Top 10 Herzl Camp Program Sessions
January 7, 2010 by Herzl Camp Admin, under Top 10 Lists.
By Michael Neiman
Herzl Camp is no youngster. For over 60 years, Devil’s Lake and Webster, Wisconsin have been a summertime home for Jewish people all over country. The programming is top-quality, the staff are incredible, the food is … well, its camp’s food and over time you learn to crave it. However, one of the unique things that Herzl does quietly from year to year, is evaluate the success of their programs and what can be improved for future summers. As a Business Consultant, I applaud Herzl Camp’s administration over thee years in their attempts to revamp camp programs and provide fresh and exciting opportunities to kids year after year. The age of “machane” being the only program you attend for 6 years is long gone, replaced with specialized and creative programs catered to the current trends and needs of new generations.
To honor the years and pay tribute to the best programs of the past and present, I give you my Top 10 list of Herzl Program Sessions. I realize the pool to choose from was not all-inclusive, as my time at Herzl didn’t start until 1992, but I hope you enjoy and welcome additonal “honorable mentions”:
10. Tzofim. Kudos to Erin Cohen and Skyler Werde for taking 120 campers camping and Horseback riding at once. Tzofim took over where Etgar and Nisiya failed, buy providing something unique yet broad for incoming 7th and 8th graders. Tzofim has changed a bit since 2005, but the problem of how to provide the best program for bar-mitzvah aged kids seems to have been answered for now.
9. K’shishim. I only have to wait 50 years and then I can be a camper again? Sign me up!
8. Etgar. The first year they offered this program for incoming 8th graders, it was directed by Aaron Cukier and Ricky Ofstein. Need I say more?
7. B’yachad. I wasn’t in B’yachad, but I was always their “eat-in” staff member. Each year, the oldest campers at camp prove their heart and soul and dedication to Theo by giving back to camp and giving back to the community. To be honest though, the best part of B’yachad is the ongoing ending to its song. This summer will be the 21st session of B’yachad … do they still sing out all the original endings back to 1995′s “Do that do that, do that do that, do that do that, until it diiiiiiies out!”
6. Maba. Fifteen years later, and I was still able to get a cabin of hungry campers to sing the Maba theme song during lunch one day. Sure this program included programming from the Talmud Torah’s play-book, but there is a dedication to this program that no one can explain. And the song will forever live on… Maba’im, Kadimah Maba’im. Hey Hey!
5. Kadimah. Another long-lasting program at camp, incoming 9th graders learn to bond together as one group for the first time at camp. Canoe trips, musical renditions, planning their first Shabbat … these are just a few of the great activities this growing tight-knit group of campers get to experience together.
4. N’divim. They were the first B’yachad. Incoming 10th graders spent 6 weeks building things around camp, sporting their baby blue scrubs, and singing one of the best program songs ever written. Not sure who we have to thank for it, but I always loved the opening line … “We are the N’divim, a part of Herzl’s dream!” (having never been a Diver, I never knew the rest of it…)
3. Teva Trek - Thank you Flip Frisch and Aaron Gelperin for creating an INCREDIBLE new twist on true “camping” at Herzl Camp. A more outdoor educational based program with true camping, hiking, backpacking, white-water rafting, cooking outside and more. When I created the Teen Leadership Camp at Capital Camps (my mysterious summer away from Herzl), I mirrored it off this program because of how jealous I was of the kids who got to be a camper on it back home. It’s never had huge numbers, but 10 years later it is still an option for incoming 10th/11th graders at camp.
2. Taste of Herzl. I’ve said for years, I’ll say it again. Taste is the BEST program to be assigned as a counselor. Adorable great kids who are away at camp for the first time. It was only a week long, but nothing beats having to physically feed, dress and bath your campers as if they were your own children. Emotions run high from the campers, but I bet most beg to come back the second they get home.
1. Ozrim. The oldest remaining program to date at camp. It started out as more of a manual labor group than CIT program, but the years have done this program well. Each summer, campers dream and pray for their chance to be picked as an Ozo, and each summer a solid group of Ozrim learn and grow to a point which would rival actual staff of most summer camps across the nation.
Honorable Mentions:
- Nisiya - any program that makes kids do a death-march through downtown Siren in 90 degree weather deserves mention.
- Nilakot - It never found a way to compete with N’divim/B’yachad, but providing the extra opportunity for campers in 9th/10th grade to be at Herzl camp is a must.
- Ha’atid - The future! It came, it left, it came back again. Ha’atid was the first attempt to revolutionize the “Machane” years at camp into a solid program.
- Chalutzim/Noar - I don’t know enough about these programs, but I know they are doing well and have changed what Ha’atid used to be into a solid opportunity for young campers to experience camp differently each year and have an identify to a program earlier than Kadimah.