This past week, we held orientation for approximately 350 counselors. Most had been with us for years, some had just begun their journey with us, but all had chosen - for myriad reasons - to spend their summer working with our children. Some will teach sports and lanyard, offering everyday kids a chance for everyday summer fun; others will work with children with special needs, be it cancer or autism, and still others will teach specialized arts like theatre to budding thespians. Each of these counselors will leave a mark on the life of a child this summer and, if they are smart, they will allow a child to leave a mark on their lives as well.
But it's the way in which we as an agency teach these counselors to interact with our children that defines who we are, and so - in a break from the usual first aid and safety training - we taught them all about the basic Jewish tenets that are the underpinnings of our summer camps. We spoke about the JCC, and what it means to be a Jewish Community Center, and about the mission we have to enhance life for both Jews and non-Jews alike. We spoke about the central core values we hold and want them to teach their children: Tzedakah - to live justly, righteously, and charitably; Tikun Olam - to repair the world, whether it be the world entire or the world of an individual child. We spoke of our traditions - of our bond and commitment to Israel, its culture, people and our shared history, and of Shabbat - not necessarily the physical day, but the power of stopping... of "taking Shabbat" so that we can rest our bodies, think about what we have accomplished in the week that just passed, and commit ourselves to doing better. And we likened all of these Jewish precepts to our new STARFISH program in camp - standing for Sportsmanship, Tolerance, Appreciation, Respect, Friendship, Integrity, Sensitivity and Helpfulness. All of these character traits, each of which we stress in our camp programs, derive from our values and traditions as Jews.
Starting today, nearly 1400 children will descend on our campgrounds, and we will be ready. We will be ready because of our rich traditions, our values, and the strength of a calling and a history that binds us l'dor v'dor - from generation to generation.
Best always,
Arnie Preminger
President & CEO of the Friedberg JCC and Sunrise Day Camp
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
A Mother’s Day Memory
I can still remember when my mother applied to Bronx House Emanuel Camps for scholarship so that my sister and I could go to camp. As an agency in the UJA-Federation system, the folks at Bronx House (now known as Berkshire-Hills Emanuel Camps) made sure we could go to camp, despite my family not having enough money to send us. Many years later, my mom, whose fortunes had slowly turned over the years, attended a fundraiser with me for our JCC, where she made a significant contribution to our own scholarship fund. "When I needed help for you kids," she told me, "people were there for us. Now it's my turn to give back so that someone else's children can go to camp. That's how it works."
One of the highest forms of tzedakah - I learned from my Hebrew School days - is when the giver and the receiver don't know one another. No one should be beholden to another; those of us who have the ability to give should do so with an open heart, while those of us who need a little help should never feel embarrassed to accept it. That's always been our philosophy here at the JCC, where the inability to pay has never prevented someone in need from attending a program, be it camp, preschool or membership. And who knows... maybe someday - like what my mom did - someone in need today will help someone else tomorrow.
On the front page of our website - www.friedbergjcc.org - there's a little button on the right that you can click on which says "Make a Donation". On page 2 of the donation page, you can then allocate your gift to anywhere you want it to go; just write in the box marked "my gift is a tribute to" the name of a person or program, and we'll take it from there. You can write "Camp Scholarship" or "Preschool Scholarship," or even the name of someone who you would like to honor. Maybe even your mom. After all, there's no better way to honor our mothers than by helping care for a child in need.
Warmest regards,
Arnie Preminger
President & CEO of the Friedberg JCC and Sunrise Day Camp
One of the highest forms of tzedakah - I learned from my Hebrew School days - is when the giver and the receiver don't know one another. No one should be beholden to another; those of us who have the ability to give should do so with an open heart, while those of us who need a little help should never feel embarrassed to accept it. That's always been our philosophy here at the JCC, where the inability to pay has never prevented someone in need from attending a program, be it camp, preschool or membership. And who knows... maybe someday - like what my mom did - someone in need today will help someone else tomorrow.
On the front page of our website - www.friedbergjcc.org - there's a little button on the right that you can click on which says "Make a Donation". On page 2 of the donation page, you can then allocate your gift to anywhere you want it to go; just write in the box marked "my gift is a tribute to" the name of a person or program, and we'll take it from there. You can write "Camp Scholarship" or "Preschool Scholarship," or even the name of someone who you would like to honor. Maybe even your mom. After all, there's no better way to honor our mothers than by helping care for a child in need.
Warmest regards,
Arnie Preminger
President & CEO of the Friedberg JCC and Sunrise Day Camp
Monday, April 18, 2011
Passover and Us
Around 15 years ago or so, a JCC decided to buy a slave for Passover.
When I say they decided to buy a slave, I mean that they tried to buy a slave's freedom from slave traders. As unimaginable as it sounds, human beings are still owned, bought, and sold today throughout the world, including right here in the United States. In a recent book published by Princeton University Press entitled Buying Freedom: The Ethics and Economics of Slave Redemption, the authors estimated that over 25 million human beings are living in some form of slavery today, ranging from children who are stolen and forced into armed conflicts, to trafficking of girls and women, to just pure sales of children by their parents into bonded servitude in some of the world's poorest and least governed areas. If you expand the definition of what constitutes a "slave" more broadly, the number rises to nearly 200 million.
The question at the JCC came about when their teen social action group decided - in honor of Passover - to redeem a slave. Through overt, yet semi- public channels, freedom for some people can actually be obtained for a price. For many of the enslavers, human freedom boils down to a simple business transaction; for enough money, you can buy anything. And so these teens, with the words of the Haggadah searing in their minds, decided that it was not enough to simply sit at their Seder table and retell the story of our enslavement; they wanted to make the story of the exodus real for someone today. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, the Haggadah implored them. They heard those words clearly.
There are many schools of thought - echoed by our own State Department at the time - that says that such actions are counter-productive... that purchasing enslaved people from their captors only encourages them to enslave more. And yet the intrinsic value of each individual human life is so precious that the Talmud teaches us that by saving but a single life, you save a world entire. How do we reconcile the two? But what if - by helping one person - you inadvertently cause more harm to another?
Clearly this is a complex issue, and in truth, I don't remember if the redemption ever really took place. But I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during these discussions. If a JCC environment can bring about a level of engagement among our youth on a subject this serious - with a real plan for social justice attached to it - then we're doing our jobs well. Judaism - as practiced in our JCCs, synagogues, schools and particularly in our homes - must not be a passive activity. And as we retell the story of enslavement and exodus at our Seder tables tonight, we must also rededicate ourselves to the basic Jewish concept of Tikun Olum - of repairing the world - so that the stories of old bring real meaning into a still-troubled world. That's what this group of young people tried to do at their JCC.
Wishing you a wonderful Passover filled with discourse, sweetness, tradition and love.
Arnie Preminger
President & CEO of the Friedberg JCC and Sunrise Day Camp
When I say they decided to buy a slave, I mean that they tried to buy a slave's freedom from slave traders. As unimaginable as it sounds, human beings are still owned, bought, and sold today throughout the world, including right here in the United States. In a recent book published by Princeton University Press entitled Buying Freedom: The Ethics and Economics of Slave Redemption, the authors estimated that over 25 million human beings are living in some form of slavery today, ranging from children who are stolen and forced into armed conflicts, to trafficking of girls and women, to just pure sales of children by their parents into bonded servitude in some of the world's poorest and least governed areas. If you expand the definition of what constitutes a "slave" more broadly, the number rises to nearly 200 million.
The question at the JCC came about when their teen social action group decided - in honor of Passover - to redeem a slave. Through overt, yet semi- public channels, freedom for some people can actually be obtained for a price. For many of the enslavers, human freedom boils down to a simple business transaction; for enough money, you can buy anything. And so these teens, with the words of the Haggadah searing in their minds, decided that it was not enough to simply sit at their Seder table and retell the story of our enslavement; they wanted to make the story of the exodus real for someone today. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, the Haggadah implored them. They heard those words clearly.
There are many schools of thought - echoed by our own State Department at the time - that says that such actions are counter-productive... that purchasing enslaved people from their captors only encourages them to enslave more. And yet the intrinsic value of each individual human life is so precious that the Talmud teaches us that by saving but a single life, you save a world entire. How do we reconcile the two? But what if - by helping one person - you inadvertently cause more harm to another?
Clearly this is a complex issue, and in truth, I don't remember if the redemption ever really took place. But I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during these discussions. If a JCC environment can bring about a level of engagement among our youth on a subject this serious - with a real plan for social justice attached to it - then we're doing our jobs well. Judaism - as practiced in our JCCs, synagogues, schools and particularly in our homes - must not be a passive activity. And as we retell the story of enslavement and exodus at our Seder tables tonight, we must also rededicate ourselves to the basic Jewish concept of Tikun Olum - of repairing the world - so that the stories of old bring real meaning into a still-troubled world. That's what this group of young people tried to do at their JCC.
Wishing you a wonderful Passover filled with discourse, sweetness, tradition and love.
Arnie Preminger
President & CEO of the Friedberg JCC and Sunrise Day Camp
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