Israelis arriving in Wisconsin might not signal the start of summer for everyone. But in the world of Jewish camping, the annual increase in the state’s population of visiting Israelis – the summer shlichim (Israeli cultural emissaries) – means just that.
For upwards of 40 years, the shlichim have been an integral part of daily life and programming at camps in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., South Africa and Australia.
“We work very hard to partner with camps so that we are bringing Israel to camp,” said Ariella Feldman, director of Shlichut Services at the Jewish Agency for Israel. “But together we are thinking about what is the best way to create more Israel engagement at camp.”
Toni Davison Levenberg, director of the Steve & Shari Sadek Family Camp Interlaken JCC in in Eagle River, said Israeli staff work as cabin counselors and also staff the camp’s ropes course.
“We integrate them right into the fabric of camp,” said Levenberg. “They stand out because they’re Israeli shlichim, but they don’t do anything different because they’re Israeli shlichim.”
“They have a role and responsibility that’s identical to an American staff member,” said CYJ director Noach Gallagher, “but they are charged with the additional role of representing Israel to the staff and campers during their time at camp.”
At Camp Ramah in Conover, there are about 20 first-year shlichim, five who are returning for a second or third summer and then another group of 10 to 15 who are a combination of adults and Americans who have made aliyah (immigrated to Israel).
Director Jacob Cytryn has spent every summer at Ramah since 1992, and is entering his third summer as the camp’s director.
“Usually a shaliach wears three hats for us,” he said. “One hat is that they’re attached to a cabin of campers they live with, and they’re part of that cabin. A second hat is a given program area or specialty. A third is that they’re a member of the mishlachat (group of shlichim), so multiple times each week they will run evening activities for our divisions, serving as part of the Israeli delegation we invest so significantly in.”
One couple, he said, completed 35 consecutive summers at camp last year, and another has been coming for 25.
While the ways in which the shlichim function in each camp setting differ, all are of one mind on the most important aspect of their presence at camp.
“The campers get a connection to Israel,” Davison Levenberg said. “Because of the shlichim and Israeli campers, they have someone to call when they go there. It brings Israel to life and makes it a real place where they know someone.”
For the shlichim, the camp experience is also transformational, JAFI’s Feldman said.
“They’re exposed to a larger Jewish world; they’re exposed to Judaism very differently than they have been in the past,” she said. “They find that they’re more than that little bubble in Israel and are part of a global Jewish community.”
“American Judaism comes alive at camp in a way that most Israelis can’t possibly fathom until they see it,” he said. “At Ramah, it’s seeing Conservative Judaism, egalitarian Judaism that you have to go out of your way to find in Israel. We have religious Israeli women who might have their first aliyah to the Torah at camp.
“Similarly, there might be so-called secular Israelis whose interest is piqued by … Shabbat or daily t’filah (prayer). All that becomes part of the possibility for them which they probably would never have stumbled upon had they not come to America.”
JAFI’s Feldman and her staff identify and pre-screen prospective shlichim, a process that starts in October and concludes in January. At the same time, they are collecting a list of staff requests from directors at approximately 200 camps.
By the time they are interviewed by camp directors or their designees, candidates have gone through an application process that includes phone interviews, a day-long screening workshop and an English language test.
Additionally, those with a specialty – art, music or other skill – undergo a professional review to ensure their expertise. They are also interviewed with an eye to determining whether their skill set and teaching ability would be particularly appropriate for a specific camp.
“We kind of make a shidduch (match),” she said. “We work hard to get to know (camps and directors) and to know what they would like.”
That’s important, Feldman said, because different directors and camps have different needs and different preferences.
“We assign candidates to specific camps based on the requests of the camp,” she said, “and then the camp itself or representatives from the camp interview the candidate.”
It’s a process that works, according to the directors at three different types of Jewish camps in Wisconsin.
Gallagher, who has been the director at CYJ for eight years, has been part of Young Judaea since his youth. He worked as a counselor and unit head alongside Israeli shlichim at the camp in Waupaca long before he began hiring them.
“This year, it’s a pretty small number because we have a lot of returning shlichim,” he said. “So I’ll ask my program director, who lives in Israel, or another Young Judaea camp director will do interviews with my shlichim, because she knows what I’m looking for.”
Davison Levenberg has other JCC camp directors interview staff on her behalf. But, she said, Interlaken has an edge now.
“One of our former shlichim is working for the Jewish Agency and is part of the screening process,” she said, “which is really lucky for Interlaken, because he can hand-pick the people who stand out in the interview process.”
At CYJ, approximately 12 Israelis comprise about 15 percent of the camp’s staff. At Interlaken, the five to eight shlichim are less than 10 percent of the total staff of 100. Interlaken also hosts Israeli campers through a different program, providing the American campers with an experience to meet Israelis their own ages.
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