generation of proud Jews who understand that Judaism, Jewish peoplehood, and Israel are not burdens to carry quietly, but gifts to live proudly.

For that, and for your belief in what happens here every summer, all of us at Herzl Camp are deeply grateful.

‏עם ישראל חי! 

Tommy