Was My Jewish Summer Camp Trying to Indoctrinate Me?

[Mosby]

Forget New York: The nexus of American Jewish cultural and political achievement is found deep in the woods of northwestern Wisconsin. Want to see it? Drive north from Siren and just keep going. Past the drive-through liquor store. Past the canoe still wedged into a tree. Past the signs in Webster advertising the “meat raffle” (it’s exactly what it sounds like). Hidden in the expanse of red pines is Herzl Camp, a Jewish summer camp where I spent six years as a camper and another four as a counselor.

OK, so maybe “nexus” is a little strong, but take a look at some of the camp’s other alumni: Bob Dylan. The Coen Brothers. Thomas L. Friedman. Debbie Friedman. Abe Foxman. The guy who wrote “Funkytown.” Those are some serious Elders of Zion. In fact, it’s not surprising that someone harboring dark obsessions about Jewish power and influence in American life has begun to connect the dots (how else can you explain “Funkytown’s” success?).

The Coen Brothers were recently interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross about their new movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, which is about a Bob Dylan-esque folk singer. Gross mentioned that Dylan and the Coens had all attended Herzl Camp. One of the Coens (the interview was on radio, so I couldn’t differentiate between them—let’s call them Acerbic Coen and Sardonic Coen) thought that Dylan’s Herzl heritage was merely an urban myth, but Acerbic Coen pointed out that no, Dylan’s biography features photos of him playing his guitar at the camp.

“Is this the kind of summer camp where you sing songs with lyrics about how great the camp is, and then there’s team songs with how great the team is?” Gross asked.

“No,” said Sardonic Coen. “It was a Zionist summer camp, and you sang Zionist songs in Hebrew.” He said that last sentence in the same tone that he might have said, “The doctors botched my hernia operation” or “We got beaten at the Oscars by The English Patient.”

So, from this nugget of Zionist geography (it’s like Jewish geography, but more sinister), Philip Weiss, proprietor of the rabidly anti-Zionist site Mondoweiss, extrapolated that “American Jews need to take that indoctrination apart to understand who we are as religious supporters of settler colonialism.” Those are some pretty serious charges. Was I indoctrinated as a nine-year-old to support “settler colonialism”? I was on the camp’s education team for three years when I was on staff—am I complicit in brainwashing children and teens?

http://www.thetower.org/article/was-my-jewish-summer-camp-trying-to-indoctrinate-me/

[King_David]

1. I wouldn't put any value on what Philip Weiss says ,

I don't think he deserves this "publicity".

[Mosby]

2. It's written my some kid named Aiden Pink

Pink's experiences at camp were very positive, he does not think he was being indoctonated.

The most purely Zionistic thing about Herzl Camp was not that it taught campers Israeli geography or the Shacharit prayers, but that it instilled pride. Pride in being an American Jew. Pride in the accomplishments of those who built a new nation and work to improve it today. Pride in getting third place in color wars because you gave it your all and that’s all anyone can ask. Pride in being a member of the Herzl Camp community, one that has given the world great music and insightful political analysis, but also untold numbers of doctors and accountants and construction workers, mothers and fathers who have built and maintained thriving Jewish communities in the last places most people would ever expect—Kansas City, Omaha, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Des Moines—and have passed their heritage on to their children. The reason some of today’s anti-Zionists don’t like Jewish summer camps is, perhaps, that deep down they aren’t comfortable with the idea of a strong and proud Jewish identity at all, and therefore, this anti-Zionism is really a form of anti-Semitism.