Modern educational camping has increasingly emphasized experience in creative group living and learning. The objective is not only to provide a change of physical environment and healthful recreation. The camp setting provides the opportunity to help the camper increase his range of interests, knowledge and skills, develop socialized attitudes and patterns of behavior, and in general, to enrich his personality. Jewish camps conducted under communal or semicommunal auspices have sought, in addition, to provide Jewish educational experiences, conceiving their work as an extension of the program of Jewish group work agencies in the city.
This paper describes a type of Jewish camping program which attempts to apply this philosophy and technique of educational camping, and at the same time, to provide satisfying and creative Jewish experiences. These camps, known as Camp Kvutza, have a ten-year history under the auspices of the Labor Zionist Youth Organization, Habonim. Modeled after the Eretz Yisrael collective settlements, the camps are the extension as well as the annual climax of the Habonim program.
In order to properly understand the motivation and character of Camp Kvutza, is is essential to know something about the aims of Habonim, which caters to young people of the age level of 14 to 21. These aims were formulated at the 1940 convention of Habonim as follows:
As an educational youth movement aiming to develop within its ranks haverim who shall in their own lives realize its aims, Habonim has the following purposes:
The reader must not overlook the importance of the words, "who shall in their own lives realize its aims." This is a central concept in the educational program of the movement. At Camp Kvutza, Habonim members live according to the principles they have been studying and, in a sense, test their validity.
Although all the camps are the expression of a similar social and educational outlook, it does not follow that they are identical in character. Differences exist which are based on local circumstances, physical environment, and personnel. Each camp has developed in time a distinctive character. Thus, where a camp is located on rented property, it is deemed inadvisable to put too much effort into construction projects. The vegetable garden is a bigger undertaking in California than in Winnipeg for obvious climatic reasons. Experimentation in methods and program materials varies with the personal predilections of the camp leaders. In one camp there may be more free choice of activity than in an other. The Montreal camp, for instance, reflects the Yiddish school influences under which the campers live during the year.
Nevertheless, the camps conform within the limits indicated to certain principles and patterns. Equality of all persons in the camp is a cardinal principle. The camp director enjoys no privileges not available to the youngest camper. Neither is he exempt from any of the chores which are a, part of the maintenance of the camp. In keeping with the practice of the collectives and cooperatives in Eretz Yisrael, an effort is made to have no hired labor in camp. The staff and leaders are all members of the organization who contribute their services and regard themselves as members of the camp community. Exceptions are made when it is not possible to secure the services of a competent physician or nurse or when, on rare occasions, a cook has to be engaged. Workmen are also hired when, particularly at the establishment of a new site, it is impractical to rely entirely on the campers to build the necessary structures.
Self-government is a third basic principle. The regular camp meetings discuss administrative problems, programs, and daily routine, and elect various committees which are responsible for specific phases of camp life. The executive committee meets often with the director and staff members to act upon various problems. Disciplinary cases which are not easily adjusted may be brought to the attention of the designated committee. The functions of the staff members and leaders are to direct the educational activities -the discussion and study groups, the singing, dramatics, reading circles, arts and crafts, scoutcraft, nature study, and sports.
Prior to the arrival of the first group of campers, an advance crew arrives at camp to prepare for the opening of the season. This is a group of members who generally remain as staff members and leaders. They open the buildings, set up the tents, clear the grounds, repair the plumbing, and get the camp generally ready. No attempt is made to do a complete job of renovation, as one of the major activities of camp is to carry forward the program of improving facilities, enlarging the camp, putting up new structures, and beautifying the grounds. In addition, the advance crew spends the evenings outlining plans for the summer, outlining projects, and preparing for the discussions and activities they will conduct.
With the arrival of the campers, the full program is initiated. At a meeting of the entire camp, the director or an experienced camper outlines the purposes of Camp Kvutza and indicates some of the specific objectives for the summer. The executive committe is elected, its responsibilities and functions are discussed, and the various functional committees are named.
In speaking of staff and leaders, it is necessary to bear in mind that we are considering here individuals generally much younger than their "opposite numbers" in other camps, both communal and private. The year-round program of the Habonim organization provides for the continual preparation of members for or leaders of groups of younger children. It is very general, then, to find, both in the cities and in the camps, boys and girls taking responsibility for the leadership of groups of younger children. These leaders are themselves active members of groups of their own age at the same time that they are leading the younger children.
Work projects are a consistent feature of every Camp Kvutza. The nature of these projects varies, as has been suggested, with the local circumstances. In the kitchen work, the cook, who is usually a member of an adult Labor Zionist group, is assisted by campers, designated daily by the committee in charge of assigning individuals to various tasks. The campers help prepare meals, wait on tables, and clean up after meals. In the process they learn menu planning, some elements of nutrition, and problems involved in maintaining the camp within budgetary limits. No one at camp is exempt from taking his or her turn at this work. The maintenance of the grounds, buildings, and tents is likewise the responsibility of the campers.
Building projects are planned and executed sometimes within one season, and in some cases, over a period of years.: This phase of the program has been one of the most fruitful sources of creative expression. There have been instances where it was necessary to curb the eagerness of the campers to devote themselves to work projects to the virtual exclusion of other activities. This has been particularly true where the camp was established on a new site and had to be built "out of nothing." Using hired workmen only where the tasks made this unavoidable, trees have been cut down, ground cleared and ploughed, and buildings erected.
In a four-week period one summer at Kinneret in Michigan, the group finished waterproofing the roof of the dining room and kitchen, dug a tile tunnel for the water pump, put up screens and shutters on the doors and windows of the dining room, built shelves and drawers for kitchen equipment. The girls painted the dining room and screens. The following year they added a shower house, new tent platforms, sheds to cover the pump and washing machine (the campers conducted a cooperative laundry), new garbage pits, and the beginning of a storage bin. The greatest adventure was that of "bringing light to Kinneret." Five trees were cut down, trimmed, painted and erected so that electric cables could be drawn from the nearest sources of power. The complete electrification job was done and celebrated late in the summer when the lights were turned on in the dining room, shower house, and recreation hall with impressive ceremonies. I have watched the camp at Killingworth, Connecticut, acquire an enlarged dining room, infirmary, shower house, log bridge and dam over a stream which fed the swimming pool, an outdoor amphitheater dug out of a low hill and furnished with a stage platform, and the beginnings of a small building intended for use by activity groups in bad weather. All this was done in addition to clearing two large wooded areas to accommodate the tents.
This emphasis on work has several motivations. It is an end in itself inasmuch as it fills immediate needs and serves to beautify the camp. The campers acquire considerable information and numerous skills. Moreover, it serves to inculcate in the campers a positive attitude toward work and collective self-sufficiency. It is a real-life demonstration of the values inherent in socially useful labor. In recent years, efforts have been made to introduce gardening with varying success. Girls have taken to this activity particularly. The advance crew usually prepares the soil and plants a variety of vegetables which mature during July and August. During the weeks of camp, the produce from the garden is used in the kitchen. In some of the camps, the practice has developed to sell produce to visitors, the income being contributed to the Jewish National Fund. During the 1942 season, interest in gardening was heightened by associating this activity with the need for maximum food in this country.
The topics range from the aims and organizational forms of Habonim, to the causes of war and the prospects for permanent peace, from vocational problems of American Jewish youth, to the effect of rainfall on the economy of Eretz Yisrael. Groups have discussed and read about Jewish historical subjects, anti-Semitism, problems of Jewish adjustment, Jewish community organization, personalities from Jewish and Socialist history, "famous unknowns," phases and problems of life in Eretz Yisrael, Jewish migrations and refugees, the Bible and modern Jewish literature, and elements of Socialism. The subjects keep changing as events suggest the timeliness of various problems. At the end of the 1939 season, when war was imminent in Europe, long and personalized discussions as to the implications of the war took place in all camps.
After the meal the singing normally continues, with or without choral group to provide direction. There may be also a story or brief talk on a subject related to Shabbat. Invariably, the evening closes with folk dancing in the open or in the cleared dining room.
On Saturday, all work projects are in abeyance. The day is characterized by more leisure, reading circles, discussions of current events, sports and swimming for longer periods than usual. Some experiments have been made with developing new forms for Saturday morning and with the Havdala services at sunset. The Saturday night campfire, where the diary of the week is reviewed, has become a traditional event.
Experience has varied. As indicated, the common fund is not instituted without prior discussion and acceptance, frequently over the objections of a minority. Occasionally, difficulties arise, particularly with non-members of Habonim or with new campers. On the whole, however, it has been accepted and has worked out very satisfactorily. Where it includes the agreement to share among the entire camp all foods and candy sent to individual campers, the troublesome problems associated with these gifts, problems familiar to all camp directors, are virtually non-existent. How well it has been accepted by the campers is illustrated in the anecdote about the boy who, in a discussion as to whether or not there should be a common fund, asked: "If we don't have one, how will we be able to get stamps and batteries?"
After ten years Camp Kvutza has remained true to its original principles. Those who have been identified with it from the beginning have grown with their experiences and have demonstrated the soundness of the theories with which they began to work. (A goodly number of former campers are now living in collective settlements in Eretz Yisrael, or, as members of the American Hehalutz, are being trained in agriculture or trades for settlement there.) The camps remain physically primitive and unadorned, small tent villages with a few "communal" structures, so that the pioneering spirit may not be lost. Camp Kvutza is the climax of an organic educational experience, forming a part of a continuous yearround program of a youth movement, rather than a single -unrelated event in the life of a boy or a girl. The emphasis continues to be on translating into personal experience the concepts of individual and social living of the movement and on providing a wholesome and stimulating Jewish environment. Through such experience the campers learn how satisfying and enriching a cooperative society can be. Concurrently they acquire information and emotional attitudes toward their Jewish heritage and contemporary Jewish life which belp to make of them healthy mid creative Jewish persoiialities.
Abraham Cohen, 1943