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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
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AUGUST 24, 2017 | The Jewish Home
THIS WEEK WE ARE TALKING TO:
Machaneh Hakayitz
Exciting Camp Feature! Back for a 4th Year!
How are the youngest Five Townsers spending their summer? Over the summer season we will be speaking with local day camps to learn how our children and teens are spending their eleven weeks of summer vacation. Between swimming, sports, learning, trips, projects, cheers and lots of ices, we know their days are jam-packed with fun.
Every summer, hundreds of boys revel in the ruach that is synonymous with Machaneh Hakayitz. From learning, leagues, swimming, cheers, awesome activities, and amazing trips, the summer fun never ends! This week, we were able to speak with Rabbi Ament and senior division head Rabbi Shalom Rosen to learn more about Machaneh Hakayitz’s unparalleled senior division and about the wonderful time all Machaneh Hakayitz campers had each day this summer.
Rabbi Ament, Machaneh Hakayitz just completed its ninth amazing summer. Can you tell us about it and how it all started? Sure! But first let me begin by saying that we love seeing our photos in the TJH each week! Thank you for putting us in! I grew up and learned in Montreal. I went to Camp Agudah in the mountains for many years and was enthralled by the ruach that I experienced. It was always my dream and vision to have a day camp with a similar ruach. Eleven years ago I moved to Far Rockaway when I got the job to teach first grade in Darchei Torah. Many parents had been asking the Rosh Hayeshiva, Rabbi Bender, to open a day camp that would have serious Torah-dikeh hashkafos and have counselors who were bnei Torah and “very geshmak.” Rabbi Bender approached Rabbi Eliezer Selengut and myself to create such a day camp, and the rest is history. Did you know Rabbi Selengut before? Rabbi Selengut grew up in Brooklyn and learned in Chaim Berlin. He went
to Camp Na’arim for many years and after experiencing the infectious personality and adorable humor of Rabbi Shmuel Kunda, z”l, he also had a dream to open a day camp with the same fun and warmth. Rabbi Selengut teaches second grade in Darchei. Before we worked in Darchei together, Rabbi Selengut and I had never met. It’s funny because we look alike and many people ask us if we’re brothers, but we aren’t even related! Tell us about the tremendous growth you’ve had at Kayitz. In our first summer we had 59 campers. No division heads, no sports director, no leagues, barely any trips, and no preschool. This year we had, b”H, over 350 campers, 4 divisions, a sports director with intense leagues, 3 division heads, an exhilarating schedule, a massive canteen, and an incredible preschool program! What was a “regular” day like in camp? We begin every day with top notch davening and learning with top notch rabbeim. The summer camp season is ten weeks long.
That’s more than a quarter of the time the boys spend in Yeshiva. During the school year the boys learn so much, acquire so many skills and develop with so much growth that it’s such a shame if they would lose all of that in the summer. We hire professional rabbeim and the boys really learn nicely. The rabbeim for the older boys had fun programs for their talmidim to learn and review Mishnayos and blatt of Gemara ba’al peh and the younger graders were finishing parshiyos in Chumash. It’s amazing! Besides the actual learning they were doing, they will also return to Yeshiva in September on the same level, if not higher, than they were when they left in June. Then we raise the ruach in the dining room by lunchtime with cheers and game shows. After lunch, the boys enjoy very intense sports and leagues run by Sports Commissioner Rabbi Eli