#judaics

The Beber Camp community is one that thrives on relationship building. Being a Jewish camp, Beber also serves as a platform for campers, staff, and alumni to find their Jewish Identity. In late February Joel and I had the opportunity to explore Jewish identity and come together with a large Jewish community at Limmud New York. Over the course of four days 850 Jews came together from across the world to create an immersive Jewish learning experience. Limmud (לימוד) or study in Hebrew breaks down to lamad (למד) at its most simple form, which means learn. Every participant was a student as well as a teacher in some form. Whether it was from leading a session on Jewish parenting, explaining what it means to be Jewish in this day and age, or having a conversation with your neighbor at dinner.

Let me give you a bit of history on the organization. Limmud began in 1980 in the UK and became a cultural phenomenon across the globe. 18 different conferences have started in Jewish communities across the world including Israel, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Moscow, Stockholm, Italy, Colorado, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago to name a few. Each conference is volunteer-run which allows the conference to be catered to the Jewish community that it represents. For example, the New York conference would probably be much different than the Los Angeles conference because different types of Jews populate the cities.

Attending Limmud got me thinking about what it means to be Jewish and how I define my own “Jewishness”. A common question was, what’s your level of observance or what type of household did you grow up in? There were so many groups of Jews being represented at the conference and it was hard to place myself in a category; reform, conservative, traditional, orthodox, modern orthodox, or haredi. Even before the conference I had a hard time placing myself because I have been exposed to so many different types of Judaism. I had grown up in a conservative household, attended Solomon Schechter, and worked at reform synagogues throughout high school. I still find myself having a hard time choosing between reform and conservative services when Shabbat rolls around each week because I enjoy the rituals and traditions of both forms of observance. What I took away from Limmud is that being Jewish is great which ever way you choose. Grouping our community based on levels of observance is not necessarily the right thing to do because people will participate in customs and rituals that make them feel most comfortable. Our Jewish community is rich and vibrant because of the diversity between religious Jews, cultural Jews, traditional Jews, and you and me! We all have lessons to learn from one another so we must join together to help our “Jewishness” thrive!

It is now almost three weeks since the conference ended and I can see how my takeaway could not be any better for camp. As a non-denominational camp, Beber attracts a diverse group of campers and staff both religiously and culturally. Each summer we get the opportunity to learn from one another, gain perspective, and become a tight knit community. I’ve seen it happen year after year and it will continue to happen because of the open culture that is set from the start. Although everyone is different, we find commonalities and learn from differences to become the best individuals and community we can be!