Upcoming Online Speaker Series!

Habonim-Dror & Camp Gilboa: Understanding Our Roots

Ben Cooley

I wanted to quickly give folks a little more background on the Zoom series we’ve put together and how it came about. As noted in an earlier newsletter, we all know that Camp Gilboa is special but we have felt along with many of you that we wanted a deeper understanding of Habonim-Dror’s 90-year history and how our camp is uniquely tied to Southern California. As a Gilboa parent and board member (as well as Camp Moshava alum) I’ve always wanted to know more about how our camp came to be. At the request of the board, I and two current tzevet members, Gigi Weisberg and Benji Dutta, worked together and came up with the first three parts of what we hope will become an ongoing educational series for everyone that is a part of our community. We wanted more than anything to take a look back at Habonim-Dror and Camp Gilboa’s history to find those elements that continue to drive our commonly held values today.

What was born from that meeting is this three-part Zoom series for parents, alumni, and teens to explore (1) the youth movements of Dror, Habonim, and Hashomer Hatzair in Europe; (2) the vibrant world of Jewish working-class life and anti-fascist organizing in Los Angeles; and (3) the Labor-Zionist youth camps that grew out of this history, including Camp Gilboa. Together we’ll ask: What has our camp always stood for? What makes Gilboa different? And how do these stories prepare us for the conversations about camp’s future and our place in the movement?

We reached out to three incredible scholars that have agreed to meet with us and walk us through each one of those areas of interest. We hope you’ll join us for all of them. We intend to record them and make them available for anyone to watch if you can't join on the day.

Session 1 – Dror, Habonim, Hashomer Hatzair, and the worlds they came from with Robby Adler Peckerar (December 16, 2025)

Dr. Robby Adler Peckerar is an educator and cultural historian focused on exploring the complex tapestry of Jewish life. He has worked at Human Rights Watch, served as Director of Education at the Yiddish Book Center, and spent 14 years as Executive Director of Yiddishkayt, where he framed Yiddish culture as a microcosm of intercultural interaction. He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature (Hebrew, Yiddish, and German literatures) from UC Berkeley and has created acclaimed immersive travel experiences across Europe and North America.

Session 2 – Los Angeles: Jewish working-class life, labor, and anti-fascism with Caroline Luce (January 20, 2026)

Dr. Caroline Luce is a historian whose work sits at the intersection of labor history, Jewish studies, and digital humanities. Specializing in immigration, labor, and working-class culture in the American West, she is currently writing a book about the Yiddish-speaking Jewish diaspora in Los Angeles. Her research and public history projects bring to life the neighborhoods, workplaces, and cultural institutions that shaped Jewish Los Angeles.

Session 3 – Post-war Jewish American summer camps—and what makes Habonim-Dror special with Sandra Fox (Date TBD)

Dr. Sandra Fox is the Robert S. Rifkind Chair in American Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Her research interests include American Jewish history, the history of youth and childhood, Yiddish culture, and the history of sexuality. Her book The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America explores the experiences of youth in postwar Jewish summer camps and the role of camps in shaping American Jewish culture. She is also the founder and executive producer of the Yiddish-language feminist podcast Vaybertaytsh and serves on the editorial board of In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies.

Register HERE for the first session!