Camp Miriam was named after Miriam Biderman and is located on Gabriola Island, thirty miles west of Vancouver. It is a nine-acre, heavily-wooded camp site with water frontage on a beautiful little cove. At present, it has a capacity of sixty people. We have been a long time in acquiring it.
Vancouver Habonim was first organized by Bert and Marian Waldman in 1948. It was soon realized that as an intensive supplement to the program of the mahaneh in the winter, a Camp Kvutza in the summer was necessary.
The first Habonim Camp Kvutza of Vancouver Habonim was held in the summer of 1949 at Camp Wordsworth, the local C.C.F. camp, on Gabriola Island. It was rented for two weeks. About twenty-five attended this first two-week camp. At that time, Doodle Horowitz was rosh Kvutza. Because of the primitive conditions, Camp Kvutza Miriam was held at Camp Hatikvah, the camp of the Zionist Organization of British Columbia in 1950. This was a two-week camp with the shaliah, Amram Milner, as rosh. Camp Hatikvah, however, suffered from being too close to civilization, and furthermore, it turned out that we would not be able to rent this camp in the future because the Zionist Organization of B.C. itself had extended its own camp period, thus precluding our use of the site. And so in 1951, the site of Camp Miriam moved back again to its primitive Gabriola Island site, which was again rented from the C.C.F. for a period of two weeks. Moishe Loffman of Winnipeg was rosh Kvutza that year.
In the fall of 1951, the idea was first brought forward that Habonim should own a camp site. The mahaneh set up a Camp Site Investigation Committee. This committee spent many pleasant weekends traveling around the scenic local fiords hunting camp sites. Although several places were located, lack of adult supervision at that time made the work of the committee abortive. In the summer of 1952, with the growth of the mahaneh, a three-week Camp Kvutza was made possible. At this time there were about eighty-five camperweeks and Abbie Haklay was our rosh. In 1953 Camp Miriam was again held on Gabriola Island for two weeks with Al Linden as rosh.
Although we were still unable to purchase a camp, it was felt that an alternative to Gabriola Island had to be found because of the difficulty in transportation to the Island and the primitive, unhygienic conditions existing there.
After much hunting, Camp Miriam in 1954 was located at Roberts Creek, on the site of a former girls' camp. This camp ran for three weeks with Asher Wallfish as shaliah and Allen (Geli) Gelfond as rosh.
The Roberts Creek camp site was even worse than Camp Miriam on Gabriola Island, and so in 1955, we again crossed the Straits of Georgia to the Gabriola Island camp site. Yehuda "Sam" Weissbach was our rosh for that year's three-week camp. By this time, conditions on the Island had improved from terrible to merely bad and it was with optimism that we looked forward to going back again to Gabriola Island in 1956. However, at about this time, the C.C.F. decided that they would no longer be in the landlord business and that if we wanted to use the camp the following summer, we would have to buy it. Some active parents were approached as well as some seniors of the Labor Zionist movement, and they were told that if there was no camp that summer, the existence of Vancouver Habonim would be seriously threatened. The seniors then formed an incorporated society for the purpose of buying the camp property. Fortunately the C.C.F., being fellow Socialists, sold us the camp on very easy terms. The 1956 camp was a three-week season with Nahman Goldwasser as rosh. This camp was particularly fortunate in having on the staff three Workshoppers. Now that the Gabriola Island camp site is the property of the Habonim Zionist Society, the problem of its development is up to us and the local parents and seniors. The problem of financing this as well as down payments on camp is a problem of magnitude completely beyond anything which the Vancouver mahaneh has previously coped with. In 1957, the camp season will extend to four weeks for the first time in our history. Plans for the development of the site include especially development of kitchen facilities and playground, which are to have priority in the next few years.
Max Langer, 1957