A fun way for kids to learn Jewish values and create Jewish memories

friendships. Many of my children’s best friends came from the JCC camp, and it helped them develop a connection to our community, the Jewish community of the Lehigh Valley.

Summers at the JCC camp foster a love of Judaism in a very subtle way: sharing Shabbat with your camp friends, singing Jewish and Israeli songs together, and Israeli dancing. What we want to do is create Jewish memories in a fun way, with dear friends.

It is also important to teach our children Jewish values embodied in kindness, honesty and respect. It is easy to model derech eretz (an ethical and responsible way to live) at camp. Children must be taught to include everyone, give someone else a turn, speak kindly and listen to directions. This is what we learn in an informal setting, not encumbered by the rules of school.

I take the morning exercise classes at the JCC, and this summer I had the joy of watching the little campers with their huge backpacks scurry happily behind their counselors for a fun day at camp. They were all smiles, hugging their friends and hanging onto the counselors. It certainly made my day a little sunnier just watching them at play.

The need for community extends to joining our religious institutions in the valley. The rabbis describe Judaism as comprising God, Torah and the Jewish people. The sense of peoplehood is central to what it means to be a Jew.

I had an interesting meeting with the parents of a perspective bar mitzvah boy.