Camp Solomon Schechter’s Spark event in Vancouver on May 4 honours the Siegel family’s generational connections to the camp.(photo from campschechter.org)
Once again, Camp Solomon Schechter (CSS) is hosting one of its three annual Schechter Spark events in Vancouver – on May 4, at the Tap & Barrel Bridges location on Granville Island.
The fundraising and community-building events hosted by the camp each year run simultaneously in Vancouver, Seattle and Portland – the camp’s main hub cities. This year’s Schechter Spark will honour three families – one tied to each location – who have generational connections to the camp. In Vancouver, former Beth Tikvah and Beth Israel spiritual leader Rabbi Howard Siegel, Ellen Siegel and their growing family will be celebrated.
Rabbi Siegel, originally from Spokane, Wash., first attended CSS in 1961, when it was located on Whidbey Island. His experiences there led him down a path toward the Conservative rabbinate, a Jewish family and a life of Jewish service that took him to Vancouver, as well as many communities in the United States. In 1968, he convinced his then-girlfriend, Ellen Kushner, to join him as a camp counselor. The couple returned again to CSS in 1970, this time at its new (and current) Tumwater, Wash., location – Howard as educational director and Ellen as camp nurse.
Ellen Siegel credits the camp for helping her perfect her independence as a health practitioner, while Howard Siegel built his future rabbinate under the mentorship of Portland’s Rabbi Joshua Stampfer and Vancouver’s Rabbi Wilfred Solomon.
The Siegels’ three children also attended CSS and their oldest daughter, Ronit, began her relationship with husband Tadd Berger while they were summer staff together in the 1990s. Naturally, they sent their three children to CSS, and all three have been both campers and staff.
The Seattle and Portland Sparks will recognize the Schiller families and Atkins families, respectively, with more than 500 participants expected to attend between the three locations.
“As we celebrate another year of impact, Spark is a time to honour our past, celebrate our present and invest in our future,” said CSS executive director Zach Duitch. “We look forward to gathering with our beloved community to share stories, laughter and our collective commitment to Jewish camping.”
Camp Solomon Schechter has been a cornerstone of Jewish life in the Pacific Northwest for more than 70 years. Spark endeavours to embody the spirit of camp, bringing its values to life through an evening of joy, generosity and togetherness.
Schechter Spark in Vancouver is a free event with online registration, and will include appetizers, drinks and a few camp-style special presentations. For more information or to register, visit campschechter.org/spark or contact Leah Conley, [email protected].
Lisa and Andrew Altow with their family on visitors day at Camp Solomon Schechter in 2013. (photo from the Altow family)
On May 5, Camp Solomon Schechter will honour four long-time relationships that were built at the camp. Part of its 70th-anniversary celebrations, there will be three separate events in three different cities – Portland, Seattle and Vancouver – on the same day. Those being honoured include Vancouverites Lisa and Andrew Altow, and Yvonne Rosenberg.
“One of the most special things about camp is the lifelong friendships that it creates and the geographic area that it spans,” Zach Duitch, executive director of Camp Solomon Schechter, told the Independent. “We say camp friends are forever friends and we know that having Jewish friendships throughout your life is one of the most significant and important relationships we have. This is what builds Jewish community.”
Of this year’s honourees, he said, “We have a friendship that has spanned three generations and two countries, from Portland to BC, Yvonne and Sharon [Stern] – they went to camp together, their children went to camp together, their grandchildren go to camp together. We have two relationships that are marriages from camp, the Korches [Melissa and Matt] and the Altows. And we have a beautiful friendship of four friends from four different communities who have stayed friends throughout their lifetime”: Eva Corets, Rochelle Huppin, Wendy Rosen and Karen Twain.
Sharon Stern, left, and Yvonne Rosenberg met in the early 1960s at Camp Solomon Schechter and have been friends ever since. (photo from CSS)
In previous years, Camp Solomon Schechter has awarded the Migdal Or Award to individuals who have provided a “spark of light that guides the way for others to follow.” The inspiration for the award and its first recipients, in 2020, were camp founders Rabbi Joshua and Goldie Stampfer (z”l). While an award won’t be given out this year, the 70th anniversary Schechter Spark will reflect the Stampfers’ “legacy, virtue and commitment to Jewish life and camping.”
Camp Solomon Schechter started in 1954, near Echo Lake, in Washington. The first year, 25 campers attended a one-week session; the next year, 40 campers attended a two-week session.
The camp moved to Whidbey Island in 1958 but outgrew that space within 10 years. With the help again of Seattle Rabbi Joseph Wagner, one of the camp’s founders, as well as Harry Sherman and Rabbi Zev Solomon from Vancouver, BC, a camp property in the Olympia area was found, and it was for sale.
“Rabbi Stampfer immediately called the number and spoke with the owner, Helen Shank,” reads the Our History page of the CSS website. “And, for $300,000, the 200-acre property could be owned by Camp Solomon Schechter. Each of the rabbis from the major cities (Portland, Seattle and Vancouver) committed to raising $100,000 from their communities, and they were able to accomplish the goal in time for summer 1969.”
CSS is still located at the site near Olympia, with some 600 campers and more than 100 staff attending annually, in addition to the Stampfer Retreat Centre and OSPREY Camp (an outdoor education program).
Seventy years is a special anniversary in Judaism.
“The number 70 is considered a lifetime, so much so that 13 years into the second lifetime, at the age of 83, many Jews will have a second bar or bat mitzvah,” explained Duitch. “Where does that number come from? A midrashic tale tells us that there was an old man planting a carob tree by the side of the road when a traveler walked by. The traveler asked the man, ‘Why are you planting that tree? It will never bear fruit in your lifetime.’ The man responded, ‘I’m doing it for the next generation.’ And so, the legend goes, it takes a carob tree 70 years from seed to fruit and that’s where we get that idea of a lifetime. So, this year, at Schechter Spark, we are celebrating our first lifetime and raising funds for our next lifetime.”
“We are looking forward to being at the event with many of our good friends and all our kids,” Andrew Altow told the Independent. He and Lisa attended CSS in the mid-to-late-1970s. “I was a camper,” he said. “Lisa was a camper and, later, a counselor.”
After their first year at CSS, Andrew said there were a couple of reasons for wanting to return for another summer. “First, all our Jewish friends from all the cities – Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Spokane – that went every year. Second, the ruach [spirit], the amazing sense of Judaism and fun together.”
Looking back now some 50 years later, Andrew said, “CSS played a massive role for us. Because of our CSS lifelong camp friendships, we met in our 20s at a party in Bellevue [Washington] and fell in love and got married a few years later – Lisa was from Bellevue and I was from Vancouver. Because of CSS, we maintained a meaningful connection with camp and eventually each of our four kids attended CSS and have made their own lifelong friends.”
Andrew and Lisa have each, at one time or another, served on the CSS board or a board committee.
“CSS has been a Jewish string that has connected us to our Judaism and to Israel in a positive and meaningful way, for which we are extremely grateful,” said Andrew. “Mostly, it’s been the amazing people involved with CSS, whether they be staff or volunteers, each one amazing in their passion for CSS and their genuine love for this magical camp, its mission, its values.”
It was “incredibly important” that their kids also go to Camp Solomon Schechter, said Andrew. “Each child – Josh, Lynne, Joey and Ari – got something different out of camp but their experience reinforced their Judaism and their connection to Israel.
“One summer, it was very special to have all four kids and my nephew from Toronto to attend in the same summer session – five Altows at one session. We were so proud to see how close they all were and continue to be. We believe CSS was an incredible positive influence on all of them.”
Humbled to be one of the Schechter Spark 24 honourees, Andrew said, “In a world today full of hate, full of antisemitism, full of turmoil worldwide, CSS is an oasis of safety for Judaism to shine through our children and teach them the beautiful tenets of Judaism so our children, and future children, can continue to repair the world as our faith illustrates.”
To read about the other Schechter Spark 2024honourees and to RSVP for the (free) local May 5 event at Tap & Barrel in Olympic Village, go to campschechter.org/spark-24. Vancouver co-chairs are Elana Bick and Sheldon Franken, and the special guest will be camp director Manda Graziel.
Thanks to CSS’s 2024 Matchmakers, any new donation to the camp will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $218,000. Visit campschechter.com to donate.
