WANTED TO BUY
O pinion
Rigler Continued from Page 12
SENIORS TO SENIORS
SENIORS TO SENIORS
BOX REPLIES
will be forwarded once a week on Friday.

To answer a Senior to Senior ad,
address your reply to:
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2100 Arch Street 4th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
interest in our Yashar Initiative and
counselor internship to support campers
with disabilities, recruitment efforts around
our Russian-speaking Jewish community
and recently a partnership with Keshet
to help camps create LGBTQ+ affirming
spaces. In the past year camping movements
— like URJ, Ramah and the Association
of Independent Jewish Camps — have all
provided racial equity trainings for their
camp leadership teams, and FJC has
funded two camp innovation projects on
racial equity, expanded the New York-area
DEI Coaching Project for Day Camps and
committed to more research about the
experience of Jews of color in our field.

Amid the COVID-19 protocols, the arrival
procedures and the cleaning supplies, camp
leadership has continued to prioritize the
people that we serve first, treating their
physical and emotional safety with equal
importance and listening more to the inter-
sectionality in our community.

As camps open, there is much to celebrate
— both as a broader Jewish community and
with the unique identities that our campers
bring. We are not only celebrating campers
arriving at camp, we are celebrating who
they are and how they are showing up. This
month, as camps open their gates, some may
feature Pride celebrations. Raising the Pride
flag is now a ritualized part of opening camp
in June. Our camps are amplifying LGBTQ+
voices and sharing in Pride Shabbat. Pride
month reminds us that being allies and
leaders means more than community educa-
tion and policy change; it means standing
together in celebration. As Noam wrote in
his song, “Ain’t no one like you or me, but for
us the world was created and we, we belong.”
The past 18 months also gave us time to
reflect on who our communities are, and to
recreate rituals, to ensure our camp commu-
nity celebrations are inclusive of multiple
ethnic and cultural identities. The oppor-
tunity to celebrate the fact that our Jewish
community is not a monolith, to see and
honor our diversity and resilience, to share
TO PLACE YOUR SENIOR TO SENIOR AD
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Email your letters to the editor.

Call 215-832-0749
JULY 1, 2021
Rabbi Stacy Rigler is the senior program
manager of Jewish Education at Foundation
for Jewish Camp and Jewish life adviser and
camp council member of URJ Camp Harlam. She
previously served as a rabbi educator at Reform
Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park.

Be heard.

DEADLINE -
22 stories and build relationships was a focus
of planning for summer 2021. As Juneteenth
was declared a national holiday, we heard
stories of Juneteenth Shabbat, personal
stories shared in camp communities and
new traditions formed. We honor those
individuals who are creating culture change.

Last year at this time, we lifted up the
heroes of Jewish day camps that opened and
kept the heartbeat of our Jewish commu-
nity flowing. We mourned the inability to
gather and create community in the ways
we had known for summers before. Though
we were not together, our Cornerstone song
reminded us that “near or far, camp was
the place where we all could be strong
and belong.”
Now, I write this reflection from the
grounds of URJ Camp Harlam in Kunkletown,
where hundreds of campers were welcomed
home this week. As a member of the FJC team,
I know the challenges that the larger camp
community faced this past year were immense.

I also know that despite those challenges, camp
leadership continued to be laser-focused on
the campers they served, and the staff they
employ. They asked hard questions about
how they could strive to make changes to
open their gates as wide as possible.

Looking around the chader ochel (dining
hall), it’s almost unbelievable to think about
the preparations made to ensure that every
child is celebrated for being their most
authentic and best self. These are the stories
never told, the work that makes the magic
possible. I can’t help but sing the closing
words to the Cornerstone 2021 song: “This
time, this place, hard things, we face. This
home, we’ve known, these seeds we’ve sown.

... “Mah Norah HaMakom Hazeh — How
Awesome is this place. I’ll meet you there.” l
letters@jewishexponent.com JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



C ommunity
COMMUNITYCALENDAR FRIDAY, JULY 2
Parsha for Life
Join Rabbi Alexander Coleman,
Jewish educator and psychotherapist
at the Institute for Jewish Ethics, at
9 a.m. for a weekly journey through
the Torah portion of the week with
eternal lessons on personal growth
and spirituality. Go to ijethics.org/
weekly-torah-portion.html to receive
the Zoom link and password.

SATURDAY, JULY 3
In-person Services
Congregations of Shaare Shamayim,
9768 Verree Road in Philadelphia, is
returning to its building for regular
Shabbat services beginning July 3.

Our traditional service begins at 9
a.m. and our egalitarian service starts
at 9:30 a.m. The egalitarian service
will also continue to be broadcast on
Zoom and LiveStream. Reservations
must be made in advance and masks
must be worn while in the building.

To make a reservation, or for further
information on membership or
services, call the office at
215-677-1600 MONDAY, JULY 5
Entebbe Celebration
Join Congregation Mikveh Israel,
44 N. Fourth St. in Philadelphia in
celebration of the 45th anniversary
of the Miracle at Entebbe and the
heroism of Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu.

The seminar, beginning at 11 a.m.,
will feature a video address by Yoni’s
brother, former Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu; a seminar
including Ambassador Ido Aharoni,
Consul General of Israel to the New
York Consulate; and performer
Neshama Carlebach. Outdoor ceremony
begins at 2 p.m. Call 215-922-5446 or
info@mikvehisrael.org for details.

N E W S MAKE R S
Service club Avoda awarded $100,000 in total to six Jewish high school graduating seniors from
Atlantic and Cape May counties on June 16. The club was founded in 1928 and has made contri-
butions to graduating seniors every year since except for 1943.

TUESDAY, JULY 6
Trial of Eichmann
Congregation Mikveh Israel, 44 N.

Fourth St. in Philadelphia welcomes
Lt. Col. Avner Avraham, former
Mossad agent, at 6:30 p.m. for a live
program entitled “Operation Finale:
the Capture and Trial of Eichmann.”
It will include lecture and visual
aids followed by questions from the
audience. Donation of $10 requested.

For further information or to RSVP,
call the synagogue office at 215-922-
5446 or email info@mikvehisrael.org.

THURSDAY, JULY 8
Bend the Arc
Join Bend the Arc for an evening
of focused movement-building in
South Jersey. Learn more about the
Moral Minyan, ideas for action and
start thinking about your role in the
movement. Meetings are the second
Thursday of the month at 7:30 p.m.;
register by the Tuesday before. Sign
up for email alerts at bendthearc.us/
southjersey_signup. l
From left: Eliana Dente of Linwood from Mainland Regional High School ($35,000), who will attend American
University; David Lilienfeld of Margate from Atlantic County Institute of Technology ($5,000), Cornell University;
Samuel Epstein of Northfield from Mainland Regional ($20,000), Rutgers University; Avoda President Shy
Kramer; Abigail Epstein of Northfield from Mainland Regional ($20,000), University of Florida; Rachel Lischin of
Northfield from Mainland Regional ($10,000), Lehigh University; and Madeline Kent of Linwood from Mainland
Regional ($10,000), James Madison University
Photo by Janet Kramer
Jewish Family Service of Atlantic & Cape May Counties announced that Chief Operating Officer
Richard Gitlen will reduce his work to a part-time basis and become the senior director of
administration, while Ann Thoresen will assume the COO position. She most recently served as
senior director of community support services and safety.

WHAT’S GOING ON
in Jewish Philadelphia?
Submit an event or browse our online calendar to
find out what’s happening at local synagogues,
community organizations and venues!
Submit: listings@jewishexponent.com
Online: jewishexponent.com/events/
Ann Thoreson
Richard Gitlin
Courtesy of Jewish Family Service of Atlantic & Cape May Counties
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