The Jews of Summer, Sandra Fox
The Jews of Summer, Sandra Fox
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The Jews of Summer
Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America

Author: Sandra Fox

Narrator: Sharon Freedman

Unabridged: 11 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/16/2024

Synopsis

In the decades directly following the Holocaust, American Jewish leaders anxiously debated how to preserve and produce what they considered authentic Jewish culture, fearful that growing affluence and suburbanization threatened the future of Jewish life. Many communal educators and rabbis contended that without educational interventions, Judaism as they understood it would disappear altogether. They pinned their hopes on residential summer camps for Jewish youth: institutions that sprang up across the United States in the postwar decades as places for children and teenagers to socialize, recreate, and experience Jewish culture. Adults' fears, hopes, and dreams about the Jewish future inflected every element of camp life, from the languages they taught to what was encouraged romantically and permitted sexually. But adult plans did not constitute everything that occurred at camp: children and teenagers also shaped these sleepaway camps to mirror their own desires and interests and decided whether to accept or resist the ideas and ideologies their camp leaders promoted. Focusing on the lived experience of campers and camp counselors, The Jews of Summer demonstrates how a cultural crisis birthed a rite of passage that remains a significant influence in American Jewish life.

About Sandra Fox

Sandra Fox is visiting assistant professor of Hebrew Judaic Studies and Director of the Archive of the Jewish Left Project at New York University, and founder and executive producer of the Yiddish-language podcast Vaybertaytsh: A Feminist Podcast in Yiddish.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog on September 18, 2024

Up front the mistake was mine. I saw the title of this book and felt it would be a perfect summer read. Dr. Sandra has written a research paper, The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America. Beyond mere publish or parish she has isolated particular aspects of part of the his......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on August 27, 2023

I was excited to read this, but I wish I had realized going into it that it’s essentially a research paper.......more

Goodreads review by Rebecca on June 19, 2023

This book felt so familiar to me as someone who went to Jewish summer camp for 9 years. My summer camp (Camp Alonim of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute) is briefly mentioned early in the book when discussing the beginning of educational Jewish summer camps. Using both archival sources and interviews, Fo......more

Goodreads review by Carol on September 21, 2024

As a Camp Ramah (Connecticut & Palmer, Mass) lifer (camper-Israel-Mador-Counselor) for 10 years in the 1960’s, I felt this book was written for me. I was one of those kids who lived from July-August and couldn’t wait until the next summer. I never appreciated the purpose behind the intentions and pr......more

Goodreads review by Jody on January 09, 2025

I enjoyed the comments about this book as much as the book. I skimmed until I found something that resonated in me. I read the ebook and I had so much fun reading the citations. I went down the rabbit hole of links to camps That I was familiar with. I’m a Cejwinite, as is my lineage. B’nai Brith Per......more

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