Building Our Educational Program This Summer

Dear Gilboa Community, 

As a Progressive Labor Zionist movement founded in 1935, Habonim Dror and Camp Gilboa remain committed to the existence of Israel as a democratic Jewish state, and to building a vision for peace and justice in the region. One of the things that makes our community so special is our commitment to continue to engage deeply with Israel and Jewish peoplehood, and to foster an environment that values the diverse experiences and opinions held in our community. In the midst of a difficult 19 months that have led to so much pain and turmoil for so many of us and our loved ones, Gilboa has remained committed to being a community that doesn’t shy away from these hard conversations. We are doing the difficult work of holding space for pain, for disagreement, and for the deep love and care we all have for each other and for justice.

Gilboa’s leadership team, including our youth leaders, have worked hard to create this new blog post about our values and our approach to thoughtful and inclusive education to help you get a taste of what your kids can expect this summer.  Please read it and then share your feedback with us at the link at the end!

With appreciation,

The Camp Gilboa Team

Gilboa’s educational values at camp

The theme of our educational program for the summer is T'mid Nilmad, or We Will Always Be Learning. All our programming at camp -- from learning-based activities, to Shabbat, to fun adventures at tochnit erev (campwide evening activity) -- are driven by Gilboa’s values of pluralism, social justice, and shivyon erech ha’adam (equality of human value). We seek to build a strong and inclusive community based in care for one another. We are also guided by the values of our youth movement Habonim Dror, such as youth empowerment, Progressive Labor Zionism, socialism, and deep engagement with Israel, Jewish history, and Jewish peoplehood. 

At camp, we strive to empower children to think critically, develop leadership skills, and confidently express their views, while also remaining open-minded and excited to engage with ideas that may differ from their own. One of the places we do this is during pish (which is short for “peula shichva” or age group activity) a daily 1 hour block dedicated to experiential, discussion-based, and age-appropriate educational programming. Counselors are trained and committed to creating a positive and nurturing space for kids to learn, reflect, and share together in community. 

Educational programming at camp covers many topics. Campers engage around Jewish identity, antisemitism, social justice movements in the United States, anti-racism, history and path for peace in Israel/Palestine, building community and friendships, environmental justice, and more. 

As a Jewish community, we care deeply about giving campers the space to explore and reflect on their varying connections to Israel, and our education at camp on Israel/Palestine (a term we use when referring to the region to emphasize that both Israelis and Palestinians have deep, historic, and ongoing ties to the land) reflects this.

We develop our Israel programming and train our counselors, including shlichimot (counselors from Israel) and counselors from Habonim Dror chapters around the world (such as Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Brazil) in partnership with numerous trusted Jewish organizations such as the Foundation for Jewish Camp and their Cornerstone Fellowship Program, JCamp 180, and partners like the New Israel Fund as well as Israeli and Palestinian peace groups such as Standing Together.

In addition to educational programming, campers participate in numerous character-building, skill-building, and fun activities throughout each day including avodah (kibbutz-style shared work on our beautiful site), shira (singing in Hebrew and English),  rikkud (Israeli dancing), sports, swimming, and more!  You can see what a typical day at camp looks like here: https://www.campgilboa.org/day-at-camp  

Habonim Dror North America Pillars

The youth movement which Camp Gilboa is part of, Habonim Dror North America, has six pillars: Hagshama (actualization of values), Judaism, Progressive Labor Zionism, Social Justice, Socialism, and Collective Liberation of the Peoples of Israel-Palestine (CLPIP). 

Thank you to everyone who was able to join us on Zoom earlier this month to discuss the new CLPIP pillar, which was incorporated as HDNA’s sixth pillar at the most recent movement-wide bi-annual youth congress (veida) in December. We are grateful to have a community that is invested in learning and having complex conversations together. Thank you all for engaging with us with open hearts and open minds, and for sharing your excitement and concerns about the new pillar. For those who were unable to make our recent Zoom peula (educational activity), here is an audio recording of the community discussion (edited to remove breakout rooms for privacy) -- we hope you enjoy, learn from, and challenge yourself while listening! 

At our Zoom peula, we shared language from the resolution passed by youth in the national movement that established the new pillar. This language was written and ratified by youth movement leaders. Like all of our pillars, it is guidance that will be used to build engaging, age-appropriate educational activities – not a curriculum or text that will be directly shared with campers. The way we educate on this new pillar will remain rooted in our longstanding values articulated through all of our pillars, including our commitment to Israel's existence as a democratic Jewish state which embraces freedom and dignity for all people in the region.

The new pillar describes that “Collective Liberation” ‒ a term used by Israeli and Palestinian pro-peace activists and organizations like the Combatants for Peace, New Israel Fund, and Standing Together ‒ asks us to work towards a shared future for all peoples on the land who call it home. We believe that the futures of Israelis and Palestinians are deeply intertwined: that one group will not be able to live sustainably with security, freedom, and dignity without the other having the same, and that these cannot come at the cost of life, culture, and community of the other people. 

We see this new pillar as an affirmation of our commitment to engaging deeply with Israel and all the people who live on the land, and honoring the range and depth of relationships to it that our community holds. As we educate and learn from each other about Israel/Palestine, Jewish peoplehood, and our visions for peace this summer, we will continue to foster open and inclusive dialogue for our campers.

So what will Israel education look like this summer?

This summer, we will continue to develop nuanced, discussion-based programming that invites campers to learn from diverse perspectives, and be empowered to share their own. We are excited to engage campers on topics including building Jewish community, ideas of liberation rooted in Jewish texts such as the Passover story, learning about the history of Zionism as well as diaspora, connecting to Jewish identity while many of today's politicians in Israel and the United States use antisemitism to generate fear and division, and learning about Israeli and Palestinian pro-peace movements. We take very seriously the role of being entrusted with our campers’ education, and the responsibility to create high-quality, age-appropriate programs that foster open dialogue. 

Here are a few examples of past peulot (educational activities) at Gilboa that give a sense of how we have approached, and continue to approach, these difficult yet important topics, and how we ensure that discussions revolve around bringing in campers’ various perspectives and ideas.

• This peula was run as part of Yom Israel (special day that revolves around Israel/Palestine) in 2019.

• Here is a blog post about Yom Israel last year, Summer 2024.

• Here is a recording of last year’s Zoom community peula, which was about Israel/Palestine.

• This "Breaking Binaries, Building Connections" curriculum was developed in 2019 by our partners at the New Israel Fund and the Foundation for Jewish Camp, and Gilboa and other camps were part of piloting it.

  
  

We are proud to be a community enriched by diverse Jewish identities and relationships with Israel, and to be in partnership with our parents, counselors, and Habonim Dror as we continue to grow and build educational programming that is true to our values.

Having nuanced, complex discussions about Israel/Palestine and current events is hard, even for adults. But we know how essential it is for young Jews to have opportunities to learn, talk, disagree, and navigate multiple perspectives on these topics, because that is what will keep them engaged with Israel and connected to their Jewish identities throughout their lives. There are too few Jewish spaces today that invite this type of discussion, and we know that this work is key to Jewish continuity. This 2013 study found that, among other impressive statistics, 64% of Habonim alumni participated in Hillel in college, and 19% of Habonim alumni held leadership positions in professional Jewish or Israel-related organizations. According to the Jewish Journal, when compared to the results of a 2011 study of New York-area Jews that resemble Habonim youth leaders, our alumni were more likely to belong to a Jewish organization, participate regularly in a Shabbat meal, and light Shabbat candles. It is because we provide opportunities for values-based education and youth empowerment that Gilboa and Habonim Dror campers grow up to be critical thinkers and Jewish leaders. We are committed to continuing to offer meaningful, intentional spaces for dialogue and development, as well as continuously listening to feedback about how we're doing and how we can do better. 

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We want to hear from you: please share your feedback, resonance, questions, and concerns here! We commit to reading and discussing every response and will follow up with you if requested. We will continue to be in touch about how we are preparing for the summer and building our educational programming. We will be reaching out over the next few days to all of our families, and please feel free to reach out to us with additional questions about what to expect for your kids this summer.

We’d also like to invite you to this powerful partner event this Sunday 5/18 with IKAR in Los Angeles: Join Rabbi Brous for a candid conversation with parents of teens and young adults (ages 16–20) about how to talk—and listen—when it comes to Israel and Palestine. This session will offer tools for staying in relationship across disagreement, fostering open dialogue at home, and grounding our families in a Judaism rooted in justice and compassion.  RSVP is required; location TBD.

We can’t wait for another summer full of meaningful learning and Jewish joy for all of our campers!

Aleh v’Hagshem,

Gigi v’Roxy