Session 2 – Day (I forgot): Israeli Shabbat!

Hi Herzl Family!

The final Shabat just came to a close and I just got back to the porch. There’s a huge bonfire burning on the other side of the lake creating a glow on the water reminiscent of a harvest moon. There’s not a cloud in the sky, and the stars are starting to shine and there’s still the joyous voices of campers in their staff echoing around camp as they venture into their lights out programs.

It was a beautiful Shabbat, as always. This Shabbat was put together by our Israeli staff, Ozrim, and campers. They did a fantastic job!

A lot of your campers are coming home in a couple days, so this week Shabbat will be fresh on their minds and hopefully they’ll be able to tell you the stories from their experience, their voice, from their eyes. But because we have some older campers here too for the next three weeks, here’s a  quick glimpse into what Friday night looked like.

The caravan was led by all of our Israeli campers, Ozrim, and staff carrying these Israeli flag next to the Torah as we walked around Camp collecting everybody in that awesome ribbon of white.

Kabbalat Shabbat was a pure Herzl Camp fun service with the exception of the Mi shebeirach, two beautiful poems by some of our is Israel Ozrim who lost family on October 7 or throughout the war, and of course the Mourners Kaddish. But it kept a tempo of Camp’s loving and joyful embrace. 

Shira was something super special because the Israelis showed their incredible talent and got everyone swaying back and forth to the beautiful sounds of Israeli songs and phenomenal voices along with our Shira team who who mixed in our Herzl staples and kept us all engaged and captivated. Of course, there were  a number of the younger campers running around in the back or outside on the Chadar lawn, but our awesome staff was with them making their Friday night experience as campy as possible. 

I’m gonna run out of time tonight. I need to hit the sack a little early because I have an early wake up to do some really fun things with campers who will be leaving us on Monday morning and I made some promises that I must keep! 

So good night from the North wood and tomorrow, I promise to give you a nice juicy Ted Talk that will be filled with the reflection of second session

But for now…

All is well, safely rest. 

Thanks for sending your kid to Herzl Camp

לילה טוב

Tommy