good morning, and welcome to mosaic. i'm honored to be your host this morning. this morning, we're about to start a wonderful conversation about jewish summer camps. welcome, ken and jamie. >> thanks for having us. >> so let's jump in and say what is camp towonga. >> great question. >> well, let's start with the place. it's a former native village right neshgs next to yosemite national park. today it's a place where the jewish community gathers about 1200 children over summer so i

would say life transforming experience. >> we were founded in 1925, and weave thad same mission ever since. the mission really guides everything we do. there's kind of four parts. the first part being we want to raise children to have positive self-image and self-esteem. we train counselors to bring out the best in each kid and hopefully kids leave feeling better about who they are than when they got there. it starts with a bunk, 12 kids in a cabin. they have to learn how to compromise, live together, work together, and each kid feels valid. there's a unit community and a whole camp community. the goal is that kisd leave feeling inspierd by community and want to create communities like the one they have at toonga. >> so here we are in mid 2013, and camp towonga was founded in 1925, and the mission has not

changed. so i -- i'm wondering what was going on, you think, in the founder's mind that they had this philosophy around jiesh summer camps in which self-esteem was to be enriched along with other thicks about what it means tosh to be a person in the world? >> good question. >> i think they were great people obviously. i think what it tells you is that the philosophy that jamie is articulating is today we would say it's scientifically sound. there's been enough research. we know that this kind of process works to raise uphill thi, happy children. they had great intuition back then. they just kind of got it, got the same scientific basis intuitively. >> it's fascinating because we live in a part of the country where weir constantly look for what's new on the edge of something, whether it's

technology or business or social services or spirituality. here it is that the freshness of that vision from 1925 is as fresh now in the 2013 with no change in the mission. >> well, i think that, you know, the mission is four parts, self-esteem, community, nature and spirituality, and i think that those four parts can be very basic or very intricate depending on how you're interpreting it. every time we create a new program, we think of the mission and think about how will this build community? how will this allow kids to connect to nature? how will they have a spiritual experience? so while the mission stays the sarjs the programs continue to be innovative and creative and add on and enhance kind of the original thought of the founders. >> so what are some of the examples of the programs? what does a kid do? >> so much.

one of the things, they're san franciscoans. this is a place that breeds communication. when they're paired with their cleegs, they had a different take on it here the early days of san francisco, still do today with respect to what the kids do. >> well, backpacking is the central motif of camp towonga. the biggest user os back country. when i say the metaphor, i mean kids learn how to be strong, independent, emotional level like jamie was talking about, but then they take it on a physical level. they take this group adventure in nature with the peers they live the with the wilderness first responder. >> the age range is what? >> 7 to 17. >> so at 17, that's a

backpacking experience essentially? >> every year they go pack pack, it's just it increases in maybe difficulty or the number of nights they go with age. the youngest kids do a day trip, the 7 and 8-year-olds, then the younger kid wills go on a one-night trip where the older kids may go on a two-night trip or do one of our quest programs which could be a two or three-week trip on the road backpacking, ka nug, rock climbing, kind of more adventure. >> fantastic. come back in just a moment as we return to mosaic and our continuing conversation. we'll see you in just a moment. trz frz

welcome back to mosaec. weir in the middle of a wonderful robust conversation about jewish summer camps. we're with ken and jamie, the camp director. jfshgsamie, before the break, we were talking about what does a kid do at camp tawonga? >> the kids wake up together at the cabin and sfend day together at the cabin. so they'll go in the morning to a sports activity, volleyball, archery, basketball followed by an art activity, could be tie dye, drama. the kids have to agree to their schedule. they feel excited because they're like oh, tie dye, i chose that, we picksed that as group. we have lunch, it's a group meal. they eat family style. then we have rest hour followed by free swim, which is everybody goes to our olympic-sized pool

and enjoys swimming. if they don't like swinling, they can lay out, talk to their friends. at night, we often have unit programming. they'll do things like story telling and smors, go on a night hike, star gaze. they close the day together at the cabin. >> you know, one of the things that i think most people associate with a camp other than the things you talked about in a very natural way is singing. i think that so many people may look back on their camp experience, they might have a scent experience like the smell, the sieshths but so many people in their mind attach a song they learn or even a kind of language muse ek works within the context of a social interaction in the dining hal after dinner. i'm just wondering how does singing music function at tawonga, at camp tawonga? >> well, music is a huge part of camp. we have a song session after breakfast and after dinner, and it is a great way to build community, spirit amongst the campers. so we'll start at the beginning

of a session really with the song books on the table. we have a camp tawonga songbook, and they'll kind of learn the song. so as the session goes on, they'll know the songs and be up dancing and singing as a cabin. it's a relly spirited beautiful thing. on friday night after dinner we have a long talk session, and you'll find kids for 45 minutes completely engaged, dancing, singing, all around the dining hal. we move all the tables, and it's just a really beautiful spirit, and it really builds a beautiful community. >> what are the population that you serve, ken? >> we primarily serve kids age 7 to 17 in the san francisco bay area. increasing numbers come in from other major metropolitan areas. we're not seeking them out. i think they're finding us, particularly unique blend of experiences kids get with us. people are coming from farther distances. we have a complete range in terms of economic diversity. really important to us saz as a nonprofit that every child has

the opportunity to come to camp tawonga. so we just got finished allocating about half a million dollars in camperships. >> and what are the source of your campership dollars? >> we do oo lot of our own fund raising and, of course, some of the major jewish community federation, very generously to our campership fund. >> i think what people often -- it's important for people to understand is that by and large there's a fee per child literally cover every cost for that particular session? are you able to do that? >> yes. well, we've been at this since 1925, and we're sdsh you know, we don't have any debt. we own our own land so we don't have that kind of economic challenge, and weir able to create a fee structure where each parent is paying for their child's experiences, and then in addition to that, we raise money for innovation, capital projects and camperships. >> so how do you understand through the whole of all of this as impacting on what you might generally think of as jewish

identity or jewish identity development? >> yeah. well, camp has a really big impact on jewish identity so people have said that actually jewish summer camp is one of the biggest reasons people then lead jewish lives. we have just to give you a little anecdotal research seen that when campers come to camp and apply to be on staff years later, they attribute their experience in their lives currently to their experience as kids. so if they -- it's often because they got excited about being jewish at camp. we serve a very diverse jewish community from nonjews, interfaith to religious so there is a kind of nice diversity. we try to meet everyone where they're at and give something for everyone in term of their spiritual experience. >> would you say that you serve the entire diversity of what the bay area might call a family or gender identity? >> definitely. we have many lgbt juice, queer

juice, interfaith. one parent families, grandparent families. we have a really diverse community both economically and in the family makeup. the way we teach is to try to meet everyone where they're at. so whether you meditate to be spiritual or you pray or you sing or you have a conversation, there's something for everyone so kids can go home kneeling like i found something for me, and that makes me feel empowered to be sdwriesh how i want and how i feel connected. >> so wonderful. believe it or not, we've come to the end of another segment, and we're going to say good-bye. when we come back from this break, we're going to welcome two more folks from another jewish camp in the bay area. please join us in just a moment here on mosaic. trz frz

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welcome back to mosia c. i'm honored to be your host. we're in the middle of a wonderful conversation about jew herb summer camp ts. with us now, who's the exec tef director of camp new maun in santa rosa, and rabbi aaron mason, associate director. welcome. >> thank you for having us. >> so what is camp newman? >> camp newman is a place where children and young adults and even older adults have their lives transformed, and that's done by faulg in lo with judaism, with discovering and celebrating the best sefls, bilgd community and acquiring lifelong skills amongst many other things >> and camp newman is -- some people don't know that some jewish sunler camps have what we call an affiliation with a movement in judaism so camp newman is affiliated with what snovment >> part of the reporm form.

we're one of 14 camps throughout north america, and we really have this larger community so everything we do hopefully is to build the community not only at camp but also when they go home to their home communities, they feel that sense of belonging and that sense of pride. >> so it's an interlocking experience from -- from their experience to other things they might do in the community during the year? >> that's the goal. yes. >> so what is your -- what is your age group? what's your program look like? what do kids do at -- for a day at camp newman? >> so our youngest kids are entering third grade. old ets are intg seniors in high school. our youngest kid can come from 10 days or 13 days to 15 days. by the time they get entering 11th and 12th grade in high school they're coming for a full eight weeks. it starts when they're younger with doing a lot of things associated with their bunk, rotating activities, arts,

music, dance, frisbee, hike, learning about sustainable agriculture and then the older they get, the more choice they have and the more specialized their program gets. >> when you say they hike out, what does that mean? >> it's operation is a sustainable group community, a communal experience. it means green so weir making -- our goal is to -- it's only about five years old, and our goal is to really make it a self-sustaining community. so we have gardens out there. we have goats and chickens. the eggs that the chickens lay are eaten every day. our 11th graders go spend one week at a time out there. they live in tepees with no electricity and really live on the land and learn how to work the land and the importance of connecting with nature in that way. our younger kids go and take time out their day trips, spend a couple hours every time learning about what that means. >> when we talk about the importance of kids at summer camp lieshg camp newman and have

something as specific as kind of a communal living sustain blt experience, what do you see in this world that promotes so much about individualism and awe ton my that's a good thing but also what becomes so attractive in a camp experience about the communal aspect of the exsneerns >> well, you know, in some ways, i look at it as a symbol of the camp. in many ways, jewish camping and camp newman is an anecdote to much of the rest of society so you had mentioned striving towards being an individual and -- and all thoedz benefits. camp is very much about shareing and communal and what goes on in the cabins and what goes on at camp is very much about celebrating that energy and that -- that spirit. very much what camp is also about is -- is unplugging. so when we talk about it, we

talk about unplugging from a world that is minute by minute, day by day kids and adults types of technology 24/7, and not only unplugging from that but actually plugging into human -- deepest human interaction that we can really have. one of the most poig nant moments of camp for me every year is i -- i look around at the end of an shabbat experience, an shabbat service, and i look at maybe the thousand faces that are looking around at each other, and i ask everybody to pause and take a moment and look at each other's faces and realize that the gathering here that this family, these friends that you formed by living together in an immersive jewish communal space 24/7 for weeks or months, these people are going to be part of your -- your journey, your lifelong journey for the sweet blessed happy moments in your life as well as

for the tragic moments in your life, and that -- that is very much what camp is all about. >> erin and ruben, thank you so much for being with us. we're going to take a quick break and return to conversation with both in just a moment here on mosaic. ,,

where he will come back. i'm rabbi eric. we're in the middle of a wonderful conversation about jiesh summer camps. we're joined by ruben and executive direct -- director and associate directive respectively. we were talking about before at

what one does at camp newman and the effects that you see in the kids. i'm wondering how you think about jiesh identity formation in the context of this communal experience? >> so we have kids who come from not just reform backgrounds but all different kinds. one of the biggest questions i get is my kids, you know, we don't go to services. we don't know he brew. we don't know songs. is my kid going to fit in. our overwhelming response is yes. we start with a base plan, and we have -- what's striking to me when i started work at camp new maun is an incredibly welcoming community that really does accept kids from all backgrounds, all nationalities into our community. what we've seen in jewish identity formation is really an amazing transformation of people who find themselves at camp and become their best selves at camp. each friday tight we do a blessing over our campers. in jewish homes across the world on friday night, parents bless their children. we adapt that, and our

counselors bless our children. they hold over the children so you look out over the congregation. you see this sea over the kids, and the counselors bless their children. after one of these -- the first one of a summer when summer -- a counselor came up to us and said how powerful that moment was for him, that his entire life as camper, he experienced it from the other end but for him to stand up and bless his own campers was an amazing experience for him. >> we usually think of camp as campers, but railly -- really part of your example shows the impact it has on staff in their continued adult lives. >> absolutely. what we see from a lot of our staff, they're not coming because we pay a lot of money for them to be at camp in the summer. many of them actually turn down internships that would pay them more, but they come back because they find themselves at camp and become a truer part of themselves and they want to carry that with them. and by coming back to camp, they find that, and it rejuvenates

them for the rest of the year. it really impacts not only who they are as college kids but then throughout their lives, the decisions that they make and what they decide to do and who they become. >> what is -- what is the future for camp new -- newman. >> it's a bright future. i wanted to echo a sentiment and add one point to the staffing piece at camp. one of the benefits and outcomes of all this is we're helping to raise the next generation of jewish parents. i'm very moved every year when i hear stories from campers and staff and young rabbis and educators who grew up at camp as children coming back 10, 15, 20 years later with their own children and sharing with me that many of the values and many of the philosophies that they created as parents were learned at camp and were modelled at camp and for many of these parents to be able to bless their children and know that blessing and be able to feel it viscerally comes from the camp experience. >> what an extraordinary legacy

for actually building the resilience of the jewish community at large. >> absolutely. one thing we find with that is that camp is not only for the children. it's very much for the staff. it's also for the adults, even us. and one thing i hear year after year from parents and grandparents is when can i go to camp? how can i have this experience? so part of our vision for the future is to create all these outcomes and all this vision year round. so we're in the middle of an effort now to renovate and remodel and envision camp new maun as a place 365 days a year where this jewish living and learning and friendship, building a jewish family comes to life, and i am just every year, every summer whether it's an shabbat or weekend or such when campers and staff community

walk through our gates. i can see the weight of the world on their shoulders, and the pressures of life, which i think are growing year by year. i watch that weight just evaporate from their shoulders mostly because of the environment that we create. there are very few places in the world other than jewish camping where we can really treat people as -- as divine individuals, and we live and breathe that. we see that all the time, and every night, we close as -- we close in cabin groups in small circles. a group of campers, 10, 15, 20 will be swaying arm and arm around each other singing a blessing thanking god for giving us shelter, thanking this family, this camp family for supporting them, and keep thinking -- i go back to this concept of the wizard of oz when dorothy would always say there's

no place like home, there's no place like home. what i hear from campers over many generations is there's just no place like camp. >> thank you so much, ruben and erin, and thank you for joining us here. have a wonderful day. ,,,, [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. [ female announcer ] at 100 calories,

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welcome to bay sunday. i am your host michelle griego. we begin with our pitch. if you have a show idea we had love to hear from you. go to kpix.com and scroll down to bay sunday. today's show brings us a non-profit in organization in oakland. helping boys become men and three book authors. up first a first-time novelist on the "new york times" best-seller list. thanks for joining us today. >> thank you for having me. >> tell us about this wonderful new book of yours. >> the book is called the return. it's centered around a global event in which people's whose loved ones passed away begin returning. it follows a couple who are in