This past Monday was bunk war for bunks Tes-Zayin through Chof-Aleph. Monday afternoon, one camper reportedly hit another camper in the pool. Lifeguard Abba Gurevitch gave a loud and lengthy speech about the importance of treating our friends with respect. “You’ve already been in camp for seven weeks, and you don’t know that you can’t lift a hand towards another camper? If you can’t behave yourselves there is going to be BUNK WAR!” Immediately all the staff members jumped into the pool, to join in the excitement. Everybody exited the pool, and the teams were split up. The two teams are Shliach and Chosid. For the team of Shliach: the general is Mendel Sasunkin, the Lieutenant is Moshe Deitch and the captain is Chaim Lisbon. For the team of Chosid, the general is Mendel Lifshits, the lieutenant is Eliyahu Raskin and the captain is Shneur Gansburg. Counselors Ruvein Gitter, Yosef Lewis and Levi Schapiro were judges. The other counselors were “advisors” to both of the teams. The plays, song and scavengers are solely the children’s responsibility.
After the teams were split, there was “team time.” The campers divided up the responsibilities among themselves, and then went to learning class as usual. After supper each team put on two scavengers. Tuesday morning each team presented their theme speech. Following lunch there was team time, to learn the theme song. The songs were presented to the judges during rest period.
At 7:15 Team Chosid put on their play. The story went as follows: An American Patriot tries to steal some documents from the British to help the Americans win the war. He is caught and imprisoned. He escapes, and tries again, this time succeeding. He demonstrated how a Chosid must never give up, and keeps on trying until he succeeds.
Team Shliach presented their play next. During World War Two, a young Jew flees to Russia. In Russia, he is enamored with communism and discards his Jewish identity and adopts communism as his personal creed. His communist education, as well as the memory of the Nazis killing his father in front of his eyes, makes him very bitter towards Judaism. After the fall of communism, a Chabad shliach meets him in Russia. The shliach reminds him of his old jewish life, causing him much anguish. He refuses to speak to the shliach, and even threatens to kill him. The shliach, thinking his end is near, cries out Sh’ma Yisroel. Hearing Sh’ma Yisroel reminds him of his father’s Sh’ma Yisroel and reawakens his Jewish spark. He decides to return to Judaism.