{"id":31356,"date":"2019-01-11T03:39:39","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T11:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=31356"},"modified":"2019-01-09T15:12:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T23:12:08","slug":"some-things-better-in-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/01\/11\/some-things-better-in-person\/","title":{"rendered":"Some things better in person"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Union for Reform Judaism will be\nclosing down their summer camp for teen leadership development: Kutz Camp, in\nWarwick, N.Y. <\/strong>(photo from onehappycampernj.org)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s that time of year again \u2013 when it\u2019s too\ncold in Winnipeg sometimes to go to synagogue. For many folks, this never\nhappens! For others, they never intended to go in the first place. Others would\nlike to attend, but aren\u2019t well enough to leave home when it\u2019s frigid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once, my twins, age 2, wanted to go to a\nShabbat family service when the temperature was ridiculously cold. With wind\nchill, it was below -40. We bundled them up, got outside (we don\u2019t have a garage),\nseat belted them in and, though the cars were plugged in, car #1 wouldn\u2019t\nstart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our hands were stiff with cold as we took off\nour mitts, got the twins out of their car seats and into the other car, and\nthen? Car #2 wouldn\u2019t start either. Dang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We grabbed the kids, rushed back indoors, and\nthey screamed. No services. What would we do? We streamed a service from my\nparents\u2019 Virginia congregation online. The screaming stopped. The kids were\ntransfixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, streaming services at home is the\nonly answer. However, it\u2019s not the same as being there. No one knows whether\nyou stand up and sit down. And if you sing along? You\u2019re all alone doing it. If\nthe streaming has a hiccup, well, I\u2019ve been known to give up. (I\u2019d only \u201cgive\nup\u201d in person if my kids disrupted things.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it\u2019s fair to say that technology offers\namazing benefits, but it\u2019s not being there in the flesh. There are rabbinic\ndiscussions on why streaming doesn\u2019t fulfil certain mitzvot and, of course, it\ncertainly doesn\u2019t abide by the traditional things you can \u201cdo\u201d on Shabbat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why bring this up? I recently learned that the\nUnion for Reform Judaism will be closing down their summer camp for teen\nleadership development: Kutz Camp, in Warwick, N.Y. In the press release\nannouncing its reluctant close, the Reform movement noted that, in its 54\nyears, the camp has been a living laboratory. Some of the best and most\ninnovative Reform Jewish experiences happen there. However, today\u2019s teens seek\nexperiences closer to home, and at different times during the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a camper for two years and a staff member\nfor one, Kutz offered me the opportunity both to learn a marketable skill and\nto wrestle deeply with Jewish music, texts and tradition. The marketable skill,\nsong leading, allowed me to earn money teaching music at summer camps, at\nreligious schools and in adult education classes for years. It helped cover\nexpenses during my undergraduate and graduate degrees. It offered me a great\ndeal of joy and spiritual meaning. I helped create kid communities who sang\ntheir way right through services together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also joined a program called Torah Corps,\nwhich allowed me to study and learn Torah and commentary every camp day with\nother similarly motivated teenagers. It was a meaningful endeavour, and it gave\nme an opportunity to feel less alone about my passion for both Jewish text and\nprayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people who attended Kutz Camp over the\nyears went on to be real leaders, not just in their congregations, but also in\nthe larger Jewish community and beyond. Every so often, I hear a name pop up\nand I remember someone from summer camp. These are people who make change in\nthe world far beyond a single summer experience. For instance, Debbie Friedman\n(z\u201dl), the famous song leader and Jewish musician, got her start at Kutz Camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Andy Rehfeld, the newly appointed president\nfor the Reform movement\u2019s seminary and graduate school, HUC-JIR, was an admired\nmentor and song leader of mine at Kutz Camp. For years, I toted around cassette\ntapes that recorded the entire NFTY Chordster<\/em>, an encyclopedic \u201creal\nbook\u201d for Reform Jewish song leaders. I used a Walkman, boom box and car\nstereo. I learned every single melody that Andy sang into that recording. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I Googled Andy\u2019s name, three or four other\nnames from camp popped up \u2013 all are now rabbis, cantors, educators or other\nleaders. Kutz Camp was an incubator. It attracted teenagers from all over the\nUnited States, Canada, England, Israel and elsewhere. Through Kutz Camp, I had\ncontacts all over the continent (and beyond) for quite awhile. When I went far\naway from home to attend Cornell University in upstate New York, I wasn\u2019t\nalone! I went with several dear friends from camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sad that Kutz Camp will close. It\u2019s sited\nin a beautiful place, though the buildings were falling down even when I was\nthere, around 30 years ago. However, just as online streaming has changed our\noptions when it comes to attending services or Jewish learning online, it has\nalso taken away the need for some families to send their kids away to camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those face-to-face leadership incubators \u2013\nJewish summer camps \u2013 are priceless. I met people from all over the world at\nKutz, just as I knew teenagers who did the same at USY, Habonim Dror and other\ncamps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We give up some things when we stay home. Maybe\nit\u2019s the casual exchanges at shul that we miss. Or that we can\u2019t hear everyone\nsinging harmonies around us in the Kutz Camp congregation. Or perhaps it\u2019s\nmissing a lifelong friendship or even a spouse you might have met at camp.\nSometimes, it\u2019s just better to be there in person. (Assuming your car will\nstart!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joanne Seiff<\/strong> has written for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including <\/em>From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. See more about her at joanneseiff.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Union for Reform Judaism will be closing down their summer camp for teen leadership development: Kutz Camp, in Warwick, N.Y. (photo from onehappycampernj.org) It\u2019s that time of year again \u2013 when it\u2019s too cold in Winnipeg sometimes to go to synagogue. For many folks, this never happens! For others, they never intended to go in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1573,218,5563,1881],"class_list":["post-31356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-camp","tag-judaism","tag-leadership","tag-technology"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}