What If My Camper Needs Extra Support at camp?
Jacobs Camp is a unique community – our size allows us to provide individualized care and support for each and every child. In addition to your child’s counselors and unit head, we have inclusion staff on-site all summer to work with campers who may need extra support. Before campers arrive in the summer, we ask parents to complete a detailed Camper Information Questionnaire, which gives us great insight about your child – everything from the activities they are most excited for to the things that make them afraid. The information from this questionnaire allows our staff to prepare for each child individually before he or she arrives. We ask that parents are as detailed as possible – the more you can tell us before Opening Day, the better our staff will be able to support your camper! If you anticipate your child may need extra support from our staff, we ask that you contact Anna at aherman@urj.org to schedule time to discuss your child’s specific needs. As necessary, our Camper Care Team will be in touch with parents leading up to and throughout the summer to discuss any challenges he or she may experience during the summer.
Interfaith Families
Jacobs Camp is a welcoming community for interfaith families who have made Jewish choices for their children, including Jewish overnight camp. We welcome children from a variety of backgrounds, and know they will quickly become connected members to our Jacobs Camp family.
Your child – any child from an interfaith family who is being raised as a Jew – has a place at our camp. For over 30 years, the Reform Movement has been at the forefront of the Jewish world ensuring a welcoming environment for interfaith families and their children. As Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs has stated, “Creating pathways for Jews and non-Jewish partners to create active Jewish homes is a blessing.”
Jews from diverse backgrounds
As part of the Union for Reform Judaism and the Audacious Hospitality efforts that our movement encapsulates, we believe that we will be a stronger, more vibrant Jewish community when we fully incorporate the diversity that is the reality of modern Jewish life. We believe that there is more than one authentic way to be Jewish and acknowledge that our diversity is an essential component to making our communities whole.
Jewish populations such as Jews by choice and those exploring Judaism, Jews of Color, LGBTQ+ Jews, Jews who live with physical, mental, or intellectual disabilities, multiracial families, Jews who are unaffiliated and uninspired by Jewish communal offerings, and the evolving needs of interfaith and intermarried couples and families, are all an integraml part of our growing community.
We strive to engage more children and families who are often unrepresented and under-served in Jewish spaces, transforming our camp community into a space of belonging for all who wish to call it home.