Summer Lovin': Camp Edition

Hey there, my name is Rabbi Jen Gubitz and I'm pumped to be joined by Rabbi Jodi Gordon as we welcome you to the OMFG podcast, Jewish wisdom for unprecedented times. Hey, Jodi.

Hey, Gubitz.

OMFG, what a fabulous 4-letter word. Those 4 letters really do the trick from OMFG, we can hang out! to OMFG, we're hanging out! to OMFG, hanging out with people is exhausting. As rabbis, we have come to know that when the stories of our lives meet the stories of Jewish tradition, transformation, growth, something awesome occurs.

Jodi and I are experts on the letters J and G, songs with the word shalom in them, being married to vegetarians and vegans, and summertime. We want to bring to you our conversations that express our love for Judaism and make it relevant in the world as we mine Jewish wisdom for strength and resilience in these unprecedented times, with a dose of humor, because as Aristotle himself taught, laughter is a bodily exercise precious to health.

As we get ready for summer 2021 in the great American Jewish tradition, many of us are getting ready to either send kids off to camp or to head off to camp ourselves as staff and faculty And some of us are feeling nostalgic and a little bit sad that we don't get to go. So today we are talking about a subject near and dear to both of our hearts, Jewish summer camp. And so to warm us up, a little game storm. Jen, how many summers have you spent at Jewish summer camp?

So first of all, game storm, way better than a rainstorm at summer camp.

Also true.

I think I was at camp For somewhere between 13 to 15 years, I was irresponsible and did not count fully, but I started going when I was 8, I think, took a summer off. Then I went all the way, worked at camp through college, and then I even went back as a rabbinic student. So forever. What about you, Jodi?

I think I'm like, as a camper and counselor and like, you know, spending the full summers there, I was I was in the 10-year club because I didn't start going until I was 13, but I did go until after college. And then as a rabbi, it has been one of the, like, awesome perks of the job that I get to go back and be faculty. So I think we're up to somewhere around 14 or 15 summers in total. Next up, Jen, what was your best job at camp? I'll give you a minute to think about it because I will start by saying I think one of the best jobs at camp ever was the summer that I was an oferim counselor and lifeguard combination. So Ophirim was the unit at Eisner Camp that had rising 6th and 7th graders. Shout out to the bunk 19 girls, you tortured my soul and I still love you with all my heart. And so the reason that the combo was the best job is because by being a lifeguard, I didn't actually have to spend the whole day with them. And so I would like sit at the pool. I was not the best lifeguard, everyone stayed safe. And then at night, like my best friends and I were co's, it was awesome. Excellent summer. What about you?

That's hilarious. So at Gucci, you have to do about 7 jobs a summer, and they still— they paid us what was meaningful for them, but not a significant sum. And one summer, I was avada unit head, which is for kids entering their senior year of high school where they come to camp to clean, literally to plunge toilets. So I was, I think, assistant unit head and head song leader and a lifeguard. Similar to your experience of being a lifeguard, I wanted to do this job because I liked getting a tan. And I did it that year with my friend and our colleague Rabbi Brian Immerman. And I did get certified to be a lifeguard. And there is a test where you have to retrieve a brick from the bottom of the pool. And I did eventually retrieve that brick from the bottom of the pool. But I wouldn't say that it was something that I would have had a lot of confidence about in allowing me to be a lifeguard. So what a summer, plunge toilets, sang a lot of songs of Shalom. And thank God, my lifeguard skills were mostly put to work of doing Hebrew lessons in the pool.

I also did my lifeguard training at camp, like, while I was already on pool staff, and I also remember the retrieve a brick from the bottom of the deep end exercise. Like, I'm a fine swimmer, that wasn't the hard part, but it was when I learned that pool staff definitely had the most fun of anyone on camp. And a fun fact is that the head of the waterfront at Eisner for many years is a lovely person named Danny O'Dell, who is now my congregant and a member of my synagogue, and we have many sweet memories of things like midnight backboarding.

Okay, so what was your worst job at camp?

Okay, this feels a little bit harder to answer because I really— I just was that person who loved being at camp so much. But I will say that the summer of 2004 when I was the program director was not my favorite ever. And maybe it's because I was having that sort of like, it was one summer too many. Like I was 24. And a lot of my friends weren't back at camp yet that summer. And, you know, hard times like that. And still I loved it.

And you know how it goes.

What about you?

I would say my worst job at camp was the summer that I was Avodah unit head, head song leader, and a lifeguard pool director. Because that's a lot of jobs.

A lot.

However, I, like I said, am very good at applying SPF. I know how to run an industrial dishwasher for a kitchen and I'm a song leader still. So I feel like it was worth the, I don't know, $2,000 they paid me. Maybe it was a bit more than that. I'll give them some credit. I would say that—

I believe it was $2,000.

You believe it was $2,000? Well, I heard the kids at Gucci got paid one number and I heard about the kids at Eisner who got paid a lot more numbers. But I do still love camp. And I, you know, glad that we could get to go. I'm really grateful my mom actually worked at camp to make it so that I could go to camp and my siblings could go. And my mom actually stayed at camp longer than any of us did as the camp mom and as a music support. So shout out to Charlene. I know you loved going to camp so that it would inspire our Jewish identities, but I think you went for yourself too. And now, but And now look, but okay, Jodi, last question. Best thing to get at what they call it Eisner the Moe and what they call a Gucci Canteen.

Okay.

I, as a camper, was always into apparently quantity over quality. So I always went for the Charleston Chew because it was the, like the biggest, or it seemed like it was the most candy bang for your buck. I mean, today the answer would be different, but at the time. I was definitely a Charlton Chew kind of girl. What about you?

I worked in the office as a program director for 2 years as a rabbinic student, which meant that I could have whatever I wanted from Canteen. So thank you, Ron Klotz. I probably owe you a couple of dollars. As a camper, I just had to ask my mom to get me stuff at Walmart. So my favorite thing about Canteen was having access to far greater things in the world than what they could offer. Man, summer camp. What a time.

Just talking about camp makes me happy. As we kick off this episode dedicated to camp, we wanted to start off with a brief history of Jewish sleepaway camp in America. And so we present to you a brief and totally incomplete history of Jewish summer camp.

All right, first up, firsts. According to an amazing book called A Place of Our Own: The Rise of Reform Jewish Camping, edited by Michael M. Lorge and Gary P. Zola, the first known Jewish camp was a girls' camp founded in 1893 by the Jewish Working Girls' Vacation Society located in New York. Amazing.

Next up, the why of Jewish camping. Students of American Jewish history will not be surprised to learn that the early Jewish summer camps had two main purposes. First, to get kids out of the city and into the fresh country air. And secondly, to help Americanize these new young Jews in America, especially the children of Eastern European Jewish immigrants.

My grandparents, in fact, were among those kids, and Gary Zola, who wrote all of this information, his daughter Mandy was my co-counselor. Interestingly, these first camps were Jewish only in demographics and administration, but the programming was specifically not Jewish. As the main goal was really to help assimilate campers.

That all started to shift in the 1920s and '40s when a new trend emerged: the growth of camps with consciously Jewish cultural and educational missions. Among the first were the Sedgewick camps in Port Jervis, New York— shout out to my father-in-law Alan Bloom, a lifelong Sedgewick camper— and an independent Jewish community center on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. And I love the name of this camp: Camp Boyberik. A Yiddish camp near Rhinebeck, New York. And in addition to Yiddish camps, this is also when we start to see camps with Zionist, Hebrew, and socialist identities coming into existence.

It's interesting to dive into the history of how Jewish camping evolved. First from this way of getting kids out of the city and helping them to become American. Then to this place where various Jewish social identities were concretized. To the way we encounter camp today, as a place where Jewish identity is formed and molded, largely in affiliation with a Jewish denomination. But not always.

Totally. In doing a little background research for this episode, I came across this amazing summary of what that switch meant. So Dan Nosowitz writes, "This was a wildly experimental phase for Jewish summer camps, one that would last into the 1970s. The 1940s and '50s were focused on making American Jewish kids understand that they lived in two worlds, the Jewish world and the American world, and that both were vital." America as a whole at this time, and especially in the Jewish community, was very into American triumphalism. We beat the Nazis! These camps, while they kept kosher and observed Shabbat, also observed the Fourth of July.

And then the 1960s and 1970s come along. And so much of the American Judaism that we grew up with was shaped and amplified by what was happening at camps during that time, from the activism to the music. Dedicated OMFG listeners may remember our episode back in January, when we talked about the late, great Debbie Friedman. Camp, specifically the Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, was a place where Jewish music and prayer were set free, and where a young woman like Debbie Friedman could experiment and find her own voice.

Freedom feels like an important word to help define the importance of Jewish camp, both then and now. One of the histories I read commented on the fact that throughout the '60s and '70s, the camp counselors who would come to work at camp each summer were the same young people protesting the Vietnam War, marching in the streets for civil rights, and so it was no wonder that they would bring that sensibility to bear on their summers at camp.

So fast forward to the '90s and 2000s, and Jodi, it feels safe to say that we are both products of our respective Jewish summer camps, Gucci and Eisner. We've both talked a lot about these experiences and how formative they are on this podcast, so we thought today we'd bring in some new voices.

That's right, Jen. As we get ready for Summer 2021, we are super excited to welcome two guests to the show who each bring a unique perspective to this conversation.

So welcome, welcome! We're really excited that we are joined tonight by 2 guests. First, we have the amazing Sarah Beth Berman joining us from New York, and we also have the amazing Ben Cutler joining us from camp. It's so great to have you guys here with us, and we would love for you to introduce yourselves. Tell us what you do, you know, the 10 for 2 thing when you're not at camp. Sad face. And then tell us about your camp stories, whether where you've gone to camp, which for Sarabeth is a lot of camps, but we're here for the list, or how many years you've spent at camp, or your favorite job at camp. You can tell us whatever you want. So Sarabeth, I'll invite you to go first.

Hi, I'm Sarabeth Berman. Um, I work as the Senior Education Consultant in Innovation and Inclusion at the Jewish Education Project in New York City. I have also been working with the Foundation for Jewish Camp for a long time, since I was my first semester in grad school. So a very young, bright-eyed emerging professional. It feels like it was yesterday, but apparently it was like more than 15 years ago. My camp story is I went to a camp for Jews, which was not a nonprofit overnight Jewish summer camp called Blue Ridge. And I went there for 6 summers, 5 or 6 summers, and then worked 1 summer. I went on and staffed US Y on Wheels, and then I worked for 5 non-consecutive summers at Ramah Jerome, 1 summer at Camp Interlaken JCC, 1— I did a short stint at Brought Brooklyn Day Camp. To say that I worked at a young judaic camp, I mean to serve the Jewish people. And I also worked for 5 years for URJ Camp Coleman, and I was an educator there. I was also working a day school, uh, in Atlanta called the Davis Academy at the same time. Are those all of my camps? Oh, and then I've been on faculty for Cornerstone for I think 12 years in a variety of different capacities. And my favorite job at camp, other than being on Cornerstone faculty, is teaching water skiing, which I did for a couple of summers at Roma de Rome. And as part of my job at Interlochen, I got to do water skiing for 1 hour a day, which was delightful, except for when it was 40 degrees. And then I wouldn't have sent me to teach water skiing in the layers of clothing that I was wearing.

It just makes me feel like we have a lot in common. Earlier I was telling Jen that I spent most of my summers on waterfront at Eisner trying to wear sweatpants as often as possible and like not be dressed to swim as much as possible, because that's how much I loved actually lifeguarding, even though I love being on pool staff.

Yeah, I, I actually, when I taught water skiing, most of the time I wore at least capri pants and a long sleeve shirt over my bathing suit for sun reasons. And my dermatologist celebrated when I told him that I was going to be a unit head instead of a water skiing instructor because he's like, you have to stop being outdoors like that. I would be like fully dressed. I would often have to like dip my clothing in the lake and put it back on because it was really hot. But, uh, I did dress like that.

Ben, what about you?

So my camp story is just one camp. My parents both went to URJ Eisner Camp. Oh, I should back up. Hi, I'm Ben Cutler. During the year, I teach history at a school called CAP International in the Bronx. And my camp story is just one camp. My parents both went to URJ Eisner Camp. My dad served on faculty, and I came before I was a year old at camp. This summer now, I think, is my 24th summer at camp. I've done it all. I was a day camper, I was a camper, I was a mahon or CIT, counselor, assistant unit head, unit head. I've worked in the kitchen. I was faculty for one summer. So I just like try and collect as many name tags as I can from camp and just do as many different roles as possible.

That's awesome.

And Ben, what are you doing at camp this summer?

This summer I am the olim unit head, which is the oldest campers who are going into 10th grade.

Up on Olam Hill. That is awesome. So you both told us a little bit about your, your camp resume, so to speak. And this whole episode is about the iconic role that, you know, sleepaway camp plays in the American Jewish community. And I would love to hear from each of you. And Sarah Beth, we'll start with you and then Ben, turn to you. You know, we're going to invite you to wax poetic, to wax philosophical for a moment. Why does camp matter so much? And if we can add an addendum to that question, in this OMFG year, why might it matter even more this summer? So, Sarah Beth, what do you think?

Well, camp is the best, just overall. And I've, I've worked in lots of different settings, and the— in, in settings that are not the camp setting, there's a lot of like how to How do we make the magic of camp happen in this setting? There's something about the freedom of camp, the structured freedom of camp that allows people to be who they are and live their best lives and feel free and safe to grow and all of those things that people talk about. And then like saying, you know, how can I be Jewish like at camp? I can't do Havdalah, there's no lake there or whatever. And thinking about transitioning that magic to the other 10, or in this case, 22 months, 23 months, right? Like, or whatever. But all of those intervening months, thinking about that magic and how to hold on to it, the firefly in the jar thing. That's what I spend most of my time doing is thinking about how to make that magic happen during the summer and also during the year. But camp's the best. And this summer, I'm not prone to fits of emotional fancy, and I keep on getting these like feelings where I see kids sitting in circles. Some of them are wearing masks, some of them aren't. I don't know their vaccination status, but just like that they're there and that they're able to be together that, you know, I'm watching camps that I've worked at for 5 years gather kids in a different way in the morning to welcome in the day, whether it means sitting outside in tents for meals or hanging out on a field to open the day, which I've never seen at these particular places before. It gets me in my, in my very soul, in the emotional part of me that I'm not a fan of displaying. It's really so awesome. They get to just like exist like normal.

Like normal. Ben, what about you? More normal.

So if you ask my grandpa, he'd say Jewish camp is to make more Jewish children, which I am a product of, and my current fiancée and I met at camp. So like, I guess he's right in that sense. But to me, camp is really about kids having a responsibility that doesn't exist anymore in the world, that you're not That there's so much between cell phones and technology and just the current culture and climate of the world that kids lose this element of freedom that people always know where you are, can always get in touch with you. And while at camp, we know where they are, there's still that freedom of like, "Okay, you're going to go to baseball and you're going to go there by yourself. And then after baseball, you're going to go to the art shack." And you have to remember those two things where you're going, and you're gonna do it by yourself. And like, there's people there to support them, but at the same time, like, it puts a lot of responsibility on the kids and teaches, and like, forces them to step up and kind of learn to take this responsibility. And I think after this year, it's gonna be, I mean, like, totally agree with what Sarah Beth said about the more normalcy, but I also think it's gonna be great for kids to unplug and remember how to interact with humans again, and to not stare at a screen for like 8+ hours a day. And to just kind of get used to, like, you know, human interaction again. And we always joke about, like, oh my God, I forgot how to interact with people. But, like, it's kind of a real thing that social skills need to be developed, and it's really important as kids to develop these skills. So this summer is going to be, like, a chance for them to get those back.

I think it's important for our listeners to know that, as Ben reminded us of how important human interaction and social skills are, his really adorable puppy is filling the screen because Pets can be therapeutic too. So we welcome Barrington to this episode of OMFG as well.

He is very excited to be here and is the most popular thing on camp.

I was muted because you have to have that experience once, but I said pets and camp are good for your mental health.

The name is Barrington. That's great.

Named after Great Barrington, the home of Isaac Newton.

That's fantastic.

I love that.

The greatest Barrington. I love that. I miss Great Barrington. So, so we want to do a top 5. We like top 5s over here. So top 5 things you want folks to know about Camp 2021. Maybe you want to speak to those campers who haven't left yet. Maybe you want to speak to those parents who are, I would guess, ever grateful and worried, right? Or to people who are thinking, Why would I go to camp? I need a job or an internship. Maybe that's your audience. But what are the top 5 things folks need to know? Ben, why don't you go first?

All right. So I wrote these in no particular order. Let me just preface it with that. So the first one on my list is that it's going to be okay. That this is going to be a very, very different summer for campers, for staff, for parents, for everyone. And no matter what happens, it's going to be okay. And just to have that mindset going into camp, at camp, leaving camp. Okay. My second thing is that in a similar vein, like, something is better than nothing. Camp is gonna look different. Camp is gonna feel different. Camp is gonna be different. But last summer there was nothing. And whatever we get is gonna be so much better and so incredible that we still get to return to the place that I love, the campers love, the staff love. Whatever camp it is, I'm sure there's like that deep love. And I can't explain the feeling I had setting foot on camp when I came here. I unloaded my car and I had all these thoughts and stress in my head. And I'm living on the top of William Hill and I turned and I just looked out and I was like, "Oh, I'm back." And it's just this amazing feeling that no matter what happens from here, something is so much better than the nothing we had. Like I said, these are in no order. So the next one I have is like, camp is fun. And I just always remind myself that and my staff that, that like, this is a fun place to be. And like, yes, it's stressful. Yes, you don't sleep. Yes, it is a job to be taken seriously. But at the end of the day, like, camp is all about fun, prioritizing the campers, but also like staff gets to have fun and unit heads get to have fun. And like, I think directors have fun and that like, you know, camp camp is fun and camp is meant to be fun and camp will be fun. Next, I'm like looking at my list. Okay, next I have that it's gonna be. Whatever it is, it is. And like, no one's gonna be able to predict it. No one's gonna be able to say sometimes what's happening until it's happening. And like, that is perfectly fine this summer. It's gonna be camp and it's gonna happen and it's just gonna be. And we just all have to acknowledge that and roll with the punches. Things haven't been fleshed out yet because we don't know what it's gonna look like until we're doing it. And the last thing I have, which is specifically for staff who either didn't come back this summer or are like on the fence, is that camp is such a marketable thing with so many life skills that you need. Like obviously as a teacher, I gained so much useful stuff, but even my friends who are like marketing majors or working in nonprofits, like there's so many skills that you pick up at camp you don't even realize just by the very nature of working on a team with co's and coordinating and communicating and planning all these different schedules and programs and logistics that you just get and develop so many life skills and marketable skills at camp. And there's ways to put it on your resume, not just being like, "Oh, camp counselor, I'm leaving it blank," but acknowledging all these skills you gained that really can apply to whatever field you're going into. That's what I got.

Well, that's inspiring, Ben. Thank you. You spoke to so many different groups of people, and I think actually what's so true about everything you said is that advice for camp is often advice for life. So thank you. Thank you. Sarah Beth.

Okay, so I thought about how to answer this question, and then I listened to Ben, and then I decided to go for like a combo of like inspirational, serious things and absolute shenanigans. The first thing that I will say that I love to say to camp counselors is that they're not doing this alone. Like they can't solve all the problems. They're not meant to solve all the problems. There's a support system in place at camp, not just for counselors, but for everybody up to including directors and boards and all the way down to the youngest, tiniest camper and their parents at home. Like, if you have questions or concerns, you're not meant to do this alone. So make sure you're asking somebody else for help because you're not— no one's meant to do any of this alone. So that's one of my serious responses. I think that this summer going into camp, there is what to talk about, about things that are not pleasant in the world. And if we're talking about Jewish summer camp specifically, camp is a safe and supportive place, a brave and supportive place to have difficult conversations about how you're feeling about the world, processing all of your griefy feelings about what the last year and change has been like, talking about what's happening in Israel-Palestine, the Middle East, however you feel like defining it. That is a place to have those conversations, not to just, you know, think about like the rainbows and butterflies and good things that have happened. In a particular place or in a particular time, but also like have really serious, challenging conversations with people who might not agree with you, but also share space with you and/or with you in services and the dining hall and across the field and whatever it is. Have those conversations because campus is a uniquely framed place where you can have those conversations in a safer environment than anywhere else. Yeah, and then let your hands, wrists, and eyes reset. So I don't get to go to a full summer of camp anymore, and I'm thinking about the different aches and pains I would have in my body if I were water skiing all summer or working in Omanut and doing pottery. I'm not any good at pottery, but I'm just like imagining what it would feel like to not be in Zoom meetings for half the day and not typing emails 20 hours a day, off and on. I don't only do that. It's just like such an incredible opportunity to let your hands be themselves and to let your eyes be themselves, and that's so nice. So those are my serious answers. And then I have two that are— I guess they're kind of serious but also ridiculous. The, the first one is that I really love golf carts. Like, I love golf carts. I proclaimed myself the golf cart czar at the last camp that I worked at full-time. And I like handed off that position to someone else who are now the czar of the golf carts. And I feel like they are not treated with the appropriate amount of hurrah, like true awe and respect, because they are vectors of destruction. And people who aren't trained to use golf carts properly don't use them properly. And it is terrifying. And kids that chase after golf carts give me nightmares. So I just want to put it out there that golf carts are wonderful and they're also vectors of destruction. So treat them with the appropriate amount of awe and respect. And my last one, so I don't know, like, Ben, you could speak to this and like every camp is different, how meals are working at camp this summer. What's family style? What's all packaged? Like how much plastic awful wasting needs to happen in order for safety to happen. But I worked at a camp that had a slime flu outbreak. In 2009, and I have really fond memories— this is ridiculous— but of putting on blue vinyl gloves and serving kids Swine09, that is correct. I also rapped about it, but I don't think that track exists anywhere, so I'm not going to give you access. It was ridiculous. Whatever. Anyway, so during Swine09, I was a non-bunk staff member. I was doing water skiing that summer, which meant that I was also on serving meals to all the kids duty. And at first it was like a crisis situation. Like, you— we just plated food and handed it to the kid. Like, even if they don't like noodles and we gave them plate, you like, "Get what you get," whatever. And then as it became more normal for the entire session to serve the food, you ask the kids what they wanted. And that's when I learned that when kids are bored and waiting in line, their favorite thing to do is investigate their nostrils. Which is why they're just like picking away, waiting for their turn for the food. And they had like used hand sanitizer, which had like been invented then. Like I had, I don't remember seeing it before 2009 in that way, but I have such fond memories of like watching kids absolutely go to town on their noses and then sanitize their hands and say like, "Can I please have some sun butter and matzah?" Because we gave kids a lot of matzah at that camp, which was hilarious. And so I don't know what mealtime looks like during whatever COVID camp is like, but I have such fond memories of that as serving, serving kids with blue vinyl gloves on and everybody getting better. And by the end of the session, it was like completely normal. And I had relationships with like hundreds of kids that I probably wouldn't have ever had a chance to talk to. And I also knew a lot about their noses. That is my final—

Final thing I have to say. That feels really special. That feels like that was a real bonding opportunity for you, Sherbet.

That's great.

We want to thank you both so much for taking time to be with us tonight, because whether you are currently caring for your own tiny child at home or already on lockdown in the beautiful Berkshires getting ready to care for however many hundreds of other people's children, we know that your time is precious, and we are really happy to have your voices to add to the OMFG state of affairs on Jewish summer camp. 492, that's the number of kids at Eisner this summer?

Wow.

That is really exciting. And I will say, actually, both of you, Sarah, Beth, you reminded me of some of the things that matter to me most about camp. And then as I get ready to send my 7-year-old off, who I think might actually be the youngest camper at Eisner this summer unless there was another kid, Taniymer, born in June. That it's just this beautiful reminder of like the gift that we give our children by giving them this experience. And so thank you, thank you both for all you do and continue to do and have done for the Jewish people.

Such an honor.

As we close out this OMFG episode all about Jewish summer camp, we want to close with beautiful words of blessing written by our friend and colleague Rabbi Sarah Mason Barkin.

To our campers, may the one who blessed our ancestors bless you with copious amounts of sunscreen, with adventure, whether by horseback or zipline, by mountain bike or by water slide, with grilled cheese and tomato soup, sundaes on Saturday and seconds of strawberry salad, with friendships by flashlight while you giggle at night, woven tightly like brightly colored bracelets, with secrets and dreams and stories to share, under towering trees and twinkling stars with independence.

To our staff, may you be blessed to know you've traded in the internship to comfort a sick— a homesick camper. You've traded in the college credit to be a role model. You've traded in an apartment for a cabin full of unclaimed socks, wet towels, and happy kids. You are ready to create the kind of magic that another once created for you.

We thank you.

We are proud of you. We trust you.

To our parents: May the One who blesses your children bless you too. Remember, no letters means your kids are too busy having fun. Remember, they are finding their voices courageously and kindly with a strong Jewish heart. Remember, they are taking risks safely. They are reconnecting with the earth after a year of Zoom and video games and group texts. Remember, you have blessed them with this gift of big Jewish fun.

May we all be blessed with a summer of health and safety, a summer of growth and laughter, and many memories in the making.

Amen.

Amen.

This episode of the OMFG podcast was brought to you by Rabbis Jen Gubitz and Jodi Gordon. Shout out to our awesome producer, Jesse Ulrich, straight out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. And gratitude to our guests, Sarah Beth Berman and Ben Cutler. We hope you have an awesome summer.