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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
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AUGUST 17, 2017 | The Jewish Home
THIS WEEK WE ARE TALKING TO:
Camp Areivim
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.
Camp Areivim, one of the premier allboys camps in the Five Towns, started eight years ago and has since grown to over 700 campers. This week, we spoke with Rabbi Yanky Hersh, Camp Director; Rabbi Yossi Bennett, Assistant Director and Senior Division Head Counselor; and Rabbi Yosef Friedler, Junior Division Head Counselor.
Rabbi Hersh, you opened Camp Areivim eight years ago. Tell us your story. YH: I grew up in Flatbush and learned in Yeshiva Torah Temimah. When I was 17-years-old, together with a group of friends, I started a camp in the Ukraine. That’s for another time, but it was an incredible experience that gave me tremendous insight into how to develop a successful camp program. When I got married, I became a rebbe in the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland. After my first year teaching, I was asked to head their day camp and did so for six years. Ten years ago, I moved to Far Rockaway and became a 5th grade rebbe at Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island. After my first summer, a number of parents of the yeshiva approached me and asked me to start a camp for their older boys who weren’t going to
sleepaway camp. One thing turned into another and Camp Areivim was born at the beautiful new campus of Yeshiva Ketana of Long Island. In the first year of Camp Areivim, we had under 50 campers. It was a tremendous success. Most camps start with younger ages and eventually build up; we started with older boys and built down. Six years ago, we branched out to younger age groups and added more divisions over the years. Four years ago was the first year that we introduced our preschool division, called Areivim Freshies, making Camp Areivim a premiere boys’ summer camp accommodating boys ages nursery through 8th grade. It’s eight years later, and our enrollment has grown to over 700 local boys, b’li ayin horah.
Give us some details of how the camp is structured. YH: Interestingly enough, although the camp has grown tremendously, I wanted to keep my original intent in providing each age group with their own personalized program. I’m extremely proud of how the camp has become four incredibly age-appropriate divisions that run like well-oiled machines. Each division has its own individualized program highlighted in each one of their own weekly newsletters: The Freshies Flash, The Areivim Junior Herald, and The Areivim Times for the Seniors and MITs. It could have only happened by having an extremely dedicated head staff. All of the division heads are able to perform an unbelievable balancing act! They are incredible at being responsible and organized while at the same time giving non-stop fun to the campers.