Jerusalem (JTA) — Twenty squirming six- and seven-year-olds pile into a room, listening attentively to their day camp counselor as she explains how to make a recycled newspaper art project.
But Tal, Chen and Rivka — three giggling girls — end up spending more time teaching some visiting Americans the words to a popular Hebrew song than on the project at hand.
The Americans, including Milwaukee Jewish Federation Community Campaign 2003 chair Jody Kaufman Loewenstein, Women’s Campaign chair Susan Strait and Financial Resource Development director Kristi Gallup Meyers, were visiting the community center day camp in Baka, a Jerusalem neighborhood as part of the United Jewish Communities Campaign Chairmen and Directors Mission July 7-12.
The Baka day camp is one of many that has been funded by a $25 million grant from the Israel Emergency Campaign, which was launched by UJC and federations across North America in response to the ongoing terror in Israel.
The national campaign has already raised nearly $300 million to offset security, medical, child welfare and other humanitarian needs in Israel. The campaign here, coordinated by the MJF and chaired by Robert L. Habush, has raised more than $1.6 million since April.
The $300 million is being administered by a committee of representatives from the UJC, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Israeli government and its Education Ministry, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
This summer, the $25 million is supporting a three-week camp program to help provide safe recreational activities for Israeli children. Out of this, $20 million has enabled 230,000 Israeli children from grades one through six to attend camp, an increase of 120,000 children from last year.
The camps are located in low-income areas that have been particularly vulnerable to terror attacks, including areas in Jerusalem, Afula, Hadera, Netanya and Kfar Saba.
The remaining $5 million is being used for summer programs for special needs children and youth at risk, and will reach 35,000 youngsters throughout the country.
In a telephone interview this week, Strait said, “Part of my feelings during the mission included feeling so lucky to be someone who has the ability to give to these camps, which are keeping the kids safe in such a sensitive and positive way.
“To be able to see exactly where the money is spent and to help send those children who do not have the resources to attend on their own made my gift to the campaign so much more meaningful.”
For Shula Ohayoun, a single mother of four from Baka with two girls in the day camp, the UJC grant was indeed a lifesaver.
“I don’t know what I would have done this summer,” said Ohayoun, who has two older sons, one of whom will enter the army this fall. “With the camp, they’re going to the pool, the monkey park, on hikes. These are treats I wouldn’t have been able to afford.”
In addition to the 200,000-plus children enrolled in the camps, another 12,000 Israeli youth between the ages of 12 and 18 are involved in the day camps as staff and counselors.
There are usually 70 to 80 children enrolled in the Baka day camp each summer, with another 50 pre-schoolers in the nearby day care program. This year, there are 170 kids in the day camp, and 70 children in the day care center.
Given the large sums of tax-exempt donations being made, the organizations are working to ensure that the money is being put to work quickly and efficiently.
“The money you spend on summer camps goes to the right people at the right time,” Nachman Shai, director general of UJC Israel, told the visiting UJC leaders.
“It was gratifying to see that all of our hard work for the IEC was paying off and that our Israeli partners were beginning to provide needed services to help normalize Israeli lives,” said Loewenstein. “I was particularly delighted to participate in the ‘Keep the Kids Safe Program,’ which helps to ensure a normal summer experience for at-risk children within a safe and nurturing environment.
“The experiences on the mission were a testament to our efforts here in Milwaukee, and those efforts must continue.”
The emergency campaign also raised an additional $5 million for JAFI’s Fund to Aid Victims of Terror. More than $1.5 million was distributed by the fund over the last four months to 155 terror victims and their families to help meet daily and medical needs that the State of Israel cannot cover.
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