Our JCamp180 Experience by David Benezra

In late October, three members of the SAC Board and our year round Office Manager/Marketing Director all make the 3 day trip to Springfield Massachusetts to join over 400 other leaders in Jewish Camping from around the country.  The conference is called JCamp180, it is organized by the Grinspoon Foundation, and it focused on Strategic Planning, Board Development, Technology, and Fundraising.  Each of us attended 4 or 5 workshops ranging from “Engaging your Alumni” to “Google Analytics” throughout the day with our counterparts at other Jewish camps.

Wow … for me it was earth shattering.  It was educational and inspiring.  It was motivational to see just how much impact immersive Jewish overnight camping has on this next generation of our youth.  It made me, a SAC board member for the past 7 years, want to stay on the board and to keep working to have impact on young Jewish lives.

As SAC continues to slowly grow past the 100 camper level, as we move toward more financial sustainability and a board that focuses less on running camp and more on Strategic Planning and defining our identity, we recognize that we are not alone.  There are other terrific camps out in the US from whom we can learn.  And while we keep getting better at Health and Safety, better at our Org Chart and mentoring our future leaders, better at having impact on the lives of our campers, we must also stay laser focused on keeping the uniqueness that is SAC alive and well at SAC.  We will always have a keen eye toward a good amount of “reposo” (chill time) in our schedule.  We will sing out loud with all our hearts the way good camps do, but they will be OUR songs.  We will strive to bring OUR Tefila to life and to make sure it has meaning to each and every camper. 

In my vision, we will continue to use our immersive camp bubble to model the life of Torah-observant, modern-orthodox men and women who interact with modern society but hold unapologetically tight to our values and Sephardic approach to Halachic Judaism.  SAC Camp has 60+ years of doing just that, and as I return from this amazing conference, I can see where it will have many many years to continue this work started by Rabbi Maimon and his passionate group of community volunteers so many years ago.

Tizku L’Mitzvoth

David Benezra, (Proud and Energized) Board Member

Sephardic Adventure Camp