I Love Camp: Reflections of a Rabbi, Husband and Father

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By Rabbi Craig Marantz
Rabbi Craig serves on Faculty each summer at Crane Lake Camp. Rabbi Craig is the Rabbi of Congregation Kol Haverim in Glastonbury, CT.

I love Crane Lake Camp. I come every summer. I am a rabbi, and I serve on the faculty. On its face, I am here for two important reasons: one, to facilitate meaningful Jewish immersion and two, to encourage lasting Jewish engagement. When our chanichim (campers) and our madrichim (counselors) dive deeply into their Jewish learning and living, seven days a week over a month or two, my chevrei (colleagues) and I see them transformed. We witness their joy and appreciation for being Jewish. We relish their recognition that Judaism can inspire them not only now but as their lives unfold down the road. We delight in supporting them on this leg of their lifetime journey and equip them with a few tools to help them along the way: community-building and prayer, study and practice. To spend time at CLC is a blessing, and I am thankful for this opportunity–but not only as a rabbi.

I also love Crane Lake Camp because my experience here touches my life as a husband. At CLC, I enjoy watching my wife Betsy in action. Officially, Betsy is the Camper Care Coordinator. In our hearts, she is the Camp Mom. I love the affection and kavod (respect) Betsy receives from children and adults alike. She works all day every day to help the chanichim and madrichim feel at home. She comforts children in moments of sadness. She reassures worried parents. She patches up torn jeans, and she helps the madrichim, young adults thrust into parent-like responsibility, handle their precious charges with grace and patience. Camp gives ample space for Betsy to nurture her identity–as a Jewish woman and as a Jewish professional. At Crane Lake (as I am always), I feel blessed to be Betsy’s husband.

Last but not least, I love Crane Lake Camp because my kids love it. And, as a father, nothing makes my heart brighter than knowing my children are happy and safe in this sacred and joyous place. I am a proud parent of two CLC campers, Cara and Jared, and I am one of the relatively few parents who gets to see with his own eyes the jubilant impact of Camp on his children. True, I don’t want to get too close to my son and daughter out of fairness to all those kids who don’t have their parents here. Not to mention, one of the things Betsy and I prize about our children’s participation in camp life is the independence they cultivate here. That being said, I am over-the-moon about the personal, Jewish progress I see my kids making at Crane Lake day-in and day-out. Allow me to illustrate.

Cara grows more and more thoughtful about the Jewish values she encounters at CLC. Earlier this summer, she made a little 8X10 poster, which hangs in Betsy’s and my room and reads: “Being beautiful does not mean you buy Coach or wear Juicy (Couture) but you love who you are and you are kind to others!! Being who you are makes you beautiful.” With so much pressure on kids these days to be body beautiful and to fill their closets with all the popular labels, I am grateful that Crane Lake is teaching Cara to be more comfortable in her own skin. She is also growing mindful that beauty is much better and more enduringly defined by self-respect and chesed (kindness). Camp is a place for Cara and her peers–both girls and boys–where they learn that being shomrei ha’gufim (guardians of their bodies) ultimately means becoming shomrei ha’neshamot (stewards of their souls).

Jared happily said to me the other day and then again today: “I like limmud (learning/Jewish study) because you’re there, Dad.” My heart smiled. I think Jared, like many young people I’ve encountered, understands the power of personal connection–of being with people he cares about–to make his Jewish experience worthwhile. I Iove watching Jared as he greets everyone with a sweet smile and his baseball cap cocked to one side. When I think of the middah (virtue) of sayver panim yafot–greeting everyone you meet with a bright, shiny face–I think of Jared, his fellow Nitzanim campers, and other chanichim as they walk around camp with their unmistakably beautiful and buoyant energy. Their enthusiasm is infectious and makes them fun to be around. Just ask the Olim campers (our oldest), who buddy up with the Nitzanim-ers (our youngest). They help each other feel a part of something special, something they need each other to create.

At Crane Lake, we celebrate community. I affirm this celebration as a father, as a husband and as a rabbi. I love how our staff champions inclusion, authenticity, and ruach (spirit) over competition, athletic, social and otherwise–making it safe to be part of the Crane Lake family and cool to be Jewish. And, I love how, together, our community cultivates a feeling of klal Yisrael–a bond with the Jewish people not only at CLC but throughout the world– and a sense of kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba’zeh, a mutual responsibility to take care of one another. I am thankful we care a lot about a place and a community so easy to love. Long live Crane Lake Camp–ad meah esrim shanah (until 120 years) and onward!!