Other items in this column include:
*Jewish community coronavirus news
*Political bytes
*Recommended reading
*In memoriam
SAN DIEGO — Celebrating its 75th year of service to the community, Camp Jaycee opened last Monday, June 22, at the Lawrence Family JCC and at Congregation Beth Am in Carmel Valley, the first of several locations where satellite camps will be conducted in the county.
Fran Forman, the Lawrence Family JCC’s senior director of early childhood education and programs, said unlike previous years when busing brought campers from all over the county to the JCC, this year it was thought best to hold the camps close to where children live and also not to expose them to small spaces, such as buses, in which the coronavirus might be transmitted from one stranger to another.
So, under the new regulations, parents will bring their children to camp, and when they arrive, the children will be given a temperature check by masked staff members. Parents are requested to also wear masks, while children are encouraged, but not required, to wear them. If the child’s temperature exceeds 100.4, he or she will be sent home with parents, and “we’ll follow up to make sure how everyone is feeling,” Forman said. She noted during an interview Thursday afternoon, that so far no one has had to be sent home.
At the JCC in La Jolla, there are a great variety of camping opportunities, for which registration still is open, commented Camp Jaycee Director Sandy Siperstein Rafner. There is a separate camp for preschoolers, with small group activities for children 18 months, 2 years, years, 4 years, and 5 years. At the camp for older chldren at the JCC complex, there are grade level groups offering a variety of emphases including sports camp, theatre camp, and teen camp. All together, she said, there are about 20 groups currently in progress. The Lawrence Family JCC has been a pioneer in “inclusion” for children with disabilities, and this program, in many cases featuring 1:1 aides, is continuing. There also is “virtual camp,” involving online offerings to campers who can’t physically attend but would like to engage with counselors in such activities as cartooning, cooking and puppetry.
The current population of Camp Jaycee at the Jewish Community Center is approximately 300 campers, according to Forman. The start-up satellite camp at Congregation Beth Am, 5050 Del Mar Heights Road, as of this writing was 12. Both will continue their first four-week sessions through July 17. There also are options for two week sessions.
Forman noted that the camps have Judaic programming, celebrate Shabbat, and “use a Jewish lens to our approach, but we are multicultura in terms of the children that come and the staff that work here.”
Forman and Siperstein Rafner were asked to describe what programming will be like at Beth Am or at other satellite camps planned at Temple Emanu-El near San Diego State University; Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and Temple Adat Shalom in Poway. They answered that each week will have a theme for the campers. For example, one week may emphasize water play — water balloons, running through sprinklers, relay races — and also include arts and crafts, luncheon, story telling, and theatre activities. “Their days are action packed,” Siperstein Rafner said.
Basic cost for a four-week camp session for JCC members is $1,585, with non-members paying a little more. At the satellite campuses, members of the host congregations will pay less than non-members.
Dates and addresses for the various camps are as follows:
Camp Jaycee- LFJCC, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla. Start date- June 22-July 17. 2nd session-July 20-August 14
Congregation Beth Am, 5050 Black Mountain Road, San Diego. Start date- June 22-July 17 2nd session-July 20-August 14 ages
Temple Adat Shalom, 15905 Pomerado Road, Poway. Start date- July 20-August 14
Congregation Beth El , 8660 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Start date- July 20-August 14
Temple Emanu-El, 6299 Capri Drive, San Diego. Start date- July 20-August 14
Further information about the camp or to make arrangements to enroll may be accessed via this website.
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Jewish community coronavirus news
*In response to anti-Semites on the Internet and elsewhere who brazenly and falsely blame the Jewish people for the spread of the coronavirus, The Combat Anti-Semitism Movement has released a short video (shown above) detailing some of Israel’s efforts to fight the virus and other humanitarian efforts throughout the world. An accompanying website providing more details may be viewed by clicking here.
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Political bytes
*Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) is a co-author with members of the Congressional Black Caucus of the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,” which was approved on Thursday by the House of Representatives and sent to the Senate, where its fate is likely to be negotiated. “This moment begs us to act – to be bold – to capture opportunity for change,” said Davis. “Year after year we see unnecessary deaths at the hands of those who are sworn to protect. This bill will make transformative changes to policing, restore faith in the system, and help communities feel safe.” Some of the bill’s major provisions:
- Prohibit federal, state, and local law enforcement from racial, religious and discriminatory profiling. Requires training on racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling for all law enforcement.
- Ban chokeholds, carotid holds, and no-knock warrants in drug cases at the federal level and incentivizes state and local governments to do the same.
- De-militarize the police by limiting the transfer of military weaponry to state and local police.
- Remove barriers to prosecuting police misconduct and recovering damages. Reforms qualified immunity to hold officers accountable who violate a person’s civil rights.
- Increase transparency by requiring dashboard and body cameras.
- Make lynching a federal hate crime, which the House passed in H.R. 35.
- Create a National Police Misconduct Registry to prevent problematic officers who are fired or leave an agency from moving to another jurisdiction without accountability.”
*Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, issued a statement following New York’s Democratic primary elections stating: “We would like to especially congratulate Jamaal Bowman, Ritchie Torres, and Mondaire Jones, who ran impressive campaigns in their bids to represent New York’s 15th, 16th, and 17th congressional districts, respectively. While their races have still not been officially called pending the counting of mail-in ballots, they look poised to replace veteran incumbents in Congress who have long been staunch friends of Israel. New York’s congressional delegation has always been overwhelmingly supportive of Israel. We welcome the recent statements of Mr. Bowman, Mr. Torres, and Mr. Jones who have all declared their support for Israel’s security and continued U.S. aid to Israel, as well as their opposition to the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. As a new generation of lawmakers enters Congress, we are encouraged by their commitment to maintaining steadfast bipartisan support for Israel.” Bowman ran against Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Torres and Jones sought respectively to succeed retiring Congressmembers Jose Serrano and Nita Lowey.
*San Diego City Council President Georgette Gomez, who faces Sara Jacobs, in a November runoff election to replace the retiring Congresswoman Susan Davis, has declared that she will not accept any contributions for corporate political action committees. “Public service was never about politics or just winning a congressional race. This is about truly addressing the issues we face — whether we’re talking about expanding affordable housing, ending poverty, achieving environmental justice, or fighting for universal health care for all,” she said.
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Recommended reading
*The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) has issued a paper endorsing Israel’s bid for sovereignty in the Jordan Valley, a strip of land bordering the nation of Jordan.
*Moshe Phillips of the Herut party writes in Israel Hayom that Zionists should celebrate Yom Tel Chai every 11th of Adar.
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In memoriam
Cheryl Lynn (Shapiro) Tessler, 71 died Tuesday, June 23. Funeral services were conducted by Rabbi Dennis Linson of Temple Judea of Laguna Woods on Friday, June 26, at El Camino Memorial Park, 5600 Carroll Canyon Road, San Diego.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com Free obituaries in memory of members of the San Diego County Jewish community are sponsored on San Diego Jewish World by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg.
Thank you so much for the wonderful article! We hope families register their children for a special experience this unforgettable time in all of our lives.