“A Ticket to Camp”

Dear Friends,

The Camp Judaea story is one of family, fun, culture, heritage, and Tzedakah.  Camp Judaea is a very special place and hundreds of children dream of the opportunity of being a part of our family.  As a Camp Judaea community, we have the task of raising scholarship monies that will help to make the dreams of our campers a reality; providing them with the financial resources they need which will enable them to obtain their “Ticket to Camp”.

Last summer Camp Judaea was able to raise $60,000 toward scholarship.  In addition, our campers received funds totaling over $100,000 from Hadassah, Jewish federations, synagogues and family, enabling them to send their children to camp. Unfortunately, we were not able to help all of the campers in need.  This summer, the task will be even greater due to the continued economic turmoil. We are in dire need of your financial support.

As we approach the end of the year, we encourage you to strongly consider your support for Camp Judaea and a gift to our scholarship project “A Ticket to Camp” which will directly enrich the lives of more and more children this summer and in the summers to come.  Any gift, no matter how large or small will make an impact in the life of a Jewish child for whom a summer camping experience will otherwise be out of reach.  All scholarship gifts will be matched 1:1 by the Marcus Foundation up to a maximum of $30,000, making our goal of $60,000 more attainable.  We are very grateful for this opportunity and all of your support.  Your contribution will indeed be “The Ticket” in accomplishing our mission of creating tomorrow’s Jewish leaders.

Change the life of a child today by supporting “A Ticket to Camp” with your tax deductible Hanukkah gift. To donate CLICK HERE or send a check to Camp Judaea, 2700 NE Expy, C500, Atlanta, GA 30345.

Happy Hanukkah and thank you in advance for your support!

Robin Mendelson                                                          Greg Schlam
Scholarship Campaign Chair                                          Development Associate
 
 
How can you say no to that:
 

Camp Judaea Alumni Spotlight - Ethan Berman

Ethan Berman now goes by Eitan after making Aliya right after working at Camp Judaea last summer. Eitan joined Garin Tzabar to help him with his move. Garin Tzabar, a program run by the Friends of the Israel Scouts, inc., was founded in 1991. Garin, a Hebrew word for “core” or “seed”, is a term used in Israel for a group of soldiers who choose to experience their army service together as a social unit of mutual support and camaraderie. The members of Garin Tzabar, a group formed for Diaspora Jews and sons od Israelis who choose to move to Israel and serve in the IDF, are adopted by the Israel Scouts and placed in a hosting kibbutz that quickly becomes their home away from home throughout the duration of their army service.  214 people made Aliya with Garin Tzabar in 2009.  Upon arrival, Eitan was placed on Kibbutz Malkiya which is in the northeast Galil, on the Lebanese border.  Kibbutz Malkiya will be his home base during his army service.  Eitan began his army service this month and is with a Nahal unit near Arad.

Eitan would love letters or care packages! This is his information:
Eitan Berman
Garin Tzabar
Kibbutz Malkiya
D.N. HaMarom HaGalil 13845

Camp Judaea has participated in the Lone Soldier Program through Merkaz Hamagshimim in Israel to let our alumni that are alone in Israel and in the army know that we are thinking about them.  Merkaz Hamagshimim Hadassah’s Lone Soldier Project (“Chayalim Bodedim”) stems from an understanding of the difficulties lone soldiers face and a desire to ease those difficulties by providing them with a home away from home.  Between 2005-2007, the scope of the Lone Soldier Project has expanded. Initially, it provided basic services to 80 English-speaking lone soldiers serving in the IDF. Today, the project provides more extensive services to 300 lone soldiers.  For the past 5 years, Camp Judaea has sent our CJ Alumni that are "Chayalim Bodedim" packages from our campers.

Camp Judaea Receives a $10,000 Gift

(© EllenShub 2009)

In November, Camp Judaea received a $10,000 gift from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation at the Grinspoon Institute Conference in Massachusetts.  Camp Judaea was invited to participate in the Grinspoon Institute's "Create a Jewish Legacy" Program in February.  As a part of this program, the Institute challenged our legacy team to secure 25 legacy society members by November 2009 for a gift of $10,000.  Not only was Camp Judaea able to achieve its goal of 25 members, we now have 50 members in our "Legacy for the Generations Society."

We will be utilizing the gift to plant trees at camp in honor of our legacy members and to beautify the entrance of the camp property.  Legacy giving opportunities gives you the ability to make plans today to make a gift to Camp Judaea now or in the future. Typically legacy gifts are wills, endowments, gifts of property, insurance policies or investments you own.  Thank you to all of our legacy members that have chosen to be our partners for a lifetime.

To join our Legacy for the Generations Society, please contact Greg Schlam at 404-634-7883 or gregschlam@campjudaea.org.

A New Adventure in Jewish Scouting

Camp Judaea announces the addition of a program that will enable scouts to work on receiving emblems, awards, belt loops, badges and pins. This will be an optional one hour daily program for scouts where staff members will help the campers select, organize, achieve and apply for their awards.
Development of the new program will begin this winter and will be offered during the 2010 summer season. Camp Judaea’s morning choice program, Chuggim, is currently being reviewed and transformed. The new Chuggim Program will give campers many more specialized programs and tracks from scouting to arts and team sports to horseback riding.
For further information, please contact Lori Goldstein at lori@campjudaea.org or 404-634-7883.

Camp Judaea at the New Haven Charrette

Camp Judaea had a fabulous experience participating in our first architectural "charrette". A charrette is a meeting of design professionals that come together to draft solutions to design challenges. The meeting of the minds was composed of architects John Yurko, George Gatta and our wonderful host Roberto Espejo. In addition, Michele Burger, Barbara Extein and Daniel Karchem join the team from the CJ Board along with Sandra Bass, the camp director.  We all met in New Haven, CT, where Roberto is a professor of architecture at Yale.  The intention of the meeting was to come together and work on our upcoming Amphitheater project and complete possible cabin designs.  Camp Judaea is honored to be working with such a diverse and knowledgeable team!

We are hoping to soon have a finalized design for our new Amphitheater and can wait to break ground on the project.  If you have not yet reserved your own personalized brick, do so today. Do not miss our on the opportunity to join us on this project.  To reserve your brick, please go to http://www.cjbricks.com/.

Here is the beginning of our project: