22 Tweets That Sum Up Your Jewish Summer Camp Experience
In my final year at Jewish summer camp, a renegade Israeli counselor, fed up with the camp’s emphasis on safety and sensitivity, took my unit of teens into the woods and instructed us to drink water and then spit it into each others’ mouths. Then he read us “The Giving Tree”.
Every person’s experience at Jewish summer camp is unique and different, just like the leaves on a giving tree. Luckily, Twitter has allowed for all of us still mulling over our camp experiences to laugh, ponder, and come together by remembering:
1.These fighting words
a jew who didn’t go to summer camp? are you even jewish?
— Nick (@nachkari) June 26, 2017
2.This succinct bunk note
“Dear Mom + etc.
I’m in a play. Send me candy and comics or else I won’t write. Having fun. Participating in activities. Met lots of girls.
Love, Annie”
3.This understandable misconception
I went to a reform jewish summer camp growing up so I thought for awhile that only lesbians could be rabbis
— jorts (@_jorts_) December 18, 2016
4.This vivid observation
jewish summer camp is just kids trying to hide that they’re masturbating from their counselors who’re teens trying to hide that they’re high
— jorts (@_jorts_) June 1, 2017
5.This fact that we must never, ever forget
Before he was a Nobel Prize dodging, living musical legend, Bob Dylan was a kid with a guitar at Jewish summer camp https://t.co/zZbOz3UQAy
— SD Jewish Journal (@SDJewishJournal) November 2, 2016
6.This chance for summer camp to change the course of human history
The ambassador interviewed on @npr just listed Jared Kushner’s Jewish-summer-camp experience as a credential for Middle-East peacemaking.
— E. Tammy Kim 김태미 (@etammykim) February 14, 2017
7.This connection between summer camp and Phish
I miss Jewish summer camp. Best years of my life before Phish crept into my life.
— Atara (@VelvetSeaWader) June 20, 2017
8.This stereotype-bucking horror story
I had all my books confiscated at jewish summer camp, returned to me only during designated no-activity rest times.
— Addi (@adelaidelliot) June 10, 2017
9.This compelling-sounding piece of literature
Title of my YA book is “Dangerous Freckles,” a coming-of-age about a Jewish girl who falls in love at summer camp but doesn’t wear sunblock
— Aviva Yael (@Veevers) March 21, 2017
10.This casting call
Every Jewish summer camp production of the American Psycho musical will be looking for a “Jared Kushner type.”
— Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) May 21, 2017
11.This relatable goal
my aesthetic goal is “Jewish Summer Camp Girl Who Doesnt Go To Jewish Summer Camp”
— ali ? (@cutemensch) March 30, 2017
12.This story of modern love
*flirting with Jewish girls on bumble* why yes I did go to summer camp
— rusticforest (@el_darkfish) March 13, 2017
13.This remembrance of educational trauma
At Jewish summer camp as a 12 year old I watched a movie about a girl who didn’t care about Passover and then got sucked into the holocaust
— Lilah Schwartz (@lilahschwartz) February 18, 2017
14.This believable theory
some girl refused to give Stephen Miller a handjob at a Jewish summer camp in Malibu in 1997 and now he’s an alt-right super villain
— joe mande (@JoeMande) February 12, 2017
15.These titans of Jewish education
Everything I’ve learned about Judaism comes from musicals and working at a Jewish summer camp for 3 summers. But mostly musicals.
— ann perkins (@annperknz) January 15, 2017
16.This tender combination of stalking and nostalgia
After stalking my boyfriend from Jewish summer camp in 7th grade on Facebook, I can confidently say I think we were supposed to get married
— Elizabeth Wagner (@elizabethwaags) June 23, 2017
17.This accurate statement
i’ve never been to an orgy but i have been to a jewish summer camp and im pretty sure its the same thing
— Thottie Rotten (@RIP_aviv) June 21, 2017
18.This truism
i didn’t go to summer camp as a kid & turns out that’s way more of a jewish twenty-something social liability than i ever could’ve predicted
— Emma Dubin (@Emma_Dubin) October 18, 2016
19.This holiday greeting from a stray goy
happy rosh hashanah to all the friends i made when my parents accidentally sent me to jewish summer camp
— Rose Marie (@r_v35) October 2, 2016
20.This sensible review
there is no internet at this leftist jewish summer camp but other than that it is an actual paradise and a dream come true I love it forever
— Lisa (@Lisaahh) August 26, 2016
21.This sweet seder burn
This Seder is like song sessions at Jewish summer camp, except with 0.1% of the enthusiasm and everyone is a member of AARP.
— gil (@gillykaron) April 23, 2016
22.This very specific priceless experience
#fbf to changing the words to “down to the river to pray” at jewish summer camp to “who shall wear the shabbos crown”
— M. H. Berson (@weirddeals) April 7, 2017
Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny.
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