Session 3 – Day (I don’t really know anymore): Tribe Talk

Hi Herzl Family!

Rested and happy is the best way to have a good camp day. We got off to a great start because last night was a straight to bed night. No lights out programs after and amazing Bikkurim and this morning we did a “sleep in” with a delayed flag start at 9 o’clock. We were all pretty rested and very happy, especially those who were on the yellow team! 

We started a new Chug week today, which means kids got to switch their activities and try something new or hopefully stay in something of which they just can’t get enough. But I think the highlight of today isn’t about Camp fun and Camp activities and campy, camp, campness. 

Today we got to get with our older campers, Ozrim, and some staff an opportunity to talk about antisemitism and some of the things they deal with when they’re not in the cocoon of safety here at camp.  

For those of you who were with us last year, you may remember that we brought in an organization called Unpacked who helps young teenagers to young adults a way to hone in and develop dialogue around Israel and some of the post Oct. 7 challenges. 

This off-season Danya and I were looking for organizations to come in and help continue that dialogue and more. One of the things that quite honestly makes me lose sleep and gives me a pit of my stomach, and I guess it’s the reason that I get to have this awesome roll and do this job, is we saw an abundance of kids this off-season talking about having to hide their Star of David necklace, their Chai, their Hebrew name, in their shirt as they walked into a room and they weren’t carrying it (or their Judaism) with pride. I don’t know if any of my friends who wear a cross on their neck ever think about the fact that they may have to hide it or feel that they have to hide it. 

Anyway, Danya found this organization called Tribe Talk (Tribetalk.org) and they were here today meeting with our Kadima, B’yachad,Ozrim, and their staff (in two separate presentations).  

I’m very confident that many of you are going to receive some letters about this, or else you’ll hear about it in dialogue on down the road, but it was very well received and all the campers were super attentive and engaged. It was really impressive and it made me feel proud that we’re doing our part, not just having the fun of camp, but helping raise proud Jews who love Israel. I won’t go into the fine details of the presentation, because I’m going to encourage you to tune into our podcast…HerzlCast, which, by the way, has had a whole bunch of technical challenges this year, so I apologize that we are delayed a little bit on these, but I did sit with Jori from Tribe Talk after her presentations so that you could get a glimpse of what our kids were engaging in and listening to.   

Now, back to the campy stuff… On my way back to the porch tonight for the nightly team meeting, while walking through camp under the dark sky with a bright crescent moon shining bright over Machaneh Paradise, my thoughts turned away from preparing our kids to go back into the world where they’re not in this cocoon of safety, instead a smile crossed my face and a feeling of abundant joy in listening to the cacophony of kids, laughing, yelling, shouting, playing, and it brought me back to that symphony.  That symphony of joy, that symphony of Jewish kids, together…just being kids,  learning to be positive community members, and growing their confidence in being who they are where there is little to no judgment around them. That symphony reminds me that…

All is well, safely rest. 

Thank you for sending your kid to Herzl Camp. 

‏לילה טוב

Tommy