Cejwin Camps
Location
Port Jervis, New York
Coordinates41°23′59″N 74°39′13″W / 41.3997222°N 74.6536111°W / 41.3997222; -74.6536111
Information
Former nameCentral Jewish Institute Camps (until 1933)
TypeJewish summer camp
Founded1919 (1919)
FounderDr. Albert P. Schoolman
Closed1992 (1992)
GenderCo-educational
Enrollment1,300 (1961)[1]

Cejwin Camps was a Jewish summer camp in the Catskill Mountains, established in 1919 by the Central Jewish Institute. At its height it was "the most significant non-Hebrew Jewish cultural camp."[2]

History

The camp was founded in 1919 by the Central Jewish Institute, an independent Jewish community center in Manhattan,[3] as a two-week vacation home for needy Talmud Torah students. After its second summer, it was expanded into an educational residential camp under the leadership of the Institute's director, Dr. Albert P. Schoolman, a disciple of Samson Benderly.[4][2] A permanent site for the camp on Martin's Lake near Port Jervis, New York was purchased in 1923, and opened the following July.[5]

Cejwin's Jewish practice was influenced by the Reconstructionist outlooks of Rabbis Mordecai Kaplan and Ira Eisenstein, both of whom frequently visited the camp.[5] Its initial program included Hebrew and Judaica classes alongside recreational camp activities like music and arts and crafts.[6] Though formal instruction was abandoned during the Great Depression, Schoolman continued to promote Hebrew and Judaism through informal education.[5]

The camp's name was changed from Central Jewish Institute Camps to Cejwin Camps in 1933.[5]

Cejwin consisted of seven camps, divided by age groups: three for boys (Hadar, Carmel and Aviv), three for girls (Hadas, Carmela and Aviva), and one co-ed (Yonim, the youngest). In the 1970s, Yonim was divided into Junior Hadar and Junior Hadas.

Legacy

As one of the first Jewish cultural camps in the United States,[7] Cejwin Camps was highly influential in the camping movement.[8] The founders of Camp Ramah, one of whom had previously attended Cejwin, were inspired by the camp's model,[4] while Schoolman himself went on to help found Camp Modin in Maine.[4]

Notable alumni and staff

References

  1. ↑ Mykoff, Nancy. "Summer Camping in the United States". Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Cohen, Burton I. (2007). "Jewish Camping". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
  3. ↑ Zeder, Jeri (December 29, 2006). "The Power of Camp". The Jewish Daily Forward. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 Sarna, Jonathan D. (2006). "The Crucial Decade in Jewish Camping" (PDF). In Lorge, Michael M.; Zola, Gary Phillip (eds.). A Place of Our Own: The Rise of Reform Jewish Camping. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-0-8173-5293-6.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Krasner, Jonathan B. (2011). "'An Environment of Our Own Making': The Origins of the Jewish Culture Camp". The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education. Waltham, Mass.: Brandeis University Press. pp. 268–322. ISBN 978-1-61168-293-9.
  6. ↑ Benor, Sarah Bunin; Krasner, Jonathan; Avni, Sharon (2020). Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community at American Jewish Summer Camps. Rutgers University Press. pp. 21–22. ISBN 978-0-8135-8875-9.
  7. ↑ Goodman, Mark S. (2009). "The Folk and Folk/Rock Movement of the Sixties". In Friedmann, Jonathan L. (ed.). Perspectives on Jewish Music: Secular and Sacred. Lexington Books. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-7391-4152-6.
  8. ↑ Berkson, I. B. (Winter 1949). "Thirty Years of Cejwin Camps". Jewish Education. National Council for Jewish Education. 21 (1): 7–8. doi:10.1080/0021642490210101.
  9. ↑ Ingall, Carol K. (2010). "Sylvia C. Ettenberg: A Portrait in Practical Wisdom". In Ingall, Carol K. (ed.). The Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education, 1910–1965. Waltham, Mass.: Brandeis University Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-1-58465-909-9.
  10. ↑ "Ellen Greene". Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
  11. ↑ Cummins, June; Dunietz, Alexandra (2021). "Camp Cejwin: 1942–1960". From Sarah to Sydney: The Woman Behind All-of-a-Kind Family. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 198–219. doi:10.12987/9780300258363-011. ISBN 978-0-300-25836-3. JSTOR j.ctv1n9dkqz. S2CID 246121909.
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