Ever since the founding of Gordonia in Texas in 1929, the haverim. of the Dallas groups planned for a summer camping program. It was not until ten years later that such an opportunity presented itself. In the summer of 1939, Habonim groups were functioning, in addition to the four groups in Dallas, in Houston and San Antonio, Texas, New Orleans Louisiana, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was then that Moshe Smith, a madrich of the Dallas movement, and Yapha (Jennie) Zesmer, with the writer of this report, acting as a committee for the Southwest Habonim, selected a site on Lake Dallas for a Habonim Camp Kvutza. To everyone's chagrin a polio epidemic made it impossible to open camp in 1940 and necessitated postponement of the program. A Camp Bonim. Association, a group of friends of Habonim dedicated to the precept of Camp Kvutza, was organized in the course of the year. Several of the Association's members who devoted much time, effort, and financial means, should be mentioned. Among these devoted friends were Harry Sigel, I. Zesmer, Jacob Feldman, Maurice Levy, Isaac Goldstein, and Dr. Irving Brodsky, all of Dallas; Herman P. Taubman (currently in Tulsa), I. Nad, M. Gerber, and I. Weiner of Houston; and Abraham Sinkin, Bernard Rubenstein, and Nathan Karin of San Antonio. In each of these communities, and in others throughout Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, committees of friends of Camp Bonim were formed for the purpose of making this decade-old dream a reality. In the summer of 1941, Camp Bonim. opened its first season on a leased site on Lake Dallas. Forty campers from Dallas and several neighboring towns spent a profitable summer in a Kvutza environment and returned to their respective homes in the fall pledged to work for the growth of Habonim.
Subsequent years were periods of real Habonim expansion in the region. The camping program was extended to an ever-growing movement, and parents in the communities, particularly in the smaller towns where no Jewish education was possible, called Camp Bonim blessed.
The winter of 1945 saw the purchase of a site on Lake Dallas. Some $60,000 was contributed through the Camp Bonim. Association by friends in the three states for the purchase and improvement of the site, and the summer of that year brought two hundred campers to Camp Bonim.
A number of Dallas haverim, veterans in Habonim, worked with the writer to make this success possible. Moshe Smith, David Zesmer, Zevi Borofsky, Raphael Levin, Yaakov Ely, Zalman Schneider, Yapha Chesnick, Meir Sigel, Bruno Sigel, Ami Levin, Leah Waltman, Zalman Kahn, Shahna Kahn, all of Dallas, and Yitzhak Groner, Avraham Groner, and Hannah Wiederman of Houston-all did a real halutzic job in planning for Camp Bonim and in implementing these plans. The invaluable assistance of Kalman Shapiro, currently of Minneapolis, then a member of the Dallas Hebrew School faculty, was always considered phenomenal.
From the very outset, Camp Bonim observed kashrut (as do all Habonim camps). This was always considered by the founders and madrichim. as an integral must in any Jewish educational program. The implementation of this part of the plan was made possible by mothers of haverim. who gave of themselves so selflessly in order to provide proper supervision.
Shabbat at Camp Bonim. was, from the very inception, an occasion for perfect rest, study, and contemplation. From time to time, senior haverim. would visit the camp for Shabbat and sing the praises of the type of education Camp Bonim offered. The entire camp program was geared toward a full and enriching Jewish experience in the spirit of Labor Eretz Yisrael.
Yaakov Levin., 1957