USCJ Review - Spring 2006
Hazak Goes Camping
Hazak, United Synagogue's organization for Jews 55 and over, began just six years ago. Its structure - it is made up of congregational chapters with support from the regions and overall guidance from headquarters in New York - is similar to the one that has kept United Synagogue Youth so successful for so many years. Now, extending its programming, Hazak is taking a step that strengthens its resemblance to United Synagogue's flourishing youth group, which sometimes holds meetings on the Conservative movement's Camp Ramah campgrounds. As incongruous as it may seem, Hazak now goes to camp.
The initiative began during the summer of 2004, when nine members of the Hazak chapter at Temple Beth Ahm in Springfield, N.J., celebrated Hazak Week at the Kislak Adult Center in the heart of the Pocono Mountains in Lake Como, Penn. Those nine people didn't know what was in store for them as they joined about 100 other seniors at camp that week.
Kislak is an adult camp run by the New Jersey YMHA-YWHA Camps organization, a group that has been operating camps for Jewish youngsters for over 60 years; it is loosely affiliated with United Jewish Communities federation of MetroWest New Jersey. What the nine Hazak members experienced there was somewhat similar to experiences they had enjoyed at ElderHostels, but with a number of salient advantages: kosher food, full Shabbat services led by a Conservative rabbi, outstanding courses with Jewish content, computer facilities, an excellent library, an arts and crafts center, and the usual kinds of boating, swimming, and tennis facilities that summer camps usually have. With all that, the fees were modest.
Word of the Springfield chapter's serendipitous discovery flashed through the Hazak organization. The announcement of a Hazak Week for 2005 brought instant interest from the Southeast, Seaboard, and New Jersey regions, as well as from individual chapters and members in other regions. In short order, Hazak Week 2005, July 6 to 13, was oversubscribed. And that's how it happened that in early July 86 Hazakniks from up and down the east coast took over the camp. Plans for next season were already begun before the week was over.
The week's pleasures included a corps of outstanding lecturers and entertainers. Among them was United Synagogue's own Rabbi Moshe Edelman, who heads the congregational standards, leadership development, and congregational programming departments. Not only did Rabbi Edelman lead the Shabbat services, he also gave insightful Torah commentaries -- called Sex, Lies, and Torah -- that made the week exceptional. Gloria Goldreich, the prize-winning author of Leah's Journey and of other books as well, taught a course on Jewish life as reflected in Jewish literature and managed both to include and to draw relevant lessons from our 4,000 years of experience.
The week also included lectures and discussion on many subjects, including the challenges of senior living and current events, and on books. Each day started with aerobics and Shaharit and included computer classes, fitness instruction, drama, dance, chairobics, fitness walks, arts and crafts, swimming, tennis, card games, boating, water aerobics. Conversations were arranged with the international staff and with teenagers from a nearby camp, and there was a library available. The evenings were capped with performances by professional entertainers.
There was something for everyone during Hazak Week, including both excitement and the opportunity to relax, and we were all surrounded by our peers. It's no wonder that Hazak Week attracted so many happy senior campers!
Bob Steinhart is president of the Hazak chapter in Temple Beth Ahm in Springfield, New Jersey.
