SUPPORT
The Pacific Southwest Council youth staff are always available to support local youth efforts - whether through individualized consultation, organizational assistance, resource provision or anything else that may assist in making a local youth program successful.
Rachel Sisk, Regional Director of Informal Education and Youth
Phone: (818) 907-8740 x.17 or (888) 834-8242,
E-mail: Rsisk@uahc.org
Tara Siegal, Regional Advisor, NFTY Southern California
Phone: (818) 907-8740 x.27 or (888) 834-8242, Email: TSiegal@uahc.org
Lynne Butner, Regional Advisor, NFTY Southwest
Phone: (801) 599-7590, E-mail: LButner@uahc.org
REGIONAL CALENDARS
There are generally 4 - 5 NFTY regional events per year, with at least one opportunity for all regions to get together nationally. Check out the calendars for each region in the Pacific Southwest Council to see what’s coming up!
Click here for a comprehensive list of upcoming events in NFTY Southern California, NFTY Southwest, and special youth events.
CAMP
The URJ has 12 excellent Resident Camps around the country called “Institutes for Living Judaism”. The two most near to the Pacific Southwest Council are Camp Newman and Camp Swig in Northern California. Please click on their website www.campnewmanswig.org for specific information about their program, to get registration forms, to explore becoming a staff member, etc.
General information about all of the URJ camps follows:
Mission
Starting with its first regional camp in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin (1951), the Union for Reform Judaism has found that its summer camps offer their participants challenging experiences in Jewish religious living.
The URJ looks on its camps as extensions, in a unique setting,
of the Jewish home and the synagogue.
In essence, the Camps serve as model Jewish communities with a set of values determined by the URJ and implemented by the Camp personnel engaged to administer the program. In a very real sense, the Camp's tone and religious & cultural programs are made manifest by the staff.
Aims and Objectives of URJ Camps
- Provide campers and staff with rewarding, challenging and pleasant experiences in a religious environment, and aid in the development of knowledgeable, believing and practicing Reform Jews.
- Provide opportunities to study Torah at graded levels of understanding and appreciation.
- Develop through the natural setting of a URJ Camp an awareness of the presence of God in all life.
- Develop an appreciation and an understanding of the sacred relationships between humanity and God and between the peoples of the world.
- Develop an understanding that life is filled with purpose and good beyond its material manifestations.
- Provide youth and adults with opportunities to experience the fullness of Jewish life through prayer and other meaningful religious experiences.
- Provide youth and adults with intensive training for roles in lay and professional leadership within the Reform Jewish community specifically, as well as the Jewish community at large.
- Translate religious concepts into real experiences, developing or modifying personal character and group behavior in consonance with the ideals of Judaism.
- Provide a creative setting for Jewish learning and living, through integrated religious camp programming, at each URJ Camp.
- Implementthe awareness of K'lal Yisrael (the People of Israel) in general and the State of Israel in particular, and to offer campers the opportunity of finding their own creative and active roles in this process.
ISRAEL AND TRAVEL PROGRAMS
NFTY offers several Israel and Travel Programs for teenagers. For more specific information, please go to http://www.nfty.org/summer/
SCHOLARSHIP
