{"id":48189,"date":"2025-12-19T01:33:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T09:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=48189"},"modified":"2025-12-18T18:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T02:25:17","slug":"from-the-ji-archives-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2025\/12\/19\/from-the-ji-archives-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"From the JI archives \u2026 camp"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image<\/a>
Sept. 3, 1937: \u201cIt is practically impossible in the space of a short article to fully describe the happy holiday enjoyed by eighty-five children at the Council of Jewish Women Camp at Crescent Beach this summer,\u201d begins this article by Mrs. M. M. Grossman. I know the first \u201cM\u201d refers to Max, but I couldn\u2019t find his wife\u2019s name before we went to press.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What strikes me every time the Jewish Independent <\/i>does a Camp Guide issue is the staying power of our Jewish summer camps.<\/p>\n

Camp Hatikvah was started in 1937 at Crescent Beach by the National Council of Jewish Women. It was run under their auspices until 1944, when, according to the camp\u2019s website, \u201cmembers of the Young Judaea youth organization arranged to first rent, and then later acquire, the property to create Camp Hatikvah.\u201d The camp is located on Lake Kalamalka in the Okanagan Valley.<\/p>\n

The site quotes the Independent<\/i>\u2019s predecessor, the Jewish Western Bulletin<\/i>, noting that a 1949 article in the JWB<\/i> stated that \u201cCamp Hatikvah provided early participants with a \u2018place where they could live and express themselves as Jews, unhampered with fear of others and free from the out-of-place feeling that is so often a part of North American Jewishness.\u2019 Developed in the aftermath of the Holocaust, Hatikvah existed to \u2018produce proud, happy Jewish youth who were earnest and sincere in their beliefs\u2019 and committed to the re-building of the Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
April 22, 1955: Camp BB Riback comes into existence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And the camp wasn\u2019t territorial, it appears. According to a 1948 article in the JWB<\/i>, Camp Hatikvah allowed Habonim Machaneh<\/i> (Camp) to use its facilities for two weeks. By 1949, Habonim was renting a camp on Gabriola Island and, by 1951, Habonim Camp Miriam was in its third year, but, it seems, its first with the name Camp Miriam.<\/p>\n

Camp BB Riback, in Pine Lake, Alta., was founded in 1955, led by Ted Riback of Calgary, who was chair of the B\u2019nai B\u2019rith Camp committee. There were two articles in the April 22, 1955, JWB <\/i>about it, one about the camp and one about the upcoming B\u2019nai B\u2019rith convention, the highlight of which was anticipated to be a discussion about the camp.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
July 13, 1956: Kids from Vancouver have always attended Camp Solomon Schechter in Washington state.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Camp Solomon Schechter was established by rabbis Joshua Stampfer and Joseph Wagner in 1954, the first mention I could find of it in the JWB<\/i> was in 1956. The week-long camp at Echo Lake, Wash., was also under the supervision of Rabbi Bert Woythaler of Vancouver\u2019s Congregation Beth Israel and the Pacific Northwest Region of the United Synagogue sponsored it. The camp has been located near Olympia, Wash., since 1968.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
Dec. 29, 2006: Even before Camp Kalsman had a summer session, they were part of the Jewish Western Bulletin\u2019s Camp Guide.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Relative newcomer Camp Kalsman started in 2007, and the JWB <\/i>has followed it since its beginnings, as well. In 2006, the camp ran an ad looking for a director and, in our Dec. 29, 2006, Camp Guide, David Berkman, the newly appointed director, spoke to the paper about the Union for Reform Judaism camp, in Arlington, Wash. \u201cThe buildings are under construction. Staff and campers are being recruited; programs are being planned and we must buy everything \u2013 bunks, bats, balls, arts and crafts supplies, mops\u2026. I have a long wish list,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As that 2006 article by Pearl Salkin noted, \u201cThe camps might not have big brass bands, but the excitement is already building. If you want your children to join in the fun, sign them up now, before the parade passes by.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What strikes me every time the Jewish Independent does a Camp Guide issue is the staying power of our Jewish summer camps. Camp Hatikvah was started in 1937 at Crescent Beach by the National Council of Jewish Women. It was run under their auspices until 1944, when, according to the camp\u2019s website, \u201cmembers of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4242,22856,129,24550,131],"class_list":["post-48189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","tag-history","tag-jewish-summer-camp","tag-jewish-western-bulletin","tag-ji-95","tag-jwb"],"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\/48189","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=48189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}