I Found My Love at Eisner

By Mindy Miner Holland

As a teen growing up on Long Island, I knew of two places to be Jewish, my synagogue and my kitchen. Okay, maybe I knew of a third place, Israel. So I saved up my babysitting wages, and over my parents ' objections, I signed up for a teen tour summer to the holy land.

In the airport, waiting to board our EL AL flight, my groupmates spoke a foreign language; it wasn ’t Hebrew. The strange words ended in FTY, and I had no idea what they meant.

“Wefty, come over here, ” cheered a gang of big-haired shoulder-padded girls.

“I’ m from Lifty, ” My seatmate bragged.

These kids schooled me. Judaism lived and thrived in youth groups such as Westchester Federation of Temple Youth (WEFTY) and Long Island Temple Youth (LIFTY). On day one of our tour, I knew no one, but they had bonded at the ‘best summer camp ever, ” Camp Eisner. My post-Israel mission was to get myself to that camp. Little did I know those summers working at Eisner would lead to me finding the love of my life.

In 1983, I was awed by the magnificent manor house located next to the brand-new Kivie Kaplan Center. My fellow machons and I lived in Kivie, I had the best summer of my life. I returned the next summer as a Junior Counselor living in Yellow Gate House and working at the lake teaching swim lessons. By the end of that summer, the new pool was open, and to everyone ’ s joy, lessons shifted from murky water to chlorinated water.

Another shift happened for me; Marla and Roo, the famous red-headed counselor duo, needed a new Junior counselor. I was voluntold to leave swim staff housing and join a Bonim bunk. Despite a lice infestation and coming in as an outsider to an alreadyestablished bunk culture, I loved being with the 9-year-old girls. Another memorable event of that summer was attending an off-camp party for the staff at a beautiful log cabin owned by a camp FAfamily. MIL

SPOTLIGHT

After the banquet ended and candles floated on the lake, it was time to return to the real world; college applications, getting a driver ’ s license, and graduating from High School all awaited me. I had a camp boyfriend, but certainly, he was not the love of my life. In January 1985, I bravely took the Long Island Railroad into the city to attend a camp reunion. I’d spent a lot of time in the city but never alone. The event was held in the basement of U.A.H.C. I hoped to catch up with my fellow counselors, especially my waterfront buddies.

It was after the slide show that one of the Bonim girls came over to me. Nine-year-old Abby Holland had been in the bunk I spent two weeks in. Abby beckoned me to lean down so she could look me in the eye. “Want to meet my big brother?” she asked.

“Sure, ” I replied, just to be polite.

Big brother said that he was the host of the log cabin party. “Do you remember me?” He

asked.

Nope! But I was happy to talk to him at the reunion. Jesse said that he had been an Eisner Camper back in 1975 & 76. We were the same age, but our Eisner years did not match. It seemed like Jesse was way ahead of me at everything: he was already accepted into Cornell and already had a driver ’ s license. Little Abby pulled me down to her level again. This time she whispered in my ear, “Do you like him?”

“Sure, ” I answered, still not quite understanding.

As the reunion ended, Jesse Holland asked, “Can I have your phone number?”

And I, STILL not quite getting it, asked, “What do you want it for?”

The poor guy had to spell it out for me, “I’d like to ask you out. ”

We did go out, despite the thirty-minute drive from Syosset to Eastchester and then the three-hour haul from his Cornell to my SUNY Albany. We married in 1989 and had two kids. One of our boys, Adam, went to Eisner from Bonim to Olim, and he went on NFTY in Israel. Adam already knew the language of NFTY. He knew it because, thanks to the kids on my Israel trip, I found Eisner, leading me to the wider Jewish community. I became president of SUNY Albany Hillel, then Youth Director at the Schenectady Jewish Community Center, then President of Congregation Gates of Heaven, the congregation of Rabbi Matt Cutler, who was Bonim Assistant Unit Head when I was a machon. This last summer, our older son David and his wife Kirstie Wilson attended a tribal weekend at Eisner staying in Kivie.

FAMIL SPOTLIGHT

Many of you know my sister-in-law Abby Holland Belasco. Of course, I owe her a debt of gratitude, but in my heart, I believe it was my mother-in-law, Muriel Holland, who assigned Abby the task of picking a Jewish girl at the reunion for Jesse. Thanks, Muriel. Thanks, Abby. Thanks, NFTY in Israel, and THANK YOU, Camp Eisner.

Despite only working at Eisner for two summers, Eisner has stuck with me all these years. So much so that during the COVID shutdown, when I couldn ’t go to work as a school librarian, I decided to write a Middle-Grade novel. The setting is a certain camp with a manor house, one of the characters is a ghost named Gertrude. If the submission process goes well, your children could be reading about Camp Walker and thinking, gee, that place sounds familiar!

Jesse Holland (age 9) with his mother Muriel Holland, 1984

Adam Holland, Gabe Seltzer, and Elijah Young, 2009