Rabbi Debbie Helbraun, Hebrew School Principal, Temple Jeremiah, Northfield, IL, and Gesher Segel
This is my seventh summer on segel at camp, but I’ve been coming to OSRUI a good part of my life. For 5 of the seven years, I have been working with the tzevet and chanichim of Gesher. This unit is for kids entering 7th-9th grade. While many would run far away from kids this age, I love the opportunity to work with such a curious, eager, and challenging young people. You would be surprised how truly inspiring they can be.
This year, our limudim is on Israel at 65. We have taken the approach of looking at the modern state of Israel today with all its glory, all its conflict, and all its compassion. A week ago, on a field trip to Naga Waukee Park, the chanichim rotated through a variety of stations that taught them about the landscape of Israel. At the Jerusalem station, the children learned about how the entire city is made of Jerusalem stone and of the quote by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, “There are men with hearts of stone and there are stones with human hearts.” Surely the bricks of this holy city have been witness to many years of Israel’s history. As a result of this teaching, each of the chanichim were given a brick to write a prayer or a memory of this moment in history. While I told them that they could take the bricks home as a lasting memory of the summer of 2013, they instead decided, on their own, to plant these bricks as a lasting memory in camp. You can find them around the Medurah in the middle of the horseshoe, the set of cabins where the chanichim lived this summer.
A second project that the chanichim were very proud of this past week was their t-shirt designs about charitable causes in Israel. There is an organization in Israel called the Nu Campaign that started four years ago when David Kramer wanted to respond to the constant threat of rockets into Sderot in the south of Israel. As a result, he worked with a few others to design at t-shirt that said “15,” symbolic of the 15 seconds that people had between the siren announcing an incoming rocket and the landing of the rocket in their town. An explanation of the shirt was written on the inside so that it touched closest to the wearer’s heart. Now Nu Campaign supports over 20 organizations with their t-shirts which are sold world-wide. After learning about the new campaign and how Israeli’s are dedicated to social action and tikkun olam, the chanichim divided into groups to design their own t-shirts in a similar manner to the Nu Campaign. The work that the chanichim put into designing their shirts was amazing.
Looking forward to seeing what the last week of camp will bring.