Pass The Bug Juice, Bubeleh, Jewish Summer Camp Is Back!

As difficult as being Jewish has, over the past few years, sometimes been in New York, you don’t need to reread Cynthia Ozick’s The Puttermesser Papers or Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock to know things have been worse—much worse. Among the ways Jewish families have coped with these challenges is a resurgent interest in an old friend, the Jewish summer camp.

Indeed, while there’s an entire nonfiction literature about the subject, from its late 19th-century roots to the Socialist (and sometimes Communist) surge of the 1930s through to the post-War boom fueled by liberatory baby-making and Zionist pride, one needn’t make a research trip to the New York Public Library to choose a destination for kiddos.

While sleepaway camp is a complex world of its own, herewith is a brief guide to Jewish day camps that depart from Manhattan.

92nd Street Y

1395 Lexington Ave.

www.92ny.org

212-415-5573

Speaking of tradition (cue the Fiddler on the Roof song here), the 92nd Street Y was, of course, founded as a Young Men’s Hebrew Association. Times change and branding too, but if you speak of the “92Y” in public, be ready to talk Jews in the military—like Phil Silvers as Sgt. Ernest Bilko— because 92Y is also the job code for a U.S. Army Unit Supply Specialist. This is one reason the 92nd Street Y becomes 92NY in print.

Since summer camps have units too, perhaps this coincidence is apt. Indeed, 92NY, the Upper East Side institution, has so many camps, one is tempted to call a specialist to help time-harried parents sort them all out.

Basically, the gist is this: From late June through mid-August 92NY has both an on-site camp, K’Ton Ton, housed like a Russian doll within the 92NY Nursery School, for preschoolers (ages 3 through 5) and an outdoor day camp in Orangeburg, Rockland County, for kids 5 and up. Bus pickups at various Manhattan locations to get them there.

On the Rockland side, Camp Yomi covers grades K through 4; Yomi Senior grades 5 and 6; Trailblazers grades 7 through 9. There’s also Camp Ilanot, which offers a Hebrew-immersion setting for K–through-5 kids.

This isn’t quite everything. Rockland also has special-needs options, and Camp Pride for LGBTQ , while the UES location offers specialty camp programs for older kids—parkour, gymnastics, and musical theater. Is someone singing “Tradition”?!

Marlene Meyerson JCC

334 W. 76 St.

www.mmjccm.org/camps/day-camp

646-505-4431

Many people’s go-to for Jewish-centered activity on the Upper West Side has a couple of surprises in store, one good, the other not so good. The bad news first. ““After extensive reflection and thoughtful consideration, the JCC has made the decision to pause operations at Camp Settoga,“ which was their 21-acre day camp in Pomona, New York, in Rockland County, that Manhattan children took the bus to, though a Tablet magazine essay by Liel Liebovitz about driving there to pick up his kids conveys how valued Settoga was.

Though the JCC is tight-lipped about Settoga’s future, the good news is its on-site day camp offerings, including two indoor pools, a full gym, and rooftop playground, have expanded accordingly. At the youngest end, its prior constituency of 3-to-5-year-olds remains as the Lower Division. After that comes the Middle Division (ages 6 and 7) and Upper Division (8 through 10), with all offering catered lunch, daily swim with towel service. Older kids can additionally pick a specialty camp focusing on sports, theater, or arts, including field trips, swim, and park time.

The JCC Harlem outpost at 318 W. 118th St. has a variety of soccer and Maker Space programs available, the latter being described as “creativity camp where children design, tinker, and build. . . . Campers explore cardboard engineering, sculpture, printmaking, textile and fiber arts, collaborative installations, and mixed-media inventions.”

14th Street Y

344 E. 14th St.

www.14streety.org/camps

212-780-0800

Downtown, the 14th Street Y offers a familiar wide range of Jewish cultural and family programs, including summer camps. For kids ages 2 through 5 there’s the on-site New Town Day Camp, while kids K through 8 have the great adventure of going New Country Day Camp in the verdant setting of the Staten Island Greenbelt. This camp reporter has run the trails all around the camp and can personally vouch for its attractive qualities; if the bus ride to the “Forgotten Borough” works for your schedule, this is a great and lesser-known option for Manhattanites, one that promises “innovative, kid-charged activities, from science to arts to athletics, and two daily periods of swim. . . . We guarantee to send your child home tired, dirty, and happy.” (Within the regular programs, there’s also an LGBTQ-friendly New Country Pride offering from June 29 to July 10.)

Camp Twelve Trails

54 Nagle Ave.

www.camptwelvetrails.org

646-518-3731

If you don’t recognize Nagle Avenue as a street in Manhattan, you don’t need to wait until Yom Kippur for forgiveness. It’s uptown, in Inwood, home of YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood, which operates Camp Twelve Trails—along with its partners, the Riverdale YM-YWHA and the Shames JCC on the Hudson in Tarrytown—at the Henry Kaufman Campgrounds in Pearl River, in Rockland County. Air-conditioned buses from upper Manhattan, the Bronx, and points north will get them there to join their respective “neighborhood”: Pioneer (grades K through 2) or Trailblazer (3 through 6). While non-Jewish campers are always welcome, “Camp Twelve Trails has a long and cherished relationship with Israel and supports its right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people. We affirm and celebrate this relationship and its diverse cultures, languages, and foods through Israel-inspired programming and the inclusion of Israeli staff each summer. We do not take political positions.”