Camp Sidney Cohen, an early effort at providing summertime experiences for Milwaukee’s Jewish children, opened in 1929 and operated for decades.
Wisconsin today is filled with vibrant summer camp options, devoted to Jewish life, but Camp Sidney Cohen will always be foundational.
In 1928, Sophie Cohen donated six acres on Upper Nemahbin Lake to host the camp – in memory of her husband Sidney – to the Children’s Outing Society, according to Sally Kraus’ book, “A Story about the Children’s Outing Association,” published in 2006 by COA Youth and Family Centers. The Children’s Outing Society, later renamed the Children’s Outing Association, co-managed the campgrounds on the lake near Delafield. It did so in partnership with the Jewish Center and Jewish Social Services – predecessors to today’s network of local Jewish institutions.
In the camp’s opening year, 1929, boys were sent to camp first, to clean up the grounds before the girls arrived. Older boys also dug around the waterfront to make an area for campfires, according to Kraus’ book. That first summer saw 136 boys and 149 girls.
On May 23, 1930, just before the start of the second summer, the Chronicle admonished the people of Jewish Milwaukee to soon head over to the Abraham Lincoln House, 601 Ninth St., phone Locust 0772, to register children for two-week sessions.
“Although the capacity of the camp has been increased and can now accommodate 70 children at one time, it will not be possible to take latecomers,” the Chronicle reported. “Last summer a good many children had to be turned away.”
The were seven cabins, and activities included “singing, outdoor, cooking, games with other camps, circus, plays of their own making, competitive games, daily newspaper, community singing, minstrel shows,” according to the Chronicle on Aug. 21, 1931.
In 1945, The Urban League, an advocacy organization affiliated with the Black community, was invited to use the camp for its groups. At that time, summer camp enrollment was “opened to non-white children and to all Jewish children, regardless of family income,” according to Kraus. The Chronicle in 1945 reported that the capacity of the camp was “only 90 campers,” which meant that 180 boys and 180 girls could be served throughout the summer.
In the 1940s, there was a shift from serving “poor” children to a broader base, according to Kraus. In 1949, the camp was opened to children of all races, religions and ethnic backgrounds.
In 1954, the Chronicle reported that “eighty excited, shining-eyed girls from 8 to 15 years of age and their counsellors piled into the student buses at the Oakland Ave. terminal for their one-hour ride” to Camp Sidney Cohen.
In 1960, the town of Summit Zoning Commission denied a zoning request to allow co-educational camping, but the request was finally approved in 1965.
In the decades to come, the camp added sessions for diabetic campers. One of the camp’s goals was “to let them know they’re just like everybody else. They just happen to have diabetes,” said nurse Lu Anne Ness, 30, one of the four nurses at an American Diabetes Association-sponsored session. Ness interviewed with the Waukesha County Freeman in July 1980.
Ultimately, the camp was sold in 1990, to be replaced by expanded camping opportunities elsewhere.
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