Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

New Jewish Teen Tour Focuses on Food and Fitness

Food culture has long been an interest of adults, but lately, teens are getting in on the trend too — and now, Jewish teen foodies can get their culinary fix over the summer. Zeke Teen’s new three-week travel program gives rising 10th, 11th, and 12th graders the opportunity to experience the food and fitness cultures of New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston through a Jewish lens. Teens will learn about the culinary traditions of these three iconic northeastern cities, shop for spices at local markets, cook meals with master chefs, work out with top trainers, and help feed the hungry at local nonprofits.

While in New York, for example, participants will get a Jewish food tour of the Lower East Side. They’ll select ingredients at neighborhood shops in Chinatown, visit the world-famous farmers’ market in Union Square, and then get culinary lessons from renowned chefs, such as Buddha Bodai’s Kent Zhang. They’ll also squeeze in heart-pumping workouts in unlikely places, including a boot camp on the Brooklyn Bridge.

While there may be more teen cooking shows on TV, we hope to get some teens off the couch and out into three fascinating culinary cities this summer!

Lisa and Isaac Mamaysky are the founders and directors of Camp Zeke, the first Jewish overnight camp to celebrate healthy, active living through whole foods, culinary arts, fitness and athletics.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.