Yom Tzedek

Good evening!

Yesterday we had a lovely Shabbat, and while it rained a little, it brought a much-needed cool-down. All of the chanichimot (campers) were still able to enjoy all of our usual Shabbat activities, even if we had to move them indoors.

This morning, we had a refreshing sleep-in. After a hearty breakfast of waffles and fruit, we then said goodbye to our Mini Session Alef campers. Although we’ll miss them, we hope to see everyone again next summer!

Today, machaneh (camp) was in for a bit of a different schedule. It is Yom Tzedek (Day of Justice), and we are dedicating the day to learning about justice, specifically racial justice. The chanichimot will be dividing up into age groups to participate in a variety of age-appropriate activities to gain some understanding about our role as Jewish people in the struggle towards racial justice.

The same themes were explored by each age group for pish (peulat shichva, age group activity). We learned about historical and current racism, distinguished between protests and riots, and determined how to act as allies. We identified lists of words that relate to our feelings and perceptions about race, asked chanichimot to place themselves on a timeline determining where they believe important events occurred throughout history, and planned how to bring this education into our year-round programming.

Chanichimot having a peula (program).

Afterwards, there was some chofesh (free time) where chanichimot were able to rest and process all of the information they had talked about before heading to a delicious lunch of stir fry, spring rolls, and sweet corn soup.

Later, machaneh (camp) was divided into two different activities for younger and older chanichimot (campers). The younger chanichimot watched the movie Remember the Titans while the older schavot (age groups) watched Selma. Then they split up into their schavot (age groups) and talked about the themes presented in the movies before heading to kibbud (snack time).

Some older chanichimot in the Mini Moadon (small clubhouse).

Then, chanichimot chose chugim (special interest groups) about different topics of social justice that interested them. Some examples include learning about the way that factors including race and gender interact on a societal level, the way that Jewish roles play a part when advocating for racial justice, the way that the media portrays people of color, and how to be a good ally. These chugim served as a basic introduction to the topics in question, giving chanichimot a knowledge base to build upon in the future. Later, we had shira (singing time) and the day continued as usual. For dinner we ate pasta bar!

We hope that this day has provided the opportunity for our campers to become more aware about the issues happening in the world around them!

- Carli and Abby