“We’ll Turn this Camp Right Upside Down”: Generational Tension, Politics, and Youth Power in Postwar Jewish Summer Camps

• In Event: Jews and American Politics

Abstract

In the postwar period, American Jewish leaders anxiously debated how to preserve and reproduce what they considered to be “authentic” Jewish culture, fearful that suburbanization, upward mobility, and newfound affluence threatened the viability and integrity of Jewish life in America. In search of solutions, many looked toward ideological Jewish summer camps as immersive spaces ideal for the education of American Jewish youth. Camps, particularly of the Zionist, Yiddish-centered, and denominational varieties, aimed to transform a new generation of youth into ideologically-imbued visions of “authentic,” “ideal,” or “real” Jews, emulating Zionist “pioneers,” Yiddish-speaking socialists, and other Jews from other times and places. Inspired by Dewey’s conception of democracy and education, as well as the roots of their Jewish movements, camp directors gave youth varying degrees of power over the camp program, in part as a method of simulating historically youth-led Zionist and socialist Jewish movements.

Yet “democracy” at camps played political roles alongside educational ones. By harnessing the power of the youth, counselors often led campers toward goals, ideas, and decisions which matched adult educational, ideological, and political priorities. Set in a period of anxiety surrounding juvenile delinquency, youth in revolt, and adolescent sexuality, this paper analyzes the inner politics of postwar Jewish camps, considering the nature of youths’ power and agency. It asks if official practices such as camper councils, newspapers, and work projects, and unofficial protests, raids, and expressions of gender and sexuality, provided opportunities for campers to exercise agency, or if they served to reify their adult leaders’ goals. As Jewish educators and communal leaders came to believe that camps served as the best method for molding Jewish youth, the stakes of the summer rose to new heights, and the power dynamics between campers and staff required careful negotiation. This paper aims to shed new light on questions regarding intergenerational tension, dynamics between postwar establishment leaders and the youth it paternalistically aimed to serve, and the prehistory of the Jewish “continuity problem.”

Author

• Sandra Fox, New York University