This summer, more than 100 children ages six to 16 from communities bordering the Gaza Strip attended a summer camp run by the Jewish Agency's Fund for Victims of Terrorism.

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The Fund was set up to help victims of violence, including those who suffer from deep trauma and anxiety associated with frequent exposure to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip towards their communities.

The children who participated in the camp came from Sderot, Ashkelon, Beersheba or Rahat.

The campers used swimming pools, visited the safari park and an amusement park, and took part in an activity organized by the NATAL Association for Youth designed to ease tension through theatrical improvisation.

"For these children who face a complex reality, many of whom suffer from post-traumatic stress, the camp is designed to facilitate their mental coping mechanisms and to strengthen their resilience," said former MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin who now serves as president of the Jewish Agency for Victims of Terrorism Fund.

"The support of the global Jewish community, through the Terrorism Victims Fund, reminds residents of Israeli communities near Gaza that they are not alone," Nahmias-Verbin said.

The initiative was supported by generous donations from the global Jewish community, including the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), Keren Hayesod, the Genesis Philanthropy Group and donors from the Jewish world, in cooperation with the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council.

This article was first published by i24NEWS

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But not a single balloon was put up for fear that the mere sight of them would upset campers.

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This is the life of the children in the Eshkol Regional Council, roughly 10 miles away from the Gaza Strip.

A year of indiscriminate rocket attacks, protests along the border fence and incendiary balloons being hurled across into Israeli territory has put them on edge, making even those as young as five hyper-aware of their surroundings.

But a visit to a local camp at the Yuvalei Ha-Bsor School tells another story – one that doesn't tend to make headlines.

An afternoon with campers reveals that although they may be bruised, even traumatized to an extent, they love their home and will not allow Hamas to ruin their childhood.

"We try not to let the security situation change our lives. As soon as we are scared to get out of our own home, they've won," said Adam Russell, a 16-year-old camp counselor.

"I love living here," he added, during a conversation that touched on both the trauma and freedom to live in one of Israel's most picturesque areas. "I would love to raise a family here, despite what's happening."

Comparing the usually tranquil agricultural community to his previous home in London before his family made aliyah, he recalled that now he's free to be a child. "In London, I wasn't allowed to go get the newspaper by myself. Now I'm free. Children do what they want here."

Russell is one of several camp counselors who work hard at setting a good example of resilience for children who have trouble adapting to this unusually quiet summer. Camp extends throughout the entire month of July for first- to third-graders, and children from fourth to sixth grade stay on for an additional week in August.

For the some 500 children enrolled in camp, they have a rather jam-packed schedule. From headphone-listening parties to bowling to swimming, the older children spend much of their time off the campus grounds. Almost every day, they go on a field trip outside the region that borders Gaza. For older children, getting away from home for the day offers a cathartic release. Those daily adventures include relaxing activities like going to the movies, amusement and water parks, and bowling. The outings offer a brief escape that gives them a glimpse of how the more "normal" side of Israel lives.

For the younger children, educators have to be a little more creative, as most activities are confined to the indoors. After all, even in times of peace, most plans involve staying inside should an emergency situation suddenly arise. That said, the six- to nine-year-olds keep plenty busy. Their days are filled with music and painting lessons, and indoor soccer, to give just a few examples.

But ever since a harrowing weekend in May, where Hamas launched 600 rockets across the border that left five Israelis dead, life in the region has resembled the calm after the storm.

And with that, of course, comes a host of psychological issues.

"We deal with healing emotional wounds here," noted Aya Altman Cohen, one of the two adult educators at the camp. "We tell our children to go back to normalcy, but sometimes, they don't want to go back to routine. As adults, it makes us examine our own behavior. After all, we're not robots. What does it say about us that we're so willing to get back to routine?"

Unlike school, which has a regimented schedule, life at camp is much more lax. Since their school and camp are hosted in the same building, while the children do return to the same structure, the atmosphere is very different.

"We want them to interact with us and each other, and ease into this transition of summer vacation," said Altman Cohen.

For some, it was difficult to adjust to a new routine, as any change in schedule can be triggering. Altman Cohen recalls many instances when camp began several weeks ago, where many children expressed being homesick and some would even lash out in anger.

It's anecdotes like these that underscore the duality of life under fire. Of children who want to be children, but sometimes being parted from the warm embrace of a parent, even during times of peace, is too much to bear for young children.

'This is our life'

Limor Or, another senior adult educator, has three children of her own. The older ones downloaded several apps and closely monitor all aerial activity via their phone. Despite all being under 16, they've become familiar with both the sound and look of Egyptian and Israeli aircraft, and are always predicting when the next confrontation will occur.

"I'm very invested in this generation. These children will either be an apathetic or a dedicated generation," Altman Cohen predicted, adding that they've had to contend with near-constant security threats since birth.

As a result, many have ADHD, separation anxiety and don't trust others easily. But, by the same token, a conversation with eight sixth-graders revealed that they wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

A discussion with them can veer from what to do about Hamas to what the best nail polish brand is, further demonstrating that childhood interests, even those concerning fashion, can interrupt real-life threats.

And that childhood innocence was very much on display as children played air hockey, basketball and danced to music blaring from the stereos.

"It's sad, but this is our life," Amit, one of the sixth-graders, said matter-of-factly. "It's been quiet lately. But even that's stressful because we don't know when the next Red Alert will be."

Shelly looks forward to camp and didn't want to miss a single day. Even on the day of her bat mitzvah bash, she refused to skip out on camp, and spent the whole day there before rushing home and getting ready for the big celebration that night.

But educators are looking forward to starting a new chapter this fall.

This particular school is located 7.2 kilometers (4.5 miles) across the border. The government provides shelters for all Israeli territory that lies within seven kilometers of the Gaza border, leaving this school just outside of that range. However, a new school that will be completely fortified is opening at the beginning of the academic year, supported by the region's partner, Jewish National Fund-USA. Which means for the first time in a generation, first-graders won't have to interrupt their day to seek shelter during a Red Alert.

Limor Eilat, the Resources Development Coordinator for the Eshkol Region's municipality, hopes the new facility will bring a sense of security to the 2,500 children who will be attending the new campus this fall.

"For the first time, when a Red Alert blares, the children won't have to drop everything and run to a bomb shelter," said Eilat. "For an entire generation of children, that was their 'normal.' So we're very hopeful that this new facility will educate children in a safer, more secure environment. This is a basic right that all children are entitled to."

That said, despite the ongoing security threats, the children seem happy where they are.

"People from the center of the country always ask us why we don't leave," said Or, another of the sixth-grade girls. "We don't want to move. Our friends are here. Our life is here. We just want to be safe."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The group, named "Our Heritage," posted details of its activity on social media, saying "We teach the children in our Jerusalem … [that] they are the legal owners of this country."

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As part of the Turkish-funded summer camp activities, children were taken on a hike to the Sataf nature reserve to the west of Jerusalem.

Our Heritage operates in east Jerusalem as an arm of the Turkish government. Its goals are to promote the Turkish agenda among the population of east Jerusalem and deepen the historical and cultural legacy of the Ottoman Empire in Jerusalem, which they call "preserving Ottoman history in Jerusalem for future generations."

Maor Tzemach, chairman of the Lach, Yerushalayim ["For You, Jerusalem"] group, discussed the latest Turkish activity with Israel Hayom, saying that the Our Heritage organization was "showing off in the Arab sector in Jerusalem with the goal of causing them to adopt the positions of Turkey."

"This subversive organization is operating free summer camps for east Jerusalem children. Israel must put a stop to the Turkish organization's activities immediately. The Turkish 'Our Heritage' has crossed a red line of what is acceptable [conduct] between countries.

"Its subversive activity, which attacks Israeli sovereignty in the capital city of Jerusalem, must stop today. We cannot be repeatedly made aware of activity that attacks Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem with no deterrent political response," Tzemach said.

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Weinstein is among the generations of North American Jewish teens who have forged lifelong attachments to the Jewish state in the intimate overnight Jewish camp environment, where friendships, values and Jewish peoplehood are born and raised.

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Strengthening Weinstein's attachment further were the six weeks last summer when she absorbed the sights, sounds, and atmosphere of the Jewish state as part of Ramah's Israel Seminar. So this summer, when the 18-year-old heads back to her old camp, it will be as a counselor who has much to impart on youth. "Being in Israel, connecting to Israelis, I was inspired in ways I can now share with my campers," she said.

This inspiration and connection come at a crucial time in American and Jewish history, as the college campuses these youngsters will soon venture onto become increasingly hostile to Israel, and sometimes, even to Jews.

More student governments – joined by some unions and faculty groups – are voting for their schools to stop buying Israeli products or cooperate with Israeli academics and scientists. And roughly half of these 66 campuses have passed resolutions regarding the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, according to AMCHA Initiative, a watchdog group that monitors anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activities on North American campuses.

These votes are not isolated incidents. Many schools are seeing an increasing number of professors preaching anti-Israel doctrine – from those whose salaries are paid by deep-pocket funders, including wealthy Arabs, and by others who, as AMCHA's Tammi Rossman-Benjamin puts it, "Use 'academic freedom as an excuse to push their leftist politics down students' throats."

In addition, many schools have chapters of such anti-Israel groups as Students for Justice in Palestine, as well as Jewish ones like the Jewish Voice for Peace, J Street U, and IfNotNow.

And at nearly 50 campuses, these groups hold an annual Israeli Apartheid Week (also known as Palestine Awareness or Anti-Zionism Week), exposing thousands of students to a litany of Israel's "crimes."

Not content to influence the next generation of leaders on campus, last spring the group IfNotNow, which describes itself as "a movement led by young American Jews to end our community's support for the Israeli occupation," held training for incoming counselors at Jewish summer camps to 'enlighten' their young campers about the "occupation."

This strikes many observers as particularly destructive due to the intimate nature of the summer camp experience.

"Summer camp, for many American Jews, is an immersive experience – the only time that they can 'do Jewish' with other Jews their own age, 24 hours a day, seven days a week," says Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and author of award-winning books such as "American Judaism: A History." "To turn an immersive experience into a divisive one would be a tragedy. Far better for camps to do what they have always done best: offering Jewish youngsters a taste of Utopia."

CAMERA director Andrea Levin shares Sarna's concern about the challenges today's campers are likely to face tomorrow. Her media watchdog has fellows on 40 campuses in North America and the United Kingdom to keep an eye on campus media (including social media) and reach out to Jewish students who say they "increasingly feel marginalized."

"They need to feel a deep love for Israel, certainly," she says. "But at the end of the day, it's only by having strong knowledge about Israel and its history that these kids will be able to defend [the Jewish state] – and themselves – when they get to campus," says Levin. "Without that, they are sure to be browbeaten in any 'open discussions' when critics assert 'facts' the Jewish students don't know enough to refute. Knowledge is their best armor, and camps are important players when it comes to this."

'An investment in time and money'

Are camp organizers aware of the environment they're sending their campers into? "It would be impossible not to think about it," says Bil Zarch, who runs Camp Yavneh in New Hampshire. From a letter he sent out to parents and supporters last year: "The right of the Jewish people to a homeland in Israel is a core belief at Camp Yavneh … understanding that there is a difference between Jews living in the relative safety of the U.S. and Canada and Jews living in Israel."

In a similar move, this spring Rabbi Mitchell Cohen, director of the National Ramah Commission of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, sent out a strong message on behalf of the Conservative movement's Ramah camps. "We, the leadership of Ramah, are proud that Zionism is a central part of our core mission, as we nurture within our campers and staff members a deep and enduring love for the State of Israel. At Camp Ramah, campers and staff develop a positive, personal and meaningful connection to Israel."

Cohen is proud that Ramah flies in some 300 young Israelis to work as counselors and teacher specialists at Ramah's 10 overnight camps. "It's an investment in time and money," he says. "But the return is significant. Our campers and counselors gain Israeli friends from whom they learn so much. The bridges they build are important, especially with attacks from BDS."

So when three of the IfNotNow trainees landed as counselors last year at Ramah camps, open discussions ensued, and the counselors were informed that no anti-Israel propaganda would be tolerated. "They're wonderful, passionate young adults, but we needed them to know that this kind of thing is outside the scope of Ramah," says Cohen. "They weren't necessarily happy with the decision, but they were respectful."

It was a learning opportunity for the camps as well, he adds: "Our directors and division heads have to have their antennae up."

'The kitchen table for discussing everything that matters'

At the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ), Rabbi Reuven Greenvald, who as director of Israel engagement works with the 18 URJ camps and their 10,000 campers, also met last year with counselors trained by IfNotNow. "As far as we know, no troubles arose, but we let them know that if they want to work in one of our camps, they have to work within our framework." Also on site is a cadre of young Israeli "shluchim" – staff who "make organic connections with both our campers and college-age counselors," said the rabbi.

Unlike URJ and Ramah camps, the 25 Jewish Community Center camps (the largest such network in the US) operate independently. But they do share many basic values, says David Ackerman, senior vice-president of the JCC Association of North America. Among them: "We believe that a strong connection with Israel is one of the big ideas in Jewish life that connects us to our past and to Jews around the world today," he says. "And the more knowledgeable about Israel they are, the more enduring their connection to strengthen them for what they'll encounter, whether it's in the media or their college cafeteria."

And though he says he hasn't heard any anti-Israel rumblings from the camps, "we do know that camps are the kitchen table for openly discussing everything that matters. That's the magic – and the opportunity."

At TheZone, a "keruv" (outreach) camp in the Catskills that attracts youngsters from across the Jewish spectrum, "the goal is to foster a strong Jewish identity and community and Israel is a big part of that," says Meira Zisowitz, director of the girls' camp that hosts 500 each summer. TheZone boys camp has about an equal number of campers) and where one-quarter of the counselors are Israeli. "We create excitement about Israel, about going there someday," she adds. "And many of them do. You never know the effect you have on kids until much later."

An attachment to Israel is such a foundational part of Bnei Akiva camps that "even before they walk in they know we're religious Zionists, so there will be a strong Israel focus. That's one reason families send their children to us."

So says Rabbi Shaul Feldman, executive director for Bnei Avika's five North American overnight (and two-day) camps and a former Israel Defense Forces paratrooper. "They leave not only more knowledgeable but also connected," he adds. "I say, 'Good luck to anyone who tries to tell them Israel has no right to exist.' "

'One unwavering voice for Israel'

Former camper Marissa Sandler, whose love of Israel was first ignited 15 years ago at Camp Young Judaea in Texas, reports that "I actually attribute a lot of my adult life to that camp."

Not only did she meet her future husband, Yosi, there when they both served as counselors, she says "that's also where I fell in love with Israel."

It proved a love so powerful that in 2010, she made aliyah and is now the mother of two young Israelis.

"We create a space where it feels good to be Jewish and love Israel," says Young Judea Texas director Frank Silberlicht. "There's a reason singing 'Hatikvah' is the last thing we do each night."

The folks at the umbrella organization Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) are also keeping their eye on Israel's role in summer camps. It's a topic that comes up often during Cornerstone Fellowship, a leadership-training program for senior counselors. "Israel education, as part of the overall mission, is central to the work of Jewish camps," says CEO Jeremy Fingerman. "We encourage camps to provide developmentally appropriate, relevant and engaging material to our campers, staff, and families."

That issue of Israel programming that's developmentally appropriate resonates with Josh Bar-on (Brown), a longtime camper and counselor at Yavneh who has since led teen groups around Israel. "You can't give a so-called 'balanced view of the conflict' to young kids; they're not ready for complex political explanations," says Bar-on, who now lives with his family in Efrat. "All they really need is to bond with the Jewish homeland. There's plenty of time for politics when they're older and already have that connection."

Bar-on says he's "thankful that what I heard at camp was one unwavering voice for Israel – that being Jewish meant being strong, having a history and a state. For that alone, I owe Camp Yavneh an enormous debt."

One particular memory: The night in 2001 when the Second Intifada was just beginning and parents were balking at sending their teens on Yavneh's summer Israel trip. "I'll never forget the director, Debbie Sussman, telling the parents that this is exactly the time we need to show our support of Israel. In the end, nearly all of us went."

Ramah's Rabbi Cohen put it this way. "If they know why Israel is so important to our people, when they're old enough to understand things within the context of Israel's role in Jewish history and destiny, then they'll engage in dialogue about the complexities facing Israel today."

He offers this advice to parents: "Tell your kids to befriend the Israelis at camp and hear their stories, how they defended our people in the army. The more personal their connection to Israel, the greater sense that Israel belongs to them, too."

This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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