Jewish Summer Camp in August 2016

[BoboChic]

A Paris friend of mine who has a 15 year old son (currently in the equivalent of Y11) is looking for a Jewish summer camp in England or the US for him. My friend and her DH are not particularly religious but their third son took his Bar Mitzvah to heart and so won't go anywhere where he cannot practice his religion. My friend and her son are keen for him to improve his English in a full-immersion situation.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

TIA

Look at Cohen Camps in the US. My nieces loved them. Or any of the Israel tours (JLGB, RSY, Noam, BA, Habbo). Plenty of international teens when mine did tour.

Thank you :)

As horsemadmum said, If he is in Year 11 most groups will be doing Israel tour in the summer. There won't be that many staying in UK. Israel tour with English speaking people might work well anyway. I'm told Tribe is quite good fun and has a wide range of religious practices.

I don't think that my friend and her son want Israel as they go there pretty often anyway, but I will suggest it if you say there is a big tour thing going on to Israel after Y11.

Most Jewish camps for year 11s have tour this year - so you could look at that?
Tour wise...
Tribe is religious, i.e. keeps Shabbat and kosher, but considered more relaxed compared to the more religious ones. Noam is Masorti and I think they keep Shabbat and kosher - but not sure - they'll be pretty relaxed as well I guess and he'd be able to keep what he wants to keep. I don't know so much about the others, but Bnei Akiva is more religious and BBYO, FZY, RSY are all less religious and I don't know how much they keep in the way of Shabbat.
I don't know so much about camps in the US - but Ramah? They're a conservative camp which has camps in a few places.
It does depend on how much your friends son wants to keep....

Brilliant, thanks for all those :)

I think my friend would probably go for more relaxed and her son for much less so... I shan't get involved in that one!

I had one DC on RSY and one on Noam. Both were kosher/veg and both kept Shabbat. They tended to be on kibbutzim for Shabbat. Unless your friend's son is dati, it should be fine. Lots of swaying to guitars on Friday night.

Great - thanks. Am passing the info on - my friend is super grateful!

Have a look at the New Jersey Y camps. I work for Camp America and know many people who have worked at these camps and had an amazing summer. You might find at 15 years old though he is approaching too old to be a camper and could be eligible for a CA (counsellor assistant) programme. These usually come at reduced fees!!!!!

There are literally hundreds of Jewish camps in the USA, ranging from strict orthodox to just culturally Jewish (Friday night dinners, a different schedule on Saturdays and kosher kitchens). Have a look at the American Camp Association website for accredited camps.

My kids are heading to camp when they're old enough - cannot recommend highly enough!!!

Thanks :)

Love this thread - so much great info so quickly!

My daughter went to a Jewish summer camp in the US. PM me if you'd like more details about it.

Thank you. I'm waiting for my friend to get back to me after a preliminary conversation with her DS. I'll PM you afterwards

Hi,
Make sure you look at JLGB they do a great Summer programme that already includes young people of all ages going to their camp in England from France as well as Russia, Israel and even America.Have a look at their website: www.jlgb.org/summer-winter-camp
After the summer camp they take all of the international participants on a tour of London for a week too, so as well as all the amazing activities on camp, they also get to see all the sights and main tourist attractions.
email: [email protected] or call the office on 020 8989 8990