January 14, 2024

As the calendar has turned to 2025 (how is that possible?!) and we are already starting to get a few extra minutes of daylight in the late afternoon, it is a great time to be thinking about summer plans.

For those with children or grandchildren, Jewish summer camp—or a teen trip to Israel for older ones—offers some of the most impactful experiences you can provide.

It is hard to be a Jewish young person right now. In just the last two weeks, we have seen deeply disturbing antisemitic graffiti at Islander Middle School on Mercer Island. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident; many of our kids have had to navigate antisemitism regularly at their schools and in their communities over the last year.

I’m a former overnight camp director, so I know first-hand that opportunities like summer camp are more important than ever now for our young people. Summer camp serves as an important respite from the everyday realities of their worlds at home, and gives kids an opportunity to connect with Jewish peers and role models in an immersive setting. It’s also a safe and supportive space for meaningful land sometimes hard conversations about what it means to be Jewish today.

In addition to these benefits, and the skills young people develop at camp, such as independence, resiliency, and leadership, camp also provides all sorts of fun! We are fortunate to have great camps here in Washington, including three overnight camps: Camp Solomon Schechter, URJ Camp Kalsman, and Sephardic Adventure Camp, and a day camp—J Camp—through the Stroum JCC. I had the opportunity to visit all four of these camps last summer and feel the magic of camp in the air.

The Federation is here to help make camp and Israel programs a reality. Our Camp Scholarship Program includes needs-based scholarships and first-time camper grants through the One Happy Camper program. Thanks to the generosity of our community, and our partners at the Samis Foundation, the Federation gave over $300,000 last year to help our community’s kids attend camp. And, our needs-based Teen Israel Scholarships, also thanks to our community and in partnership with the Samis Foundation, are there to help make Israel trips a reality.

The deadlines for both of these programs are right around the corner. The first round deadline for Camp Scholarships is this Friday, January 17, and the first round deadline for Teen Israel Scholarships is January 31.