Making Shabbat – Celebrating and Learning at American Jewish Summer Camps

An accessible and engaging treatment of the experience of Jewish summer camps.   This book tells the story of how Jewish camps have emerged as creators of positive spiritual experiences for Jewish youth in North America. When Jewish camps began at the dawn of the twentieth century, their leaders had little interest in creating Jewish spiritual experiences for their campers. Yet over the course of the past century, Jewish camps have gradually moved into providing primal Jewish experiences that diverse campers can enjoy, parents appreciate, and alumni fondly recall. Making Shabbat Real explores how Shabbat at camp became the focal point for these primal Jewish experiences, providing an interesting perspective on changing approaches to Jewish education and identity in North America.  

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction Part 1: Creating Shabbat at Camp 2. Developing Shabbat at Jewish Camps: 1920-2000 3. Shabbat at Three Jewish Camps Part 2: Celebrating Shabbat at Camp 4. Preparing for Shabbat 5. Greeting the Shabbat 6. Intensifying Shabbat Joy 7. Skill-Building and Concluding Shabbat Part 3: Learning from Shabbat at Camp 8. What Camp Leaders Can Learn 9. What Jewish Celebration Can Be

About the Author :
Joseph Reimer is associate professor of Jewish education at Brandeis University. He is the author of Succeeding at Jewish Education and coauthor of Promoting Moral Growth: From Piaget to Kohlberg.  

Review :
“Making Shabbat: Celebrating and Learning at American Jewish Summer Camps, Reimer’s account of Shabbat at three highly regarded non-Orthodox Jewish summer camps, is another example of slow and deliberate Jewish educational research and the insights it can yield. . . . In drawing attention to how Shabbat is made at camp, Reimer uncovers how seemingly banal actions can set a foundation for rich experiences. . . . [This] book . . . exemplifies exactly the sort of rich and insightful scholarship necessary for nurturing vibrant, lived North American Judaism.”  “Making Shabbat . . . is highly readable for both lay and scholarly audiences, offering a detailed exploration of the camping experiences of American Jews, as well as the substantial thought and resources invested in realizing those aims. . . . Reimer’s work prompts reflection on the enduring influence of these formative experiences and the need for all Jewish educational programs to be comparably thoughtful and filled with ruach.”  “This gracefully written book is an outstanding ethnographic account of how Shabbat is created and transmitted at three different camps, which highlights the power of the quotidian of music, dance, prayer, community, and leadership. Reimer offers a rich and detailed understanding of what learning and education mean in these different contexts that vastly enlarges previous scholarship on summer camps… An especially timely work, as religious life is changing dramatically, and Reimer has offered many insights that should be helpful to anyone interested in how meaning is made and transmitted in religion.” “From ruach mosh pits to post-havdalah hugs, Shabbat practices at camp differ from year-round Jewish life. This smart, engaging book sheds light on this phenomenon through historical analysis, rich ethnographic descriptions, and beautiful photographs from three contemporary camps of diverse denominations. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Jewish education - and camp alumni who want to take a trip down memory lane (or dirt path).” "This book is for anyone who has experienced Shabbat at a Jewish camp and wondered what made it so special. After describing in detail how Shabbat is observed at three different camps, Reimer unpacks the core values of each camp, and the ‘rituals’ that allow some seemingly conflicting values to co-exist. Finally, he brings in key theoretical constructs to explain how lore and ritual intertwine to make Shabbat at camp so memorable.”