Author: cgi

[simage=2177,160,c,left,]On Thursday night, the entire camp, plus some visitors from the area, assembled in the camp soccer field for the Grand Staff Play!
Most plays in Gan Israel are held in the Shul, but due to the epic proportions of this one, it had to be held outdoors. The theme of the play was the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, and the destruction of Yerushalayim. Despite the theme being rather a sad one, the amazing writers of the play were able to turn the story around and end off inspiring us to bring Moshiach with our mitzvos. Our hardworking staff spent many a sleepless night painting backdrops, building props, and stapling costumes (seriously!).  
 [simage=2147,160,c,right,]Among the amazing things that were made, there were two catapults, a battering ram(!), two 25 x 20 foot backdrops of Yerushalayim, a 74 x 15 foot wall of Yerushalayim, two warehouses, tents for the Roman Soldiers, a raised balcony for the host in the Bar Kamtza scene, a huge throne for Caesar, a sukkah for Simchas Beis Hashoeivah, hundreds of costumes, a huge Mizbeach, and one really long run-on sentence.
 

[simage=2141,160,c,left,]The props weren’t the only amazing thing in the play, the scenes and stunts were also stupendous. From Bar Kamtza being thrown off of an 8 foot balcony into a cake (no dummies or stunt doubles!), to the burning of Yerushalayim’s warehouses of food by the Biryonim, to the sheep that Caeser sent to the Beis Hamikdash, to one of the defenders of Yerushalayim trying to climb back up the wall and the rope being cut, everything was done to make the experience feel like history was replaying itself.
 
[simage=2146,160,c,right]As the campers watched, spellbound,the staff acted out the story of the Churban, from Simchas Beis Hashoeiva to Bar Kamtza being accidentally invited to a party, to the silence of the Chachamim and Bar Kamtza’s tattling to Caesar. From the Roman seige to the destruction, and ending off with the story of Rabbi Akiva, Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah and Rabbi Yehoshua seeing a fox come out of the Kodesh Hakedoshim, the staff brought out the responsibility of our generation to bring Moshiach, and that we have a koach, like Rabbi Akiva, because out of darkness, comes a greater light.

Head Counselors at Gan Israel in Parksville, NY, are walking around camp grounds with photos that have campers at their best.

The head staff at Camp Gan Israel in Parksville, NY, came up with an incentive that has campers davening beautifully and strengthening their chassidishkeit.

A uniquely designed calendar for the coming Hebrew year of 5772 has the campers eagerly collecting photos of the Rebbe to fill it.

On each page of the calendar, there are spaces for pictures of the Rebbe which correspond to that day.

Each month has photos of the Rebbe corresponding to the special dates that appear in them – Jewish Yomim Tovim and special chassidic dates.

Davening, learning, and playing in a good manner earn the campers the chance to be awarded the photos with stickers which they apply to the calendar.

At the end of the summer, campers will be taking their calendar home for year-round inspiration.

The first week has gone, and all are scratching their heads, perplexed as to where it could have gone
so fast. But considering all the fun we had, who’s surprised it flew by. There were the usual, grand
speeches, and the unpacking and resettling of the bunkhouses. Then after
just a couple of days, the first trip of the month happened. This trip, later to be known as bowling,
involved the entire camp splitting into three groups, driving to a very colorful building, and last but most
importantly, rolling big heavy balls down a narrow, slippery floor, in an attempt to knock over some
very peaceful, upright, wooden obstacles. While this description may eliminate any semblance of
excitement otherwise felt when discussing or playing the above mentioned “bowling”, it was in fact a
great success and lots of fun, thanks to our dear E.C.A.D.s. I am looking forward to many more exciting trips and activities, as the second month, has only just begun.

In this week’s “Opening the week with the Rebbe”: Campers from Gan Israel New York attend the Rebb’s Farbrengen in honor of his father’s Yahrzeit. 20 Menachem Av, 5742 (August 9, 1982).

From the weekly video magazine – ‘Living Torah’. Courtesy of JEM

In Gan Israel, the staff are always trying to find ways to make the camp experience richer. Rich with excitement and fun, but also with meaning and significance. To that end, this year, Gan Israel has introduced a calendar for the year 5772. On each page of the calendar, there are spaces for pictures of the Rebbe which correspond to that day. There are pictures for Yomei D’pagra and pictures for Erev Yomim Tovim, among others. Campers earn stickers with pictures of the Rebbe for Davening with Kavana, learning with Hasmoda, and behaving in ways that make the Rebbe proud.

Then, they stick the pictures over the days on the calender to which they apply. These small pictures are earned from their counselors and learning teachers throughout all parts of the day. Every month on the calender also has one special Rebbe picture which represents a major Inyan for that month. These pictures are very rare and can only be rewarded by one of the Head Staff for very special behavior. Campers are all anxiously collecting as many pictures of the Rebbe as they can as they try to complete their calender.

At the end of the summer iy’h every camper will take home a full calender to use throughout next year. As the year progresses, campers (summer never ends, summer never ends), can look at their calender and live each day with a picture from the Rebbe that they earned through hard work and perseverance in doing things that make the Rebbe proud.

The first month was good. I liked it. Because I like soft serve and there was a lot of soft serve this month. To write or not to write? That is the question. A very deep one indeed. It’s hard to write about a month that was so full. Where to start? Where to start? Hmm… first day everyone arrived and unpacked, joining up with their bunks, ready to start an amazing summer. Within the first week they were off to Skate Estate, to roll in circles and avoid knocking into each other. In the midst of all that spinning in circles there was laser tag (which I personally think should be spelled “lazer” tag) going on in another room.

It felt like the summer had barely started when cars came pouring in from all directions, filled with family and friends who had come for visiting day. In case anyone could be bored on such a busy day, the camp provided a carnival with many great blowup games and activities. (Not to imply that any of the games blew up but rather that they were blown up before use.) I personally inspected and tested some of the rides and can verify that while they may not have been suitable for a twenty year old (which would explain why it seemed easier to go over those little tunnels than to try to squeeze through them) they were loads of fun anyway.

The next major event was the bivouac. No one’s really sure why it’s called that, but think it must be an old Indian word for sleeping in the rain without shelter. Anyway, every three bunks had their own fire. Wood was graciously provided by the camp, but if the fire was to last all night (as is the tradition) much more wood would need to be gathered. (Wood and would are homonyms). So as soon as all the tents were up (or – for the real men – as soon as the sleeping bags were unrolled) everyone fanned out to collect more wood, and brought back at least three or four times what had been graciously provided. The singing eating and scary stories went late into the night, till finally the campers (or most of them at least) went to sleep, while the counselors stayed up for the important task of watching the fire (read: take turns eating roasted marshmallows and throwing all of the hard collected wood into the fire). In the morning was an all-natural nature breakfast (read: eggs cooked in a pan over easy-light-soaked-in-lighter-fluid-coals in a grill).

One fine Tuesday morning the campers were intrigued to learn that the inspectors were here.It struck them as strange that they would come twice in four days, but the staff reassured them that the inspectors can come as often as they want, even twice in one week. The “inspectors” were actually yeshiva bochurim from the nearby camp HASC summer program, who had agreed to come to camp, and act as inspectors. In a fiery speech by H.C. Moshe Shemtov, describing all of the things that the inspectors had found wrong and outlining the ramifications of all of the “violations” the camp had incurred, he ended off “and so from today and till tomorrow night will be BOG WAR!” Bog war this year was a memorable one indeed, from the hilarious scavengers to the grand plays, from the great songs to the catchy cheers that each team made. As one staff member put it “-insert cool one liner here-”.

Towards the end of the first month, the campers began to smell that something was up when several buses pulled up into the camp. They probably felt a bit of a let-down when H.C. Rafi Steiner announced that Gan Israel was going to watch an international chess tournament. The breakout concluded, when Rafi finally announced that it was none other than the grand trip to Lake Compounce! By the way, Lake Compounce is a combination of a water park and an amusement park. The campers made a true Kiddush Lubavitch by always keeping their Yarmulkas and Tzitzis on while walking around the park, and even on the rides. They played and played until finally the park closed, and they didn’t get back to camp until 2:45 AM (that’s 1:45 camp time).

After such an amazing first month, with all of those trips and activities, not to mention things like banana boating or pizza bowling (which unfortunately does not involve rolling pizza down the lanes), or winning Shabbos competition, or the KIWI championship, I’m majorly looking forward to another great month of camp!