SHABBAT MASEI 2014

Our week in review!!

The other day Kallah and Kibbutz HaTzofim celebrated an in-camp Bar/Bat Mitzvah.  There was a fabulous party after dinner with cake and line dancing lots of games and a slide show of the b’nai mitzvah photos of all of our staff members.  What a treat!

Speaking  of Bar and Bat Mitzvah, we had a wonderful visit from Irene Sandalow, new to the URJ staff in the Chicago area who will be working on the Bar and Bat Mitzvah Revolution project.  You’ll find more information on that at your synagogue.

Tiferet spent a day at the Milwaukee Museum of Art where they enjoyed a major exhibit by the artist Kandinsky.  They danced and played music and learned a great deal about the innovator of modern art as well as his impact on art today.  Afterward they came back to Oconomowoc where they enjoyed gelato at the band shell in the park on the lake. And, later in the week, they had a great pool party right here in camp.  Tiferet Bet parents should have received an email invitation today to the Tiferet Bet closing program which will be held on Saturday, August 9^th. 

Gesher didn’t miss a beat on their trip to Miller Park for the baseball game between the Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds…our kids watched the home team win, but that was after the whole group got together in a small park area where they tailgated through lunch.  Staff cooked the hot dogs and the kids all enjoyed the nosh for lunch.

Our Moshavah trips –hiking, biking, rock climbing and canoeing- all came back with smiles on their faces and appropriate shmutz, which just came back from the laundry.  These trips are the highlight of Moshavah….one more four-day trip to go. Now they are down to reviewing the Chalutzim material so that they can be prepared to take the practice test for next summer!

Kibbutz HaTzofim campers and staff are hot on the hill working on their awesome program coming up this Monday night…Oconomostock 2014!!!  The theme is still a secret but we will all know it in just a few days when they welcome talent from all around OSRUI.  We’ll be live-streaming the show, which starts around 7:30 p.m.  Here’s the link, if you’d like to watch, too:  https://new.livestream.com/accounts/9150644/events/3212279

Tzofim and Moshavah now have started reading chugim (clubs) with their campers, who sign up voluntarily. The campers seem to really love this as the project gets off the ground.  In order to make this even easier, we have mounted a variation of the Little Free Libraries that you can see online.  Our librarian Rachel Meltzer found a great carpenter who built six of them for us and we have them posted in various places all around camp. If you come across an appropriate book for pre – teens and teens, feel free to send them along.

After a visit to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Tour La’Agam rode down to Mackinac and crossed into the lower part of Michigan and are ready to finish the last leg of their trip.  They are looking forward to Shabbat and a day of rest.

Chalutzim campers are speaking more Hebrew than ever before and looking forward to an amazing last week of their session.

To top it all off our Kallah campers visited a nearby dairy farm.  They learned that milk really doesn’t come from a cooler at the grocery store and saw the workings of a real farm.  They helped with all the chores and really had a wonderful day.

We hope you’ve had as great a week as we have!  Be sure to read our blog for daily updates on what’s going on at camp!

Shabbat Shalom from all of us at OSRUI,

Jerry Kaye, Director    Susan Alexander, Associate Director     Max Weinberg, Assistant Director