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www.GoldsteinsFuneral.com 28
JUNE 16, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



feature story
Jewish Camps
Excited to Return to Normal
Masks were still abundant at camps last summer, including during this activity at Pinemere Camp.

Background: Anastasia Shemetova /iStock / Getty Images Plus
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
I n the next couple of weeks, Jewish camps will
open around the region and, upon arrival, camp-
ers will take COVID tests to make sure they’re
healthy enough to walk to their cabins.

If they pass, they may not have to worry about the
virus again for the rest of the summer.

Unlike in 2021, when restrictions abounded due
to the ongoing pandemic, local camp directors are
allowing kids and counselors to relax a little this year.

Gone are the bubble approaches that required every-
one to stay on the grounds, the masks that prevented
people from smiling at each other and the cohorts
that restricted interaction between bunks.

None of this is to say that both overnight and day
camp operations are ignoring the threat. If a camper
gets COVID, he or she will have to quarantine for fi ve
days. Some camps still require vaccinations.

But no longer is the pesky virus going to defi ne the
summer, as it did when it canceled the 2020 season at
many camps and restricted the 2021 season.

“We’re on our way to normalcy — or as much as
normal might be these days,” said David Weiss, the
executive director of Camp Galil in Ottsville. “We’re
really looking forward to a very exciting summer,
campers and staff coming together again.”
Last summer, Galil, an overnight operation with
just under 150 campers, canceled out-of-camp trips
and required kids to wear masks when they were with
other bunks and/or indoors. Th is year, though, the
trips are back, and the masks are gone.

Weiss feels confi dent because, unlike in 2021, kids
under 12 can receive the COVID vaccine. Galil is
mandating inoculation shots for campers and staff
members in 2022. Weiss, who took over as director
in 2014, compared COVID vaccines to other, more
Courtesy of Pinemere Camp
normal vaccines, which he said the camp always
required. “Camps are no strangers to being strong stewards
of public health,” he said. “It’s how we weathered
Swine Flu (in 2009 and ’10), made the hard decisions
in 2020 and came back strong in 2021.”
Justin Guida, the director of the Golden Slipper
Camp in Stroudsburg, is using rapid testing as his
primary mitigation tool. Th e overnight camp will
stagger arrivals on the fi rst day to make sure that
every camper completes a test and gets a result. If the
results are clean, campers can keep walking in.

Th at’s enough for Guida and his team.

“We think the testing is a great mitigation tool,”
he said.

Th at approach is diff erent from the one Golden
Slipper implemented in 2021. A year ago, the over-
night camp tested kids again on the fi ft h day and
required masks for out-of-cohort activities.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 29