Public School Students Celebrate Judaism at Winter Camp

Jewish students enrolled in the New York City public school system are participating in a winter camp run by the popular Chabad-Lubavitch run Released Time Program.

An arm of the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education, the program – which was founded in 1941 – provides Jewish children with religious instruction once a week during school hours. Its camp, located at locations in Brooklyn and Queens, serves boys and girls from kindergarten through fifth grade, many of them the offspring of Russian, Bukharin and Uzbekistani immigrants with little or no exposure to traditional Jewish practice and culture.

“It’s great,” says Sima Yezdayez, a Persian immigrant whose eight-year-old son Ariel has attended the camp for the past two years. “My daughter, who is now married, went to the camps years ago. My three other children have gone, too. They do so many fun activities, and it’s a wonderful opportunity for them to be in a Jewish environment, because the rest of the time they are at public school. They’ve all been very happy there.”

The winter camp offers a wide range of kid-friendly programming and field trips, including prayer services and Torah study, bowling, swimming, arts and crafts, and an afternoon tour of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood with its myriad synagogues, Jewish sights and kosher eateries. For many of the campers, it will be their first taste of kosher pizza.

Each year the camp adheres to a different theme. This year, the theme centers around four major Jewish holidays: Purim, Passover, Shavuot and Chanukah. In honor of Purim, which marks the day thousands of years ago when Persian Jews were saved from extermination, the campers will bake hamantaschen, a traditional three-cornered cookie made with fruit or chocolate filling.

“The camp gives kids a chance to celebrate being a Jew with other kids from similar backgrounds,” explains Rabbi Sadya Engel, who oversees the Brooklyn camp, which is co-hosted by United Lubavitch Yeshiva Ocean Parkway and Ohel Moshe Chevrah Tehillim Lubavitch. “The kids get to learn in a fun, hands-on way that’s both positive and informative and reminds us all that we need to be constantly Jewish, not just when we’re in a Jewish place of worship.”

Engel cites one story of a child who wore a yarmulke for the first time during camp and has worn one ever since.

“Camp is a place where the children have the opportunity to learn about their identity and history and be proud of who they are,” adds Engel.

For Rabbi Mordechai Z. Hecht, who co-directs the camp at the Anshe Sholom Chabad Jewish Community Center facility in Kew Gardens, Queens, the benefits of the “extremely important” experience extend long past camp’s end.

“It’s a way to reach out to both the children and their families,” proffers Hecht, who points out that if it weren’t for Released Time and the tireless efforts of the staff and counselors involved, many of these Jewish youngsters would spend their winter breaks loafing around doing nothing.

“It’s a way to welcome the families into the community and offer them a broader spectrum of Jewish programming,” Hecht continues. “And it’s an opportunity for the children to experience Judaism in fun, entertaining and different ways, from eating kosher food to being inspired by Jewish mentors to being around other Jewish children. With no religious education during the rest of the year in the public schools, the winter camp experience is for them, and for us, a breath of fresh air.”

Per Engel, perhaps no testimony better expresses the joy and exuberance felt among the students than their own raucous collective cheer heard reverberating around the walls of the Brooklyn Yeshiva this Monday, the first day of camp: “I’m a Jew and I’m proud!”