âI am the voice of Tisha BâAv.â
In his 1959 booklet, Camp Boiberik: The Growth of an Idea, Jewish and Yiddish educator Leibush Lehrer eagerly touted the educational value of Tisha B'Av, the Jewish holy day marking the destruction of the Temple and other Jewish tragedies, known in English as the Ninth of Av. In Tisha B'Av, Lehrer found the power to "socialize the psychic growth of our children by enlarging their memory to include not only themselves⌠but an entire people to which they know they belong; to include not only the short span of limited number of yesterdays but of long stretches of time the limits of which can hardly be grasped." Tisha B'Av held the power to bind the young, mostly American-born Jewish children to their heritage through a process of mourning, the past serving to strengthen their commitment to Jewish survival in America, under new conditions of comfort. Lehrer held that Tisha B'Av could help "prepare our children in their struggle for our own creating survival, a struggle which they are destined to carry on willingly or reluctantly, a struggle incidentally, which is rendered more acute in its severity in conditions of freedom.â
Lehrer, a well-known Yiddish and Jewish educator, seized upon the opportunity he saw in the only Jewish holy day to fall in the summer, transforming Tisha B'Av into a powerful emotional and educational experiences for campers to remember both historical tragedies in the distant and recent past. He was far from alone: a diverse cohort of Jewish educators across the ideological spectrum took to Tisha B'Av as a mode of remembrance, and perhaps more pointedly, a method of preparing children in their struggle "for survival." Tisha B'Av programs became widely popular in Jewish camps in the postwar period, utilized as sacred time for reflection and commemoration in otherwise jam-packed, "fun" camp schedules.
This Tisha BâAv, Iâm thinking about Leibush Lehrer, and the many other characters in my dissertation who stood on the planning side, and the experiencing side, of mourning days at camp. Iâm also thinking about Tisha BâAv at my own Zionist summer camp in the early 2000s: the darkness of the Beit Haâam lit only by tea lights, the staff members solemnly singing âAl Neherot Bavel,â and the camp-famous Tisha BâAv script:
Person A: I am the voice of Tisha Bâav.
Person B: I am the voice of destruction.
(Everyone wanted to be âThe Voiceâ of Tisha BâAv.)
After the ceremony, in which staff reminded campers of the myriad tragedies to befall the Jewish people, we listened to Eicha, witnessed an Israeli Scout fire sign (which probably said something like ×××ר) and went back to our bunks to wallow and sleep. The next day, we watched Holocaust movies and competitively fasted under the summer sun.
When the fast was over, we entered the Chadar HaâOchel to find that the Israeli staff had set up for Yom Yisrael, Israel Day: blue and white and flags everywhere, falafel platters, Israeli dance music pumping. It was a radical shift, and the message was clear: Israel is our salvation. No more diaspora suffering. Letâs eat falafel and dance the Yo-Ya.
While on Tisha BâAv 5776, itâs hard not to reflect upon my own Tisha BâAv experiences at camp with some measure of critique, my goal in my dissertation is not to criticize campsâ Tisha Bâav practices, nor to discuss the situation in Jewish camps today. Iâll leave that work to people like Marjorie Ingall, who wrote a great piece for Tablet about Tisha BâAv at camp last summer. Rather, I look at sources within their historical context, consider why Jewish summer camps in the postwar period embraced Tisha BâAv with such gusto, and weigh how their observances differed depending on their ideological underpinnings.
Since this is a blog for sharing some of my favorite sources, Iâll share today some of my top Tisha BâAv sources from the archives of American Jewish summer camps. While my sources are historical, I think readers will find connections between the American Jewish context of the postwar period, and the sorts of memorialization practices at camps during the period, and today. What similarities and differences do you see in terms of tone from these three different sorts of camps?
Camp Cejwin - founded in 1923, a Zionist camp unaffiliated with any broader movement. Port Jervis, NY.
âTisha BâAv Guide for Staff Members,â 1962.
Tisha BâAv can be rendered irrelevant in a variety of ways. For example, if the sole emphasis is upon he burning down of a building almost 2,000 years ago, no amount of verbal gymnastics will succeed in making its impact justify its observanceâŚ. It is hardly of immediate concern to American Jews who do not feel spiritually tied to the ancient temple, and who are neither homeless persecuted exiles in their own chosen country, not unable to return to their historic homeland if they so choose. Tisha BâAv can similarly be rendered confusing in a variety of ways. For example, by attempting to replace the solemnity and seriousness of the day by stressing the successful establishment of the State of Israel⌠we succeed in converting this day into one of religious schizophrenia. The funeral dirge and the triumphal march do not harmonize with one another. In denying the above as worthwhile, we are left with but two possibilities - we can either ignore the existence of Tisha Be-Av or we can endeavor to reconstruct it along lines meaningful to us.
(American Jewish Historical Society, Camp Cejwin Files)* Â
Camp Hemshekh - a Yiddishist summer camp that served largely the children of Holocaust survivors. While Hemshekh, a secular camp, did not observe Tisha BâAv, it had very similar practices on a day called Ghetto Day.
âGhetto Night at Camp Hemshekh,â article in the camp newspaper by camper or young staff member (not marked), 1968.
What I am usually left with after Ghetto Night is an unwillingness to talk. There is both the content of the Night itself and the context in which it is presented. The content makes itself felt in the sudden reawareness of six million deaths that occurred over twenty-five years ago. The context is Camp Hemshekh, and the summer which is just about overâŚ. For one Jew dying because he is a Jew, the connection is immediate. I think of him speaking a language I know⌠Then I think of him dying because of those things, and I feel sorrow because something bad has happened to a person with whom I had a connection⌠Then there is Camp Hemshekh, in whose midst I am making all these connections. There is my bunk, bickering over who should or shouldnât have guard duty at Ghetto Denkmol (a physical memorial on the camp grounds). There are the other people here, most of knowing, almost rote, that at its best Hemshekh is a mainstay of Yiddishkaytâs survival today. I think of them knowing this while the grounds continue to be littered, while holes continue to be knocked through bunk walls, while it is still so much trouble to get some of them to Yiddish class or culture night. And now they all want to stand guard at the Denkmol. Perhaps we should have Ghetto Night at the beginning of each summer. Then we could say to them, for the next seven weeks, âBut you cried on Ghetto night, didnât you?â
(YIVO, Camp Hemshekh Collection)*
Habonim - A Zionist youth movement - âGuide to Tisha BâAv,â 1944
Erev Tisha BâAv was everything it should have been. At sundown the entire Machaneh, except for those who were in the program, formed a double line on the baseball field. From the beginning, the Chaverim fell into the spirit of the day. Either the Sicha that day or the somber attitude of the older Chaverim affected them. All dressed in white, the double file of Chaverim marched slowly to one side of the pool... two chaverim stood holding torches. (Describes reading of âBy the Rivers of Babylonâ and âAl Neherot Bavel,â then continues). The chaverim, without the smallest disturbance and in perfect silence, followed in line. It was a sight! The torches ornate! This chaver will remember that. It has made a lasting impression. When we approached the Chadar HaOchel the line stoppedâŚ. One chaver read Yehudah Haleviâs âOde to Zion.â Everyone then entered the Chadar HaOchel. All the pictures and posters had been taken down. In the middle of the room was a bench on which four âyarzeit lichtâ burnt. The chaverim seated themselves down on the floor. We in that room never came closer to the Ghettos of Poland than in that moment.
(Central Zionist Archives, Habonim Collection)*
*Full bibliographic information upon request
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