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E-book
Author Fox, Sandra, 1988- author.

Title The Jews of summer : summer camp and Jewish culture in postwar America / Sandra Fox
Published Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2023]

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 285 pages) : illustrations
Series Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture
Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture.
Contents Introduction : the Jewish camp : between fantasy and reality -- "Under optimum conditions" : American Jews and the rise of the summer camp -- A matter of time : constructing time for "creative survival" -- Jews playing games : role-play, sociodrama, and color war -- "A little suffering goes a long way" : Tisha B'Av, Ghetto Day, and the shadow of the Holocaust -- The language cure : embracing and evolving Yiddishism and Hebraism -- "Is this what you call being free?" : power and youth culture in the camper republic -- Summer flings and fuzzy rings : camper romance, erotic Zionism, and intermarriage anxiety -- Jewish camping post-postwar
Summary "In the decades directly following the Holocaust, American Jewish leaders anxiously debated how to preserve and produce what they considered authentic Jewish culture, fearful that growing affluence and suburbanization threatened the future of Jewish life. Many communal educators and rabbis contended that without educational interventions, Judaism as they understood it would disappear altogether. They pinned their hopes on residential summer camps for Jewish youth: institutions that sprang up across the U.S. in the postwar decades as places for children and teenagers to socialize, recreate, and experience Jewish culture. Adults' fears, hopes, and dreams about the Jewish future inflected every element of camp life, from the languages they taught to what was encouraged romantically and permitted sexually. But adult plans did not constitute everything that occurred at camp: children and teenagers also shaped these sleepaway camps to mirror their own desires and interests and decided whether to accept or resist the ideas and ideologies their camp leaders promoted. Focusing on the lived experience of campers and camp counselors, The Jews of Summer demonstrates how a cultural crisis birthed a rite of passage that remains a significant influence in American Jewish life"-- Provided by publisher
Analysis American Jews
American Judaism
Childhood
Jewish Education
Overnight Camp
Summer Camp
Yiddishism
Youth
Zionism
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes In English
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on December 01, 2022)
Subject Jewish camps -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Jewish youth -- Recreation -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Jews -- United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
HISTORY / Jewish.
Jewish camps
Jews -- Social life and customs
Manners and customs
United States -- Social life and customs -- 1945-1970.
United States -- Social life and customs -- 1971-
United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2022019303
ISBN 9781503633896
1503633896
Other Titles Summer camp and Jewish culture in postwar America