Gary Goldberg, director of Camp Kadimah, came into his office a few days before the end of the 2005 camp season to find green slop on his desk.
He thought he was going to have to get a sponge to clean up the mess, but when he touched it with his finger, he found that it had a rubbery-like texture and that he could lift it up all in one piece.
“I didn’t know what to make of it until I picked it up,” he said.
The art class had left in there as a joke, a little silly slime that kids made from a combination of Borax and glue. It was one of those small jokes typical of a close-knit group of people who make up the annual camp at the Jewish Community Center.
The new Bayonne Jewish Community Center opened its doors in 1953 with Camp Kadimah opening a short time later.
Goldberg, born and raised in Bayonne, came to the camp in 1962 when it was still geared to Jewish kids. These days, children of all denominations attend.
Goldberg went through the camp and later took a job running the Skyline Cabana Club. But he almost never left, as he worked at the camp each summer and taught at Dickinson High School in Jersey City the rest of the year. “When I went, this was still a Jewish camp,” he said. “Back then it was a Jewish town. We had about 200 kids each year. But over time, the Jewish community dwindled. People moved to other places in the 1970s and 1980s. So when I started [as director], we had 68 kids.”
Eventually, the community center threw open the doors to the camp so that anyone of any denomination could attend, and the camp again thrived – with one setback. The events on Sept. 11, 2001 dampened enthusiasm for the camp briefly, but interest soon revived.
Mainly for kids in grades one through nine
While the camp is open to kids from first to ninth grade, the Community Center has a nursery program that handles younger children and a counselor-in-training program for tenth graders. Counselors must be a junior in high school or older to actually work at the camp.
The population of the camp is broken into three groups: Kiddie (grades one to three), Tween (grades four to six) and Teen (grades seven to nine) groups.
Kids of the same age go from activity to activity together so that there is no mixing of ages, Goldberg said.
“There are also field trips,” said Camp Administrator Katy Strulson.
The youngest make a daytrip about once a week, the Tweens, twice a week, the Teens, four times a week. The older students also make overnight trips to places like Boston, Pennsylvania, or Club Getaway in Connecticut.
The staff on trips includes a director for each group, and his or her staff – including teachers, college students and other assistants.
Goldberg said the camp has a good reputation, partly because of how long it has been providing services to the community, but also because more than half the staff returns each year, something that is very unusual.
“One of my staff members has been with me 12 years,” he said. “We’ve had a very good program over the years, and we’ve staffed our camp with a higher level of staff. We do not have kids watching kids.”
Lisa Schwichtenberg, who attends the College of New Jersey, is one of those people who attended the camp year after year since she was a small girl.
“I took a year off and then came back as a counselor,” she said, who along with Deda Flora of Hudson County Community College, teach arts and crafts
Kids come from all over Hudson County
The camp lasts about eight weeks – although there is a pre-camp a week before the official opening and a post-week camp, so that camp for some kids can last 10 weeks over the summer.
While located at the Bayonne Jewish Community Center, the camp is open to kids throughout Hudson County, and the camp staff offers transportation from places such as Union City, Hoboken and Jersey City.
Camp hours are from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. But for working parents, the camp also provides a drop-off program that means parents can drop off kids as early at 7:30 a.m. or pick them up as late as 6 p.m.
The camp day is structured similar to school, with 10 periods a day including arts and crafts, music, sports, and two sessions for swimming – one instructional and a regular open swimming session.
Judy Leffel, the pool instructor, teaches the kids the basics in the morning sessions, for which they are later tested, and they receive a Red Cross certification for their level of knowledge. The pool has four lifeguards as well as Leffel.
Administrator Katy Strulson said the camp provides a safe environment and a fun atmosphere for the kids.
While costs vary depending on the age level of the camper, Strulson said the camp offers scholarships for those families in financial need. Even with the full cost, the camp is cheaper than renting a house down the shore for a week.
The camping season has a variety of events, including a camp olympics, talent show, and other events where kids can compete or show off their individual talents. There is a camp show night geared toward different types of music, in which kids get on stage, set up props, and wear costumes. Parents come and get to see their kids in action.
Because the Bayonne Jewish Community Center is located right across the street from Stephen Gregg County Park, campers get plenty of sunshine as some events are scheduled there. The city supplies morning and afternoon crossing guards to make certain the children are safe.
“We’ve had the same guards for a few years,” Strulson said.
But on excruciatingly hot days like those over the last few weeks, campers had the luxury of conducting their events indoors.
“We even have an air-conditioned gym,” Goldberg said.
Still has its Jewish roots
Since it is held at the Jewish Community Center, the camp still holds Sabbath sacred and continues some of the traditions from when it had an exclusively Jewish population.
Each Friday, when the camp day ends, they celebrate Oneg Shabat, where they share a prayer over the sharing of bread and “wine” (grape juice), a tradition that acknowledges of the joy of the Jewish Sabbath. The kids are given the option whether to pray or not, but the ceremony is one of the camp’s traditions.
The other hold over to Jewish traditions involves food prepared and served at the center. It’s Kosher, and meets the standards set by the body of Jewish law called Kashrut as to what foods can and cannot be eaten and how these foods must be prepared. This may include things as simple as ziti or macaroni and cheese.
“This does not apply to foods that are brought in from outside the center,” Goldberg said.
Kids get snacks every afternoon including ice cream and ice pops.