Shabbat Shalom,
With war raging on multiple fronts, like many of you, I find myself glued to the news more than usual. Media broadcasts play constantly in my office and at home, updates are coming in from colleagues overseas, and the i24 app pings my phone with updates throughout the night. The heaviness of the moment and pace of information is inescapable, and my thoughts continue to be with the Israeli people and everyone who has friends and loved ones in the country.
A very bright spot in my week was Wednesday night, as 500 Jews in our community came together at Federation’s annual Men’s Event. Our guest speaker Ronen Bergman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Israeli investigative journalist, took us inside the history and current state of Israeli intelligence. I left feeling a bond to our community and pride in the knowledge that Israel is unmatched in its ability to defend itself from enemies whose sole focus is to destroy our Jewish homeland and its people.
And if you are wondering if it’s safe to publicly gather as Jews during this time, thanks to the Federation’s Community Security Team, the answer is yes. Their diligence and attention to every detail help protect our essential ability to come together and celebrate our Jewish culture and identity.
Many of you have asked how to help, again displaying the strong connection our community feels to our Jewish homeland. We are working with Jewish Federations of North America to assess the situation and determine the needs. We will provide more details as soon as we have them. In the meantime, our Israel Emergency Campaign mailbox has remained open throughout the war for those who want to contribute immediately.
And yet as I write this—perhaps paradoxically—I also find myself experiencing a summer of joy.
You may ask, how can joy live alongside fear and uncertainty? The answer, for me, arrives daily in the form of letters and photos from my daughter, Nora, who is spending her fourth summer at Camp Barney Medintz, which I affectionately call the “Camp Sabra of the South.” For an entire month, Nora gives up all technology and immerses herself completely in her Jewish summer experience. Jewish knowledge and pride are infused in every horseback ride, every lake swim, every bunk activity, and every magical Shabbat.
The Torah reminds us in Deuteronomy 6:7, “V’shinantam l’vanecha — You shall teach them to your children.” What better expression of this mitzvah than Jewish summer camp, where our children live Jewish values not through lectures, but through laughter, learning, song, and shared experience?
Camp is not just fun. It is formative. Studies show that:
- 70% of Jewish leaders in North America attended Jewish summer camp.
- Camp alumni are 30% more likely to engage in Jewish life as adults, including synagogue attendance, Jewish organizational involvement, and marrying Jewish partners.
- Youth who attend overnight Jewish summer camp are more than twice as likely to feel “very emotionally connected to Israel.”
These are not just statistics. These are seeds. Camp plants the roots of Jewish identity deep into the soil of a child’s soul—and those roots often hold strong for a lifetime. Because of your generosity to our annual campaign, the Jewish Federation of St. Louis provided $1,000 grants to 88 first time campers attending nonprofit Jewish summer camps this year, up from 55 just a year ago.
There is something profoundly special about Jewish summer camp. It is a mikdash me’at—a small sanctuary—where young Jews are free to explore who they are and who they want to be, surrounded by a kehilla (community) that celebrates their Jewishness every single day.
This Shabbat, as we light candles and say the Shema, I hold both realities close: the heartache in our world and the holiness of our next generation.
Tonight, while the news reports on the chaos in our world, our campers will be singing B’yachad by a campfire under the stars, finding kavod, connection, and courage. And in them, I find hope.
Shabbat Shalom
Danny
Danny Cohn
President & CEO
Jewish Federation of St. Louis