Herzl Alumni “Camp”
March 9, 2012 by Herzl Camp Admin, under General Posts, Herzl, Beyond Webster, Letters from Alumni, Outdoor/Environmental Education.
Max Puchtel, Mike & Aaron Gelperin (Hetch Hetchy, 2011)
By: Mike Neiman
First of all, a huge thank you goes out to everyone on the Herzl Alumni Committee who planned Alumni Winter Camp last month. While we had to cancel it due to registration numbers (and, it’s a good thing because there was actually no snow up at camp) I truly believe we can offer it and successfully fill it in the future! Being at Herzl in the winter is a very unique experience. Until our next Winter Camp, though, I’d like to share my passion for the other kind of Alumni Camping…
Approximately once a year, I go on a big backpacking trip with some of my fellow Herzl Alumni friends. Ever since my first Maba Overnight in 1992, I have had a special place in my heart for sleeping in the woods (overnights are “in tents”), and Herzl has connected me to some great hiking partners and opportunities. Some of my favorite experiences at camp have been on Kadimah Canoe Trips, B’yachad Overnights, and “Teva Excursions” (nomenclature that I lovingly brought to camp), and I’ll never forget the summer of 2003 when I got to do them all as Rosh Teva.
Over the last 10 years, I’ve camped all around Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana, and most recently California with Herzl Alumni and it always makes me laugh when I think about what Herzl Camp nuances make it into our trips. I’m lucky enough to have friends that share these passions with me, but to have them all be Herzl friends as well makes the experience even more special. A couple Herzl memories that come to mind are:
- On a trip to Jay Cook State Park a few years back with Aaron & Jenny Hage and Dan & Lisa Rothstein, we were making tin-foil dinners and roasting marshmallows in the rain, just like in our Kadimah Song from 10 years earlier … “it rained and it poured, we ate cold s’mores, we all got wet and eaten alive, but somehow we survived”.
- Along the Superior Hiking Trail in 2010 with Benjie Kaplan, every water source on our map ended up being a dried up mud pit, bringing back the pain of dehydration from our Machaneh days where 90% of our ailments seemed to get the same medical advice … “drink more water and get more sleep”
- Last spring in Yosemite National Park, Max Puchtel and Aaron Gelperin joined me on a winter camp trip along the frozen Hetch Hetchy valley trails. We only managed to get lost 957 times, but luckily we had all brought our Wilderness Survival Chug and Teva Trek lesson plans, so we were ready to survive off beetle larvae, melted snow, and abandoned Grizzly Bear caves.
We all love “camping” as it relates to Herzl, but I also love that Herzl Camp helps our community love ”camping” as it relates to the wilderness as well. I’ve seen some great Herzl Legends like Sam Usem and Jared Steyaert become professional outdoorsmen as adults, and I’d like to think Herzl had something to do with that. If not for my years making friends and memories in Webster’s backwoods, I would not enjoy my trips in the wild nearly as much today. Coincidently, Max and Aaron and I will be hitting the trail again this summer as we forge our way through North Dakota’s Grasslands.
Buffalo (and buffalo chipmunks) beware, Herzl is bringing the caravan your way.
Max, Mike & Aaron (Hetch Hetchy, 2011)
Shabbat Shalom.
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Fermish me I’m Jewish!
March 17, 2011 by Herzl Camp Admin, under General Posts.
By Mike Neiman
It has pained me for years that my favorite gentile holiday cannot be combined with my favorite Judaic institution. Sure, as Herzl staff, we were able to uberprogram around such awesome holidays like Tisha B’av and the occasional Shavuot … but we have missed out on a grand opportunity since Jewish Camp’s earliest establishment.
Summer camp is … well, during the summer. Ok, so maybe Herzl rents out its facility to youth groups on the occasional weekend during the year, and that weekend may occasionally overlap on a secular or Christian holiday. I’m no mathematician but, it doesn’t take a former 6th grade math teacher like Yamit Tarragon to know the odds are low that one of these holidays would occur on a Saturday so as to enjoy the whole day’s festivities during a Shabbaton. I guess St. Patrick’s Day was just never meant to be celebrated in true Herzl Camp style.
…UNTIL NOW!
I have started the preparations early because I was bored at work today and DID do the math. Actually, the math was pretty simple: this year St. Pats is on Thursday and next year is a leap year. Therefore, I would like to invite all my fellow Alumni to join me next spring up at Herzl for a Shabbat weekend where we can celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in true Herzl fashion on Saturday March 17th, 2012.
The planning committee is still working out the details, but below is a tentative schedule.
Friday:
Planning in progress by Mark Warren, please email all suggestions to him.
Saturday:
9:00am Aruchat Boker: Brandon Tagg to toast up delicious Green Bagels from Brueggers
09:30am Shabbat Services led by visiting Rabbi Zalman Shimon Lent of the Duplin Hebrew Congregation
11:00pm Morning Rotations: Learn Gaelic with Alan Garelick, Foreign Cussing with Asaf Bitton, Limericks and Laughs with Rachel Javitch. On the waterfront – Loch Ness Monster Watching with Loren Mintz and Tye-Dying Devil’s Lake Green with Jessica Treinish.
1:00pm Aruchat Tzohoraym: Flip Frisch is joined by Saints and Tzadiks to lead a ruach song session complete with “Danny Boy Leonard”, “Whiskey You’re the Devil’s Lake”, “Rocky Road to Kadimahland”, and “Theodore I Hardly Knew Ye”
2:30pm Minucha … need our rest for the night’s festivities
3:30pm Afternoon Rotations: Beer Tasting with Zander Abrams … oh let’s be honest, we are all going to that one.
5:00pm Sadnah with Roni Kornblum Falk
6:00pm Aruchat Erev: Corned Beef and Cabbage, with a Chinuch lesson from Sam Usem on the Judaic-American influence to switch from Bacon to Corned Beef for this traditional Irish meal. (p.s. It’s true).
7:00pm Evening Program: Riverdance with Andrew Zidel
9:00pm Laila Tov and Staff Meeting
Sunday:
Planning in progress by Nicole Rabinowitz, please email all suggestions to her.
Thank you and have a safe and enjoyable St. Patrick’s Day.
Hag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!
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The Usems are Camp People!
October 31, 2010 by Herzl Camp Admin, under Letters from Alumni.
By Mark Usem
Herzl Camp… It’s been a family “thing” since my sister Cookie was the first Usem to attend Herzl in 1966, then Linda, and finally me in 1972. Of course, there were other Usems that have attended Herzl back then, my cousins Michael, Jeffrey, and David… and all of us from Red Wing, MN, a small town 50 miles southeast of St. Paul with no Jews other than those in our immediate family. Our summers at Herzl Camp were some of the first truly positive Jewish experiences we all had with other kids, and it came to define a lot of who and what we were to become as adults. From Herzl camper, to Ozo, to Madrich, it was all good stuff!
If it wasn’t for Herzl, I wouldn’t have met my wife. OK, I didn’t meet my wife at Herzl, though Lynn could just as easily have been a Herzl person. I met her while working at OSRUI (Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute …yea… another Jewish Camp in Wisconsin). I still loved Herzl Camp, but it was time to try something new …and the reason I started working at OSRUI was because another ex-Herzl staff member, Anita Saltzman, who knew me from my days staffing Herzl Camp, came up to me at a Jewish Camp Fair at the University of Michigan in 1980, and convinced me to work there. And after some new experiences, one girlfriend (now my wife), and 4 kids later, all-in-all, it was a great move.
Round-about, I’ve come to understand that “camp people” are “camp people”, and they’re a different type of person than other “non-camp people” who don’t quite understand how you can send your children away for a good part of the summer. I believe most don’t understand simply because they have never had the opportunity to experience the profound life-changing experiences that a camp like Herzl can provide. I believe there’s truly a philosophy about Jewish summer camping that extends much beyond camp.
When our children (Sam, Dan, Jessica, and Sidney) were old enough to attend camp, they went to camp… it really was never in question. We never quite understood other people who asked their kids if they wanted to attend camp… we never asked… our children just did… we expected it… we planned on it… to us it was what you did as a Jewish kid in the summer… it was how you explored and defined who you were as a Jewish kid in our society today. Our children have now become Herzl campers, Herzl Ozos, and Herzl Staff members. Of course, they have made friendships that will last a lifetime, but even more important they have learned what it means to explore their Judaism and live a Jewish life in a way that includes a variety of experiences much different and more profound than we could provide at home, and they could do so in an inclusive community with a degree of freedom and an intensity that is unmatched in other environments.
We’re proud of our children, and proud of the decisions they’ve made in life. We’re proud of the people they’ve become. And though today you’ll find a variety of ways they express their Judaism and the degree to which they practice traditional Jewish rituals and customs, I feel they have all made conscious decisions on how to live their lives not on ignorance of Judaic practice and thought, but on deep understanding of Judaism and thoughtful reflection, due in great part to the influence of Herzl Camp in their lives.
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Everything I’ve learned about life, I learned at Herzl Camp (A Parenthetical List)
February 18, 2010 by Herzl Camp Admin, under What I Learned from Camp.
By Max and Zach Puchtel
Part 3 – Bikkurim
So there we were, Max and I, sound asleep in Tzrif 20. (47. Never be toooo asleep at camp) I am awakened by distant noise, I raise my head. BOOM!! (48. YOU THINK YOU’RE BAD) The front door of the cabin is knocked off its hinges by the front end of a freak 2-wheel creature screaming in a Judge Dredd voice, “I am the law!” (49. Dan Shapiro is the law) Actually, he had a megaphone and was chanting B-I-K-K-U-R-I-M BIKKURIM, B-I-K-K-U-R-I-M BIKKURIM!! (50. It can come at any hour of the day, just not this year due to scheduling conflicts).
We drag our half-dressed (51. No one wears clothes at camp, we schlep.) freezing bodies to the fire pit, where a blazing bonfire welcomes us. (52. Blazing bonfires are always appropriate) Max and I amazingly get placed on the same team, while all the Greene’s get placed on the same team, all the Freeman’s get placed on the same team, all the Usem’s get placed on the same team, and Mike Neiman is somehow still in charge. (53. Dare I say, Neiman RULES!!)
The next morning brings fresh eyes, throats and RUACH decked out in unicolor garb. As veterans to the Bikkurim circuit, Max and I know the importance of a fast start. (54. I am much faster than Max in any race, ranging any distance from 1 yard to 1 mile.) Immediately upon formation of the great BLUE TEAM, (55. The curse is not real, but rather more like the sword and the stone legend (Speaking of legends, Chuck Lyons, what a hero) wherein only the chosen one may remove the sword). we separate the weak from the pack. They will be assigned to cheer-generating and picture-drawing. The rest have been chosen as Blue Warriors. They are keepers of the great blue chair, and the song “I’m blue da boo dee da boo dah, dah boo dee daa boo dah.” (56. The one-word-in-the-most-songs game is the greatest rainy day game ever).
As we complete our plans for Bikkurim domination, we think about what the judges will be looking for most closely during the day’s performance. (57. Judges have a strict code they observe, passed down through generations of former Bikkurim contests) We decide sports to be our focal point-with Max and I (58. Grammar lesson, Max and me) at the helm, how can we lose? Turns out we can’t: skying over helpless campers, we take no mercy as frisbee, then basketball, softball, tennis, roofball, raftball, tetherball and then finally Gaga all become notches on our belt as we sweep the athletic contests. (59. This actually happened, no real lesson here other than PUCHTEL RULES!!)
Silent lunch puts a damper on things when we’re told that a member of our squad continues to make noise after repeatedly being told to do otherwise. As we’re led to the perpetrator, a crowd has gathered to witness what at first appears to be a feeding frenzy for one. Growls and snarls surround the creature, but he halts mid-swallow as we approach. Staring at us with huge trembling hungry eyes, (60. Aaron Gelperin has huge trembling hungry eyes) we ask Aaron if he’ll please calm down so we don’t lose points. He obliges. (61. Aaron Gelperin can be reasoned with, but only if promised a shot at the champ in the Kadimah arm wrestling contest (62. Big man, Aaron. I was 14!)
Outside to the fields where the relay has ended, and the teams regroup for what sets men apart from boys: TUG-O-WAR. (63. Although, in all truth, it’s usually the women that determine which team is going to win. (64. Unless, of course, Max and…you get it, we’re big) Max rips some duct tape off his chest, we all wonder why it was there in the first place, then we tug!
It’s all a blur as we come to the final ruach session in the Ulam. There’s a funny smell as you enter (64. Ben Jurisz and Joel Bard were still sleeping in the apartments) but that can’t faze us now. We are set on victory, and after a days worth of athletic triumphs, the blue curse seems really distant. How distant was it you ask? About as distant as Elin Woods the past 2 months I’d say. Really far off anyway…the ruach commences! Songs, cheers, flags, drum banging, and screaming with what little voices we have left!! Finally, the judgment is upon us. Whose effort will pay off in camp pride for the next 2 hours before bedtime??
We await the results, and aren’t surprised when, what?!! The Freemans won??!! Are you kidding me? No, seriously?? But they literally just took Edina cheers and put in the word red!! (65. Not to mention that they brought their own costumes to camp for the sole use in their Bikkurim dance routine) It’s ok Zach, this just wasn’t your year buddy, don’t worry about it, be a good loser, oh wait…don’t…no, stop…really? (66. I cry when I lose Bikkurim) As the judges come to console me because I won’t go back to my cabin, they explain to me that Bikkurim is about team spirit, unity and really good cheer generating and picture drawing.
Well, those are the lessons learned from Bikkurim, kids. We’re up to 66 and …
To be continued…
67. I learned something from that … you don’t have to be an ogre in order to succeed in Bikkurim, you just have to be a Freeman)
