“Safe, Seen & Beloved: What ‘Welcome Home’ Means at Jacobs Camp”

When asked to define the word “home,” I was inspired by their responses: “a place where you feel loved”, “where you feel safest”, “where people support you through sad times”, and so many more. My time at URJ Henry S. Jacobs Camp in my roles as faculty and staff has taught me what it looks like to make a place a home–where people know your name, where people truly care how you are physically, emotionally, spiritually, and where people of all ages have the freedom and safety to be who they truly are.

Transforming a simple plot of land and collection of buildings into a true home is all the more important today. At the crest of the wave of rising anti-semitism, when Jews fear for their physical safety, to build a space where Jewish people of all ages feel safe and free to simply be Jews is as crucial as ever. And during this month of Pride, when many LGBTQ+ youth are feeling pressures across the country, creating a shelter of peace where they can live openly and authentically is a truly sacred undertaking. Jacobs Camp presents a model that all Jewish organizations, synagogues, and spiritual homes in the country would do well to learn from, and it serves as a champion of values we seek to instill here at Temple Israel Memphis at the Wendy and Avron Fogelman Religious School. 

I am so grateful for the lessons I have learned from Jacobs Camp over the years. In my own work as Associate Rabbi, I seek to emulate the warm and welcoming spirit that pervades each blade of grass and piece of pavement at Jacobs Camp. Though I was not raised in this home like so many, it has shaped me nonetheless. It has become home.