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Dear Jacobs Camp Families,

We are hard at work planning for an incredible summer ahead, and as always, the health and safety of our entire community is our main priority. With that in mind, I am writing to share a couple of important policy updates for Summer 2022.

Vaccine Requirements
For Summer 2022, we are requiring all age eligible participants, staff, volunteers, and guests on our camp properties to be fully vaccinated, as defined by the CDC, against COVID-19. The URJ has a long history of requiring vaccinations for our community, and we believe strongly that preserving life and maintaining the health of our entire community is a core Jewish value. Knowing that our entire age-eligible community will be vaccinated against COVID-19 allows us to also adjust other mitigation strategies from this past summer. We will have additional information about these adjustments in the coming months, but we look forward to returning to a more typical summer experience in many ways.

Staff Days Off 
For Summer 2022, we plan to return to a more typical time off policy for our staff that includes time off of our camp properties, where staff will have autonomy over their own time. Our staff truly went above and beyond in Summer 2021, living onsite at camp for weeks without time away from our campus. In consultation with our medical advisors, we believe that we can safely return to more traditional time off in Summer 2022. As always, the health and well-being of our entire community is our highest priority and we expect staff to behave in ways that hold this value dear, in balance with local COVID-19 conditions, and guidance from local and state health authorities.

We continue to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), American Camp Association (ACA), and our URJ Medical Taskforce as we plan for next summer. We are so grateful to our entire community for your support this past summer in ensuring the wellbeing of our entire community, appreciate your continued trust, partnership, and patience.

As Thanksgiving nears, we have so much to be thankful for at Jacobs Camp. After a summer away, our community was able to be back together in Utica for a summer of in-person connections, friends new and old, and joyful Judaism. Today we are thankful that registration is already open for next summer and so many of our families have already signed up to return to Camp next summer. We can’t wait to welcome your family back to Jacobs Camp!

Please reach out to me directly with any questions.

Anna Herman
Jacobs Camp Director

About the Author

Anna Herman


Anna is so excited to be the Director of the URJ Henry S. Jacobs Camp. Anna grew up in Dothan, AL, and began attending the Henry S. Jacobs Camp at age 11. In addition to being a camper, Anna also was a counselor and unit head. Following graduation from the University of Alabama, she became the assistant director at Jacobs, after which she served as a congregational youth director and as the assistant director of the URJ Meetings and Conventions Department. Anna then transitioned to the assistant director of business operations for the URJ’s camping system. In this role, in which she partnered with our 14 URJ camps across North America, she gained a wealth of camping knowledge.

Throughout, she remained connected to Jacobs Camp as a lay leader, serving as the Camp Committee – Development Committee Chair. She also met her husband Nadav at Jacobs Camp, and surrounded by family and many friends from Jacobs and the URJ, they were married at the chapel on Lake Gary.

Anna is thrilled to be home to lead the Jacobs community, and to inspire generations of future campers to create Jacobs “magic” every summer

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