Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Zack Stern (left), 13, of Portland, Ore., and Matt Ellman, 15, of San Diego, participate in a morning singing session.

Roots in the Redwoods

Former Camp Saratoga offers a sense of unity

By Michelle Gabriel

It has been 50 years since a group of rabbis from the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis met at Lake Tahoe to discuss the concept of establishing a camp for Living Judaism. As they envisioned it, this would be a camp where study and recreation would be combined in a balanced program tailored to the needs and abilities of each age group.

It wasn't until several years later that their vision materialized and a permanent site was established for such a camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Originally called Camp Saratoga, the camp brought children together for two- and three-week sessions during the summer to share Jewish experiences. In this setting, youngsters learned about Jewish history and culture and shared with their peers the exploration of Jewish music, art and tradition. Although the name changed in the early '50s to honor philanthropist Ben Swig, who provided the necessary seed funds to further its development, Camp Swig never lost its original focus.

Today Camp Swig, located approximately seven miles from Saratoga Village, sits on 220 acres of wooded land nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Amid the flora and fauna of this lush natural setting, the camp, one of nine camping institutes of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), continues to fulfill its mission: to provide a Jewish living experience of learning and fun within a community-oriented and familylike environment.

Arrive at the camp around 8 a.m. and you'll find approximately 160 active teenage campers wolfing down their breakfast in the camp's large dining room. Following that, and without wasting a minute, campers might head out to the Olympic-sized pool for instructional or free swimming, opt for the multipurpose building for art, music or drama programs or hit the softball field, tennis court or ropes course. There are also gymnastics, archery, nature hikes and other outdoor adventures to explore.

Time out for lunch and a rest period, then it's back to enjoying the abundant activities available. By late afternoon, it's wind-down time with creative services, then dinner, followed by special evening events. Between 9 and 10:30 p.m., depending on age, campers drift off to their bunks for quiet time and much welcomed sleep to shore up for another full day of fun and games.

Welcome to summer camp, a place for fun, frolic and friendship.

"First and foremost, Camp [Swig] is camp," says Rabbi Jim Kaufman, one of several rabbis, cantors and other Jewish professionals who spend three weeks or more at the camp each summer. "Like so many other summer camps, there's swimming, sports, free time, fun and games, campfires, hikes, sleepovers, Frisbee games, baseball games."

Of course, there's more here than just summer fun. With its strong emphasis on Jewish education, albeit informally presented, campers are exposed to more cultural, historical and religious information and experiences in their short stay than many encounter in a lifetime.

The key to the experience, says Kaufman, who leads his own congregation at Temple Beth Hillel in North Hollywood, is the interaction the campers have with Jewish leaders in a relaxed family atmosphere. "We lead services together and share in the learning experience. What we find is that very often these youngsters get bitten by the Jewish leadership bug when they come here and they continue to develop that leadership quality long after they have returned home."

It's the kind of experience young people get from camps like Swig that Kaufman says establishes a foundation of Jewish commitment that eventually manifests itself in future Jewish professionals. "It's the reason I'm a rabbi," he says. "This is my 33rd summer here, starting in the early '60s when I came here as a camper. Eventually I became a counselor-in-training, a counselor, a song leader and then Director of the Hebrew camp for the summer. In 1973 I returned as a rabbi, and I've been coming back ever since."

He loves it, he says. He loves working with the campers and leading the different sessions every summer. While the theme varies with each session, the emphasis is often on community or social action. This year's theme for Kaufman's eighth-, ninth- and 10th-grade campers was justice.

"We spent three weeks exploring the aspect of justice during evening services and special events. We emphasized the need for everybody to be responsible for those less fortunate, and we focused on welfare reform and the necessity of government to be sensitive to the needs of immigrants, the unemployed and the less fortunate," Kaufman explains.

With this kind of interaction, it is no wonder the campers develop a strong sense of moral and ethical responsibility which they take back to their homes, their schools and their communities. "This is a wonderful place for campers," Sandra Mosel, summer site director of the camp, says. "There's always a strong underlying theme of Jewish learning and spirituality that is woven tightly into every activity."

While most campers come from surrounding communities, Mosel says the camp, which serves the Reform Jewish community throughout the western United States and Canada, also attracts campers from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii. "They come to have an intensive Jewish experience, one they will carry with them for the rest of their life."

And, as with Kaufman, it is not unusual for campers to return several years in a row before becoming counselors and camp leaders. Even artists, who lend their talents during the summer, are inspired. Mosel says many of the artists involved in the special art sessions have been coming back for years, including artists Michele and David Palchte-Zuiedack, who have been teaching for 15 years, and Helen Burke, now deceased, who became a legend after arriving at Camp Swig for a two-week stay and remaining for 20 years.

The setting and unity inspire this feeling, says Kaufman. "Being a part of a living Jewish community creates a unique Jewish experience that is shared by everyone here."

Because observances vary, Kaufman says campers might not necessarily share similar Jewish experiences at home. "People observe differently: Some belong to synagogues; some do not. Many observe the Sabbath, while others might not. It is hard to find the unity away from this setting."

And according to Rubin Arquilevich, executive director, from the day Camp Swig opened in 1953, thousands of young boys and girls have experienced this unity over the years, in dozens of different types of theme camps such as arts, sports, nature, Hebrew and music.

"Every age group has its own type of camp," Arquilevich says. "Activities are geared toward the development of children at the appropriate age and centered around the concept of living Judaism within a context of fun, education, recreation, community building and self-esteem development."

Camp Swig was designed as a teen camp until the '80s, when it was expanded to include campers as young as seven years old. With the recent opening of UAHC's newest camp, Camp Newman, in Santa Rosa, Camp Swig has gone back to focusing its activities on teen campers. Larger in size than Swig, Camp Newman is able to accommodate more than 500 campers per session and is open to second- through eighth-graders.

Both camps combined serve more than 1,500 families, youths and adults throughout the year and provide winter weekend retreats for many Jewish and non-Jewish community groups and organizations as well.

"Camp Swig is a camp for living Judaism," Arquilevich says. "It is a camp for all ages, for all seasons and for all of life. Our vision is to someday have programs for infants to seniors. We already have plans under way to provide Elderhostel programs at the camp next spring."

With that plan soon to be realized, Camp Swig continues it strong path toward fulfilling its ultimate destiny ... to remain a "Camp Institute for Living Judaism, L'Dor v'Dor, from generation to generation."

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