Dear Friends:
As we prepare for Jacobs Camp’s fourth summer under the stellar leadership of Anna Herman, we have much to celebrate:
- Camper enrollment has increased from approximately 360 to about 460.
- Still very much a “Jewish place,” Jacobs has quickened its “southern pace.” Anna – together with Nadav, and now Sarah and Joshua – have put Jacobs Camp into overdrive. Excellence is now the standard for every experience at Jacobs Camp, whether we are enhancing a time-honored Jacobs tradition or embracing a new initiative.
- Faculty engagement has skyrocketed. Four years ago, we might be grateful to have one or two rabbis, cantors, educators, or youth professionals in a given week. In 2017, we welcomed 33 faculty to Jacobs Camp. That’s an average of five-six Jewish professionals at Camp every week. And we were busy!
Your rabbis and other Jewish professionals are thrilled to partner with Anna and her team to encourage young people from our communities to spend the summers at Jacobs Camp as campers and staff. We know that they will enjoy a deep, meaningful experience, immersed in Judaism. At Jacobs Camp, Jewish education becomes real on ball fields and on the adventure course, in the STEM room, and in the J-PAC’s theater, in the Arts Center and at the swimming pool, in the dining room and in every bunk.
Jacobs Camp is growing. Our bunks are bursting at the seams. Can we imagine a climate-controlled indoor athletic facility, with appropriate equipment for basketball, gymnastics, fitness, and more? Can we envision a “real” space for STEM? These are good “problems” to have, and I am confident that Jacobs Camp leadership and all of our communities will rise to the challenge.
Judaism in the Deep South lives – at Jacobs Camp and in each of our communities.
Shalom,
Rabbi Barry Block
Congregation B’nai Israel, Little Rock
Jacobs Camp Faculty Dean