Becoming Olim

Become Olim!

Join us along with your family and friends as we band together to make this building happen for next summer. Your participation is the missing piece to this puzzle that will solidify Olim for generations. Consider a gift at one of these levels:

Unit Head Assistant Unit Head General Captain Specialist Judge Bonim Buddy

$ $ $ $ $ $ $

50,000 25,000 10,000 5,000 2,500 1,000 500

The opportunity to name the building is available upon request. Please contact the Development Director for details.

“We grew into Olim together and we earned the right to lead camp. We earned the right to become Olim. But, just because we became Olim, our jobs are not done. After all, keeping the hill alive is all about the legacy, and leaving a place you care so much about better than you found it. We want nothing more than to pass that passion and love along.

We hope we have left our mark.� ~ Julia, 2014 Olim camper

URJ Eisner and Crane Lake Camps is a recognized 501 (c) (3) corporation.

Your contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

URJ Eisner and Crane Lake Camps 160 Chubb Ave, Suite 207 Lyndhurst, NJ 07071 Tel 201.722.0400 www.Eisner.URJcamps.org/OlimBeitAm ccutler@gmail.com

BECOMING

OLIM

Opportunity

What does Olim mean?

Olim translates as “to go up,” “to ascend.” It is a term of distinction given to someone who immigrates to Israel. At Eisner Camp it is the name given to rising 10th graders in our oldest camper unit. Olim is the pinnacle camper experience.

From a child’s first summer in Bonim, when they are paired with an Olim buddy, becoming Olim is a highly anticipated and desired objective. Among the 140-plus campers in Olim each summer, the average number of years they have spent at Eisner is 6.7 years. For their entire camp career they have looked up to the Olimers who have come before them and have aspired to take their place on the “Hill” as leaders on camp.

Becoming Olim has a high standard. The title is not just awarded, it is earned.

Campers arrive at Eisner as individuals and it is by working together as a unit that they are able to ascend and earn the respect of camp and earn the right to be called Olim. They accomplish together through a summer long experience in personal growth, leadership, and community building.

Every camper here looks up to the bunks on Olim Hill, literally and figuratively. All of them will look up to you this summer. They will look to you for the camp traditions and what life looks like here in the “bubble.” They will turn to you when they want to see how to act, and they will follow your lead in services and in song sessions. The question is, “what will you do this summer to be worthy of that respect – to be worthy of being Olim?”

~

-Spoken to Olim the first night of camp by Louis Bordman, Eisner Camp Director

Developing future Jewish leaders Olim campers are looked up to as leaders on camp, and much is done to celebrate this aspect of a camper’s career.

Our goal is for campers to come out of the Olim experience seeking out and creating holy communities at camp, in their lives, and in the world.

The physical manifestation central to Olim is its Beit Am. This space becomes the main gathering point for unit meetings and activities. The Olim Beit Am is a sense of unit pride as significant memories are created in the confines of this space.

This project will replace the previous Olim Beit Am that Camp was ordered to remove by the town building inspectors.

For the past two summers, Camp has used a temporary event tent as a replacement for this structure. Camp plans to build a permanent facility by the summer of 2015.Our goal is to raise $400,000 for the construction and maintenance of a new Olim Beit Am. To date we have raised $150,000.

Lifelong Memories Major memories are created in Olim from “Chilling on the Hill” to bonding with their Bonim Buddy to the Montreal trip to leading Maccabiah to writing one another Tshuva notes in the Olim Beit Am on the last night of the session.

Each are significant in their own way and are also building blocks on the journey to becoming Olim. These memories are permanently etched into their souls and are spoken about for decades by alumni as some of the best times of their life. Inside jokes, catch phrases, tearful exchanges shared among best friends in the final summer as campers are powerful as evidenced by the following readings from Olim’s final service of this summer:

“As we step out of the bubble for our last time as campers, we leave behind our lessons and memories. To future Olim,our advice to you is to cherish your timehere. You’re never too cool for anything and the friendships you make here will last a lifetime.”

“All of these lessons have added up to our Olim summer and even though this is the end of the chapter, it’s not the end of the book.”

“Over the summer we have shaped each other and have become Olim. We plan to take what we have learned and use our experiences to shape the rest of our lives.”

The Olim experience is a multi-facetted, intentionally crafted summer where campers are moved from being individuals to working together as a unit contributing to the good of the community. All of the components of the Olim experience work to this end as one interwoven piece based on three pillars that build a k’hillah k’dosha – a sacred community:

B’tzelem Elohim Jewish tradition teaches that we are all created in the Divine Image. This teaches us to recognize God in other human beings and to discover a divine ideal within ourselves.

Gemilut Chasadim By doing acts of loving kindness, we treat others as we wish to be treated and balance our own need for justice with compassion.

Tikkun Olam Within our k’hillah, together we take upon ourselves the mitzvah (obligation) to engage in fixing the world and bring it toward the divine ideal.

“Our Olim year has been one of finding ourselves and learning not just about leading camp but leading our own lives.”

“Over the summer we have shaped each other and have