By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
After 100 years of offering summer fun, Jewish-style, to youth throughout the Western United States, Hadassah’s Camp Young Judaea West, a pluralistic, unaffiliated, and kosher camp will be closed for the summer of 2010 due to a lack of funding.
The camp closure is the latest cost-cutting measure by the Hadassah organization, which was already feeling the effects of reduced donations due to the recession, when they were blind-sided last December by the news that it had lost $90 million in investments it had with Bernard Madoff’s fraudulent investment funds, according to reporting by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency news service.
“Although it is painful to lose a programmatic center that has served hundreds of our members and their families,” reads a press release from Hadassah’s New York office on the matter, “we are hopeful that, in time, CYJ West will resume its operation.”
According to JTA, in December 2008, Hadassah reported that it had lost $40 million that it had invested in Madoff’s scheme, and that it would not be receiving another $50 million that it projected to earn from the investment income. Hadassah’s endowment, whose estimated value was approximately $500 million is now said to be worth $412 million.
Local and and national Hadassah leaders did not return JTNews’ phone calls or e-mails to comment further on the camp closing, but the painful reality was pronounced in the voice of Esther Caplan, a former Hadassah regional president and the current West Merchav chair.
“We are extremely sad about it,” Caplan told JTNews, “but there is a group of dedicated individuals who are trying to bring it back.”
The CYJ West camp, which is one of five camps in the Young Judea camp system, has served more than 100 campers throughout the Western region each summer.
Camp enrollment had been on the rise, due mainly to $1,000 grants made to first-time campers from the Campership Incentive program, a partnership between Hadassah and the Foundation for Jewish Camp.
CYJ West does not own land for a permanent camp location. It has been renting various camps each year, mainly securing a Long Beach, Wash. site.
“We have not owned our camp and we would love to have a permanent site,” Caplan said. “We’ve been a rental camp for many, many years. We’ve rented camps in Long Beach, Wash., Ocean Park, Ore., and we’ve rented a 4H camp in the past. It’s time that we find a permanent home. Kids are touched by these camps.”
CYJ West serves Jewish youth from many locations including Colorado, El Paso, Tex., Northern California, San Diego, Calif., Las Vegas, Nev., and Tucson, Ariz.
Last summer, Hadassah mounted a campaign to raise $200,000 to fund the camp’s operating costs but it was only able to raise $50,000 from 100 donors and alumni around the country.
“We didn’t get that far without any major donors,” said Caplan. “But our donations came from all over the country with very passionate notes from people about how much effect [the camp] had on them.”
In an effort to maintain the Jewish camping experience for as many of the CYJ West campers as possible, other regional camps are providing scholarships, reduced rates, and travel discounts to Jewish youth who are without a summer location.
Through November 15, 2009, CYJ Midwest is offering its two three-week sessions to CYJ West and
West Merchav campers at a 10 percent reduction.
Also, campers who attend a three-week session at CYJ Midwest for the first time are eligible for two years of funding. The grant application is available online at www.onehappycamper.org.
CYJ Midwest is also looking to hire West Coast staffers to fill staff positions there for the upcoming summer season.
“We want to welcome West campers not as guests but as additions to our family,” said Noah Gallagher, the director for CYJ Midwest, in Hadassah’s press release about the camp’s closing.
In a subsequent e-mail, Gallagher noted he has been hearing from CYJ West Coast families.
“We hope that 50 or so will come to us,” he wrote. “The others are eligible for Camp Tel Yehudah for [high school]-age campers. I have spoken to about 12 families. I don’t know how many have applied for camperships.”
CYJ West leadership plans to meet with national representatives this fall in Northern California to organize a board of directors and develop a business plan that could attract corporate donors. Hopefully, this will attract the $200,000 it needs to reopen the West Coast camp.
“We’re open to any help that we can get from anybody,” Caplan said. “We’re asking those who’ve already donated whether they want their money returned, put into a scholarship fund, or left with us for its original purpose. So far, many donors have chosen to leave it with us.”