Tag: anniversaries

Kelley Korbin, left, and Trilby Smith honour Bernie Simpson, who has been a longtime staunch supporter of Camp Miriam, which he attended, starting in the mid-1950s. (photo by Adi Keidar)

Hundreds gathered Dec. 7 to mark 75 years of Camp Miriam. Generations of campers convened at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver for an emotion-packed reunion of alumni and friends, in which the Habonim Dror-affiliated Labour Zionist camp was fêted for having an outsized impact on building British Columbia’s Jewish community.

The celebration actually marked 76 years since the beginning of the camp, but the event, originally scheduled for last year, was postponed as a result of the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks.

Some of those who have strengthened Camp Miriam in recent years were honoured at the celebration. 

Sam Bernofsky paid tribute to Leah Levi, who retired after 17 years as camp registrar, in 2023, but continues her involvement as bookkeeper and keeper of institutional memory. She received an ovation and video-recorded greetings from alumni and friends.

Trilby Smith and Kelley Korbin honoured Bernie Simpson who, among other contributions, has ensured that camperships are available for all who need them, guaranteeing that finances are never a barrier to participation. Simpson also nurtured relationships with non-Jewish supporters of the camp, including former BC Supreme Court Justice Angelo Branca, and former Speaker of the House of Commons John Fraser, both now deceased. Through fundraising and personal contributions, Simpson is credited with playing a core role in every capital project the camp has completed in recent decades. He is also Camp Miriam’s unofficial historian and archivist.

Speaking to the Independent, Simpson credited Camp Miriam (along with his wife, Lee) for every success in his life, including his time as a member of the BC legislature. 

“It means everything to me,” Simpson said of the camp, which he began attending in the mid-1950s. “It probably shaped my whole life. The Habonim leadership at that time, which was the camp leadership, took me under their wing. I came from quite a disturbed home and they had lots of patience for me and they ended up being my life. 

“They had time for a shmuck like me,” he said. “That was remarkable. But I’m not the only person.”

Alan Tuffs was being physically abused in his home, Simpson said. The head of the Jewish welfare agency, Jessie Allman, called Simpson up and asked if Camp Miriam would “take this boy.”

Tuffs went on to study Judaism in Israel and recently retired as a rabbi in Hollywood, Fla., after 45 years. 

Shalom Preker was another Miriam success story, according to Simpson, having overcome challenges to become a PhD and a global expert in health financing. Preker has served in senior roles at the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, focused on the health sector in developing countries.

Pioneers of the movement – often kids themselves at the time – were remembered throughout the evening. Michael Livni, né Langer, spearheaded the purchase of the camp on Gabriola Island. As a teenager, Langer/Livni cajoled philanthropists to front the money to purchase the camp’s site from the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, precursor to the New Democratic Party, in 1956. 

Until then, Habonim had rented camps for summer programming, and ran youth programs in Vancouver throughout the year. Livni, who made aliyah and went on to be a leading figure in both Reform Zionism and the kibbutz movement in Israel, died this year at age 89.

Simpson credited the late Army & Navy department store founder Sam Cohen, as well as the late Ben and Esther Dayson and the late Norman Rothstein as benefactors who set the foundation for Camp Miriam’s long-term sustainability. 

The anniversary event featured a display of the camp over the decades and pioneers, living and departed, were celebrated. Camp “matriarch” Gloria Levi was on hand, and the movement’s leaders of the past and present shared memories.

Miriam alumni Michael Schwartz emceed the evening, provided a moving reflection on the impacts of Oct. 7 on the Habonim community, and recalled his own memories of camp.

“I got to experience moments I will never forget,” Schwartz said, including the staging of a “show trial” of the Little Mermaid. “Through all these experiences – some absurd, yes – Miriam taught me some of life’s most important lessons. It taught me about the so-called big, important things, like history and justice, political philosophy, but it also taught me about the truly important things, like teamwork, leadership, friendship and girls.”

Jay Eidelman, the camp’s new director of fundraising and strategic planning, said that next summer’s enrolment will be a record 360, with a waiting list of others who want to come. 

“That’s 5% more than last year, which was also a record enrolment,” he said. “Our retention rate is an astounding 90%.”

Especially in this time of rising antisemitism, Eidelman said, Jewish kids need safe spaces. 

“Miriam is that space and for many of our campers,” he said. “Miriam is the only place where they can explore their Jewish identities, their relationship to Israel and their relationship to our community.”

He noted that 85% of Miriam campers attend public schools and more than half come from outside the city of Vancouver. 

“We are growing and we need to grow sustainably,” he said. “That’s why, in 2022, with the help of the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation, we started a site master planning process to help us grow sustainably.”

Brian Tucker, chair of the camp’s board, and Ariella Smith-Eidelman, who is going into her second year as rosh machenah (head of camp), spoke from their respective positions. Video greetings were shared from alumni Selina Robinson, former provincial cabinet minister, and Seth Rogen, comedian and actor.

The anniversary celebration was emotional, said Leya Robinson, who took over as Camp Miriam’s community director last year, succeeding Levi. Before returning to her hometown of Vancouver, Robinson (a second-generation Habonimnik, thanks to her mother Selina) worked for the North American Habonim movement in New York as director of education and then spent five years in Israel, where she directed programs in Israel for Habonim Dror campers and university students worldwide.

“It was very heartwarming, almost in an overwhelming way,” Robinson said of the event. “Just to have that deep a sense of belonging and to look around and see how many other people felt that same sense of community and belonging to Camp Miriam. I just feel so lucky to be a part of the community and to have the experience at Camp Miriam.”

In these challenging times, she said, that connection is vital.

“It’s really easy to fall into despair seeing what’s happening, and having community helps to build up that sense of hope or to maintain that sense of hope and to see that we are not isolated and we have friends and partners and people to talk with,” she said.

David Bogdanov told the Independent that his camping experiences in the late 1970s and early ’80s were “very transformative and almost lifesaving.”

“It gave me a strong love of Israel,” he said. “It really enhanced my relationship with the Jewish community and really informed my whole life to a very large degree.”

Michelle Plotkin, a member of the committee that put the anniversary event together, wasn’t a camper herself but has seen the camp’s effects on her daughter.

“It just offers so many opportunities for the kids to be independent and learn how to be comfortable outside their comfort zone and stretch their minds and imaginations,” Plotkin said. “My daughter does things I never would have expected her to be comfortable doing.”

It was Plotkin’s idea to put together a one-time band for the event. The six-member group was made up of three professional and three amateur musicians, all of them Miriam alumni. The musicians, who dubbed themselves the Final Messiba, were Yonni Silberman (drums), Sunny Zatzick (guitar), Daniel Pimentel (bass guitar), Ira Cooper (vocals), Roy Vizer (percussion) and Jessica Stuart (lead guitar and vocals, and music director).

Gretchen DuMoulin, who chaired the evening’s organizing committee, has experienced almost all aspects of camp, from being a camper herself, a madricha (counsellor), a parent to campers and madrichim, and an organizer of family camps and then the 75th anniversary celebration.

She said Camp Miriam “is a whole Jewish and cultural experience. Every aspect of camp is thoughtfully planned with aspects of Jewish values, equality, social justice and leadership woven throughout. Every camper has an opportunity to become a leader at some level and for their voice to be heard and counted. It is 100% a youth leadership-run camp.”

DuMoulin cites lasting friendships as an enduring legacy of camp.

“There is something about spending weeks at a time, day and night, independently but together,” she said, “that just allows you to form friendships in a different way than when you are at home and in school.” 

For more about the camp, visit, campmiriam.org.