Reconstructionist Movement To Open California Summer Camp

By Marcy Oster September 29, 2016

— The Reconstructionist movement will open a film- and arts-based camp in Southern California, a branch of its Camp JRF.

The new camp is being started with a $1.4 million grant over four years from the specialty camps incubator of the Foundation for Jewish Camp.

The camp, which will be geared to third- though 10th-graders, is scheduled to open in 2018.

“Camp JRF is the beating heart of the Reconstructionist movement. It is one of our crown jewels,” said Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College/Jewish Reconstructionist Communities.

Camp JRF opened 15 years ago in a rented space and now houses more than 400 campers every summer on its Aaron and Marjorie Ziegelman Campus in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.

The new camp will be within a few hours drive of three of the largest congregations affiliated with the Reconstructionist movement.

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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

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