ENP Summer Camp Pen-Pal Project
By: Michelle Markowitz
Fresh off of a year of volunteering with ENP, I returned to Camp Ramah in the Poconos determined to spread the word to campers and staff members alike. I developed a new curriculum which would introduce groups of campers to untold Jewish narratives from around the world, with the main focus being on Ethiopian Jews. We spent two days talking about the experience of Ethiopian Jews as they left their home and traveled to Israel, and the campers were able to complete activities that allowed them to put themselves in the shoes of a new immigrant in a new land. We were even able to have a guest speaker talk to the group, as one of the staff members at camp was an Ethiopian-Israeli.
On the second day of our class, I told the campers that they would have the opportunity to participate in a Pen-Pal Project, where they would write letters to Ethiopian-Israeli teens and could hear first hand from them what it’s like to grow up as an Ethiopian-Israeli. The campers were extremely excited about the opportunity, and took their time crafting careful messages to their new friends. Some campers even completed their letters outside of our activity time, and brought them to me when they were finished. Starting the very next day, the campers already began asking me if I had gotten a response from anyone at ENP, and they wondered when they would receive their letters.
When I finally was able to tell the campers that the letters had arrived in Israel and that responses were on their way, the campers were so excited, and were curious about what they would hear from their new friends. By the end of the month-long session, the campers had learned about Jews from Ethiopia, Uganda, China, India, and Mexico, and had studied the stories of Refusniks in Russia and Marranos in Spain. They had learned about Jewish cultures and traditions that they had never been exposed to, and were able to appreciate how easy it is for them to be Jewish in the United States after hearing the struggles of many of the Jews from around the world. But at the end of all of this, the campers were most excited about their new pen-pals and the ability to hear firsthand the information we had learned together.
ENP 2014 Intern
On the second day of our class, I told the campers that they would have the opportunity to participate in a Pen-Pal Project, where they would write letters to Ethiopian-Israeli teens and could hear first hand from them what it’s like to grow up as an Ethiopian-Israeli. The campers were extremely excited about the opportunity, and took their time crafting careful messages to their new friends. Some campers even completed their letters outside of our activity time, and brought them to me when they were finished. Starting the very next day, the campers already began asking me if I had gotten a response from anyone at ENP, and they wondered when they would receive their letters.
When I finally was able to tell the campers that the letters had arrived in Israel and that responses were on their way, the campers were so excited, and were curious about what they would hear from their new friends. By the end of the month-long session, the campers had learned about Jews from Ethiopia, Uganda, China, India, and Mexico, and had studied the stories of Refusniks in Russia and Marranos in Spain. They had learned about Jewish cultures and traditions that they had never been exposed to, and were able to appreciate how easy it is for them to be Jewish in the United States after hearing the struggles of many of the Jews from around the world. But at the end of all of this, the campers were most excited about their new pen-pals and the ability to hear firsthand the information we had learned together.
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