Where in the world can a young camper serve as a goat shepherd, make smoothies by a bike-powered blender, eat solar oven-baked challah, and experience a living Judaism that puts Jewish teachings about caring for the land into practice?
At the new Eden Village Camp in Putnam County, New York, naturally.
The staff and campgrounds of Eden Village, an overnight summer program for 137 campers in third through twelfth grades, offer an oasis of calm that reflects the echoes of paradise suggested by the camp's name. It is the only camp in the country with Jewish environmentalism as its founding principle, and UJA-Federation, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and the Foundation for Jewish Camp offered major support.
But the true test of a founding principle is how it translates into action.
With its quarter-acre farm, four goats, and 13 chickens that supply many of the vegetables, yogurt, and eggs used at meal times, signs of a vision made real are evident everywhere. But what comes across most clearly is the enthusiasm of the children who are the first campers to attend Eden Village, which opened this June.
"I really, really like it," says Bella Jaeger, 11. "The food is amazing, and you can be Jewish and do other things — there's a program for arts, and you get a good education about the farm. I like the boats at the lake. I go on the kayak. We play gaga, soccer, basketball. I did yoga. I got to milk goats, fed the chickens. I also enjoyed the herb garden. We made herbal cough syrup from ginger, cinnamon, and honey. And we made salves for skin — like for a bee sting — and collected all of the ingredients ourselves."
For Margalit, 10, whose family asked that only her first name be used, the farm was also a highlight. "I'll always remember the goats. I love all animals. The goats are cute and nice. And chickens are also very nice, but I can't pick them up so well."
A Living Judaism
Margalit's counselor, Aliza Sandberg, is a Jewish educator who previously taught Jewish environmental education to day school students as part of the Teva Learning Center, a program of Surprise Lake Camp, which is also a beneficiary agency of UJA-Federation.
Photo: Robyn Spector
"All the bunks do a rotation of morning milking," Sandberg explains. "Goats have half a gallon of milk a day. We turn it into yogurt. We need two hours of tending to goats, and the campers act like shepherds and bring them to trees to nibble off the leaves."
As Bella and Margalit, along with several other girls, tend to the goats, Sandberg tells them, "The Torah says we feed animals before ourselves, so we're feeding them now before our lunch."
Her explanation of a Jewish concept is woven into the activity at hand in the most natural of ways, and Sandberg acknowledges that is part of Eden Village's contribution.
"The kids come here with different levels of Jewish backgrounds," she says. "This is a living Judaism that's appropriate for kids with day school education or someone with no Jewish education. It lets us live the tradition. It puts tradition into practice."
Farm educator Debra Rich expresses a similar idea about understanding the food the campers harvest. "I try to teach about farming but also ask, what does it have to do with each of us? It makes it more personal, and when we ask how we make choices for food, it makes us more thoughtful."
The Gift of Tom
While on the subject of food, the question comes up of how the camp gets children to eat vegetables, traditionally a sore point with kids.
"That's the gift of our cook, Tom," Sandberg notes. "He cooks vegetables in a way kids like to eat them - to make them sweet enough. Counselors also encourage kids to take a little taste - that's part of changing habits. And we have edible bunk-side gardens to help change kids' minds about what a snack is, that it's not only candy."
Next to each bunk are small gardens growing cherry tomatoes, strawberries, radishes, blackberries, cucumbers, green beans, and mint plants, to add to water bottles.
Tom Hidas, the cook, is a hero of sorts at the camp. During lunch of a veggie pizza and green salad at the dining hall, painted a lively orange and yellow, a cheer breaks forth, "This food is amazing!"
And the cheer arises at many meals, says Solomon Goldstein-Rose, 16, whose stay at Eden Village is his first time at an overnight camp.
"The camp is really fun," says Solomon. "It's a really good community. I like singing grace after meals. I don't like singing much normally, but I really like that."
Solomon has also helped with the herbal garden program by serving as an herbology apprentice. In this role, he has helped the younger groups make teas, syrups, and salves from herbs. Solomon walks over to the ground and pulls a leaf from a plant.
"We make salves - for insect bites, sunburns, bee stings - out of plantains." He holds out the leaf, "Not plantains like bananas, but from this plant. My teacher, Baruch Shapiro, who is the master herbologist, is amazing. And I'm going to work with another amazing teacher next session."
And who will that be?
"Tom the cook."
The founding principle that started it all has led to an incredible reality, notes Vivian Stadlin, who founded Eden Village with her husband, Yoni. "The camp is beyond anything we could have known to dream," she says.
Yoni Stadlin adds, "The campers at Eden Village have had their worlds changed, and are changing the world. Our camp has become an epicenter of Jewish green living. But like our campers, there is so much more to do to reach our vision of being a true light to the nations, and unto ourselves."