I Choo Choo Choose You
January 22, 2010 by Herzl Camp Admin, under Letters from Alumni.
By Andrew Zidel
In the great toran wheel of life some of us will get stuck mopping the North Haks for Nikayon while others will get a free day. Popsicle sticks or spin-wheels? Some will be responsible for the outside cabin appearance, while some will have to convince cabin mates to move their trunks so the floors can be swept. Many negotiation fundamentals are learned in this environment. Of course, the advanced persuasion technique is truly applied when it’s time for the final banquet. Just friends? Dates? Should we try to make it work as boyfriend/girlfriend when we get back to the “real world” of Hopkins High School? My theory about why there are so many Jewish lawyers is based on the influence summer camp has on impressionable Jewish youths. I digress.
The communal approach to shared living in which everybody accepts equal responsibility for the facilities’ upkeep works. What kind of duties are on your Toran wheel these days? Change the diapers? Walk the dog? Wash the dishes? Make funeral arrangements? Sign divorce papers? Coach soccer practice? Update your resume? Prepare for the SAT/ACT? Find a date to the prom? Attend drivers-ed class? Find something interesting to read during the long hours of chemo therapy? Decide where to watch the (Kansas) basketball game? Lose ten pounds? Clean the gutters? Remember, if your Ozo doesn’t fill out the appropriate requisitions, your Tzrif might not be able to have breakfast in bed.
What will you do when the little arrow (or popsicle stick) says you’re free today? Will you sleep in? Will you teach the Taste campers all the fun little sayings that are forbidden during the Birkat? Will somebody (PLEASE!) help Tommy and Andrew clean the north haks!? …Because you know Jess Taren and Jeff Zoss will be extra hard on them during Nikayon. Or, are you thinking to your self how that with kids and your hectic daily grind, the very idea of a “free day” is a joke?!
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.
- Deuteronomy 30:15
It is true of the spirit as it is true of battles—only the winners are remembered. Surely most men are destroyed, but there are others who like pillars of fire guide frightened men through the darkness. “Thou mayest, Thou mayest!” What glory! It is true that we are weak and sick and quarrelsome, but if that is all we ever were, we would, millenniums ago, have disappeared from the face of the earth. A few remnants of fossilized jawbone, some broken teeth in strata of limestone, would be the only mark man would have left of his existence in the world. But the choice, Lee, the choice of winning!
- Steinbeck
The choice is yours. The choice is ours. Thank G-d we live in a free society where we are not micromanaged by communist or fascist regimes. Everything about our Toran wheels was/is Utilitarian. These things need to get done or chaos and stench will ensue. And then who will want to be our date to the final banquet? Everything is pragmatic and functional except, of course, the free day. But don’t be so vain as to assume we invented the free day. Rather, we were inspired to apply the free-day concept into our world. Because after all, what is inspiration without application? The choice is ours. The time is now…right? Isn’t that one of the themes of the movie Trainspotting? Well we too were “colonized by wankers”, but then we broke free. One hundred years later, 90% of our Jewish ancestors came to this country to apply what they learned and experienced.
What will you choose? What lesson/s will you choose to apply, and what will you decide should be better off left in abstract theory? Shabbat Shalom, and stay Jewish!
PS. How funny and ridiculous do men look in black leather duster jackets?!
PPS. Ever see it when they have the leather cowboy hat to match? LMAO
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Soup Cheese and BUKKURIM
July 18, 2009 by Herzl Camp Admin, under Letters from Alumni.
By Marc Warren
So let’s set the stage, shall we? It’s the summer of 1992 and I was excited to plan a 10 day USY retreat called LTI. Then one day I received a phone call from Mitch Golob, Jesse Simon and Tommy Hoffman, telling me I should instead think about going to this place called “Herzl Camp” and apply to be something called an “Ozo”. Those guys told me a bit about the job, helped me write an application essay, and promised me that this experience would change my life forever. Well, I decided to take a chance and took their advice. Somehow I got the job, paid the then-$300 dollar fee, and began my first of many journeys up Wisconsin State Highway 35.
So there I was, in the middle of Wisconsin with 23 other young overly-spirited young adults, getting ready for what we were told would be the summer of our lives. And what a summer it was! Sure, 1992 had its share of ups and downs (Sorry Amy), but I look at my first summer ever at Herzl, with immeasurably high memories. I could not wait to tell all of my friends back home all the funny stories that took place, and felt the next summer could not get here soon enough.
Fast forward 12 months and there I am returning for the summer of 1993: Taste counselor (best program at camp), Maba, and one of my favorite cabins ever, Tzrif 3 Session 3. This is the infamous summer where I introduced color wars by screaming B-U-K-K-U-R-I-M over and over again, met Jeff Zoss and Jess Taran, and got to do the airport buses twice. Stories and memories were taking over my everyday conversation when I got home and once again, I could not wait to tell everyone about it and return for another summer
1994, man what a summer!!!!!! That summer everything was perfect. I was a part of a Kadimah staff that I would put up against any gathering of Herzl Alumni in history. That was the year we absentmindedly created a shtick with the “Hot Cereal” cheer, saw a Herzl legend return in Bruce Golob, I did Chiri Bim with Adam Chall … and Mitch Golob, Tommy Hoffman and E.J. Clyman stood on stage and performed the best 12 gates stories imaginable. It was the summer where my Tzrif 4 session 3 dominated everyone in sports (I mean I had Max “Tiny” Puchtel and David “The Putz” Bender, enough said). I look at that summer as the year everyone got along, everyone was there for the kids, and the year Herzl affected me the most.
The summers of 1995 & 1996 where different. 1995 I helped start a new program still in existence today, known as B’Yachad – and in 1996 I somehow was hired to direct another new program called Ha’atid. These are the summers where Herzl taught me that I can’t always be right, that you have to listen to your co-workers, and that someone may have a different opinion and to respect and listen to it. Sure, those words of wisdom may not have been realized until years later, but hey, that’s what being in your 20’s at Herzl is all about!
When I was asked to write this, I thought, what am I going to write about? I don’t have camper memories, and all of my stories come from the staff perspective of DO’s, PH, B&O, etc. But I am honored and proud to have made camper memories while being at camp. I didn’t love all of them, but I still keep in touch with many of my campers. And sometimes they will come up to me around town and remind me of the days I put a smile on their face and a joy in their voice. That feeling is one I hope you all are able to share with me.
When I went to the Herzl Staff of the 90’s retreat, I remember thinking is camp the same? Is the food the same? Does it smell the same? Then I remembered something Bruce Golob told me years ago. He said, “Herzl is such a hard place to change, it has so many traditions that once one stops, three more start.” Over the past 10 years camp has begun to transform itself for the future. The new chadar, a climbing wall, a new ropes course, these were just the beginning. Next summer we will tearfully say goodbye to the beloved orange cabins. I can’t believe in the 60 years of their existence, we haven’t painted them a better color! At this summer’s Alumni camp you and many others can have the opportunity to get one last look at the “old” place that made my memories so strong, before it is replaced by the “new” place that builds so many more for future generations. Thank you for reading my ramble and Shavua Tov!