Golden Slipper
began searching in the Poconos for grounds to place a summer camp.

Aft er scouting 15 locations, the organization originally settled on a site in
Tobyhanna, but aft er the landowners found out about the organization lead-
ers’ Jewish identities, they backed out of the deal.

Eventually, Golden Slipper bought 600 acres of land in Bartonsville, with
camp President Morris Sobel raising the camp’s initial $200,000, establishing
the Golden Slipper Camp in 1948, and bringing 200 young campers to the site
the following year.

Providing fi nancial aid to the camper was always a priority — and a prac-
tice that persists today — with only 15% of families paying the full camp fee
of about $12,000, according to Golden Slipper Camp President and former
camper and counselor Dean Siegel. Th e Jewish Federation’s One Happy
Camper partnership helps sustain this, with campers able to receive grants
of $1,000.

“When everyone comes to camp ... and gets on the buses, all the outside
and all the home stuff is left behind,” Siegel said. “And when you get to camp,
everybody is the same.”
Rosen estimates that Golden Slipper Camp has served more than 100,000
campers over its 73 years and said it is the only remaining community camp
from its time.

Changing Tides
In the 1960s, the Golden Slipper Square Club changed its identity, choosing
to drop “Square” from its title as a result of also dropping the club’s Masonic
requirement, a decision of which Rosen was a part.

“We noticed that we weren’t getting younger members to join Golden Slipper,”
Rosen said. “At the time, there were only four of us in the club that were under 30.”
Because of the organization’s affi liation with the Masonic Order of
Pennsylvania, only men were allowed to be members of Golden Slipper Club,
another stipulation that limited membership.

“In the ’70s, the women’s movement started to take hold, and women
were achieving places in the philanthropic world on their own, not on their
Golden Slipper campers in 1953, fi ve years after the camp was established
Courtesy of Jenn Scarlata
28 MARCH 24, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
husband’s dime,” Rosen said. “It became evident: Times change, then the
organization changes.”
Golden Slipper Gems is the youngest off shoot of the organization, founded
in 1995 as the Golden Slipper Center for Seniors in Wynnefi eld Heights. Before
that location, Golden Slipper had a residential home in Northeast Philadelphia
called the Uptown Home, which Golden Slipper operated from 1985-2006.

Gems now has locations at Adath Israel on the Main Line in Merion and
Shir Ami in Newtown. In 2018, the organization rebranded, becoming
Golden Slipper Gems.

“One word that kept coming up over and over again when talking about
the staff , the people who attend, the volunteers, just everyone involved in it —
we’re all gems,” Golden Slipper Gems 2019-2021 past President Jill Caine said.

But 2018 hardly saw the last of the organization’s changes. At the onset of
the pandemic, Golden Slipper Gems and Club & Charities shift ed its opera-
tions to be entirely digital. Gems staff taught members how to use Zoom in a
matter of weeks, and online programming was able to keep attendance up to
a couple of dozen members per event.

“We do have a lot of older adults, who the virtual has been fabulous for them
because they’re sickly or not able to get to the program,” Caine said. “So it’s
opened up another way of getting our programming to them.”
During the pandemic, Gems’ goal of providing “lifelong learning” and
connection for older adults became more important to Caine.




“Th e mission became more urgent, honestly,” she said. “Because
socialization and moving away from isolation were so important
during COVID.”
The Next 100 Years
Th ough the shift to digital platforms was speedy and unexpected,
Simon can’t imagine Golden Slipper without a digital component,
hoping to continue hybrid programming as the pandemic hopefully
winds down.

With a new interim executive director in former Jewish Federation of
Greater Philadelphia Chief Operating Offi cer Steve Rosenberg, the orga-
nization is looking to continue to adapt to the changing times.

“We have not survived 100 years by having folks who just write the check,”
Simon said. “We are a hands-on, volunteer-driven organization across
the board.”
In addition to just being practical, the hybrid programming is
another way that Golden Slipper needs to adapt to the changing times,
and it provides an opportunity for the organization to attract younger
crowds, a struggle that has remained unchanged over the past several
decades, Rosen has noticed.

“Most membership organizations have suff ered,” Rosen said.

“Certainly during the last 20 years or so, people are just not joining
organizations.” Simon is not sure if, moving forward, Golden Slipper members will
even be called “members” anymore, fully expecting the landscape of
club organizations to continue to change. While he’s prepared to make
some changes, he plans to keep the core of the organization intact.

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Simon said. “What ties all
of us together is the affi nity of the good work that we do.”
For more information about the 100th-anniversary gala, visit
goldenslipperclub.org/event/gala. JE
Golden Slipper Gems members at pre-COVID programming
Courtesy of Jill Caine
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 29