Just how far and wide is the impact of Herzl Camp?  I found out recently while attending the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) Board of Governors meeting in October.

I was seated in my usual spot with the representatives from the United States at this global meeting.  Listening, as Paula Edelstein was being honored for her long and admirable service to the State of Israel and the Jewish people as the Co-Chair of the Aliyah and Klita department.  During her tenure in this position she has seen the aliyah of the Ethiopian Jews, the Jews of the former Soviet Union, the Yemeni Jews. Her department has overseen some of the most historic events of the past 60 years.

Paula spoke for a few minutes of this honor and then ended her farewell speech to this august body with “But most of all, I have to thank my parents because I wouldn’t be here today if they had not sent me to Herzl Camp as a teenager.”

You see, she grew up in Duluth Minnesota and she said, “Herzl Camp taught me to love Israel and made me a Zionist.”

The man in the row in front of me leaned over to his friend and said “That’s the camp that Bob Dylan went to.”  And I leaned forward and said “And me!  I went to Herzl Camp, too!”

I was dumbstruck that this heroic woman would stand up before this body to be honored for the good work she’s done for Israel and the Jewish people and give the credit to the camp she attended 50 years before!   Herzl Camp was the first step on her journey. Herzl Camp had set her feet on this path.

As I thought about it, that’s true for many of us.  Herzl Camp was the first step in our Jewish journeys too – For some, it was the first time they met an Israeli.  For some, the first step in a lifelong relationship with friends or spouse.  For some, it was the first time they saw tallit or t’fillin – the first step in a lifetime of observance.  For Paula and for many others, Herzl Camp was the first step in a lifetime of leadership and service to the Jewish people.

It’s hard to know where that first step will take you – as the daughter of a camper, as a camper, a camper parent, and a staff parent, I know that it’s a good step – not a misstep.  Often it’s when you reach the end of a path – life’s transition points – that you can look back and clearly see where you started and where you’ve been.

Is Herzl Camp unique in this or is all Jewish camping a first step on path to leadership? From my extensive work in the Jewish community, I know that Jewish camping is one of the most impactful and relevant Jewish experiences – all Jewish camping produces the same longstanding result:  engaged Jewish leaders.  However, I also know that there is something magical about that camp on Devils Lake, where it never rains, just heavy dews.  And that 40 years later they are still singing Circle Game on Friday night and serving rolls on Shabbat morning.   I think perhaps it’s that “can-do” spirit of Herzl’s founders that infects us all – perhaps that’s what created so many notable leaders from that tiny patch of woods in Webster Wisconsin.  Whatever it is – I’m proud to be counted among them.