A Fulfilling Journey as Faculty at Eisner Camp

Two years ago I was nervous to come to camp. It was a strange and thankfully unfamiliar experience; after all, 2021 would be, by my count, the 27th time I’ve spent at least part of a summer at one of four URJ camps. And I don’t think I’d been worried about a summer since 1993. So why was I so nervous?

I was nervous because it was the first time I would be spending two weeks as faculty for Eisner Camp, rather than one. And because it was the first summer back after camps closed in 2020, we weren’t allowed out of camp. At all. For two weeks. Yes, I was a little concerned about maintaining my congregational responsibilities for twice the time, but my apprehension was about not being able to leave what Eisner folks call “the Bubble” for two whole weeks. I feared that might be too much for me, that I might begin to sour on the experience, and that I’d have many late nights without enough, or the right, snack food.

After arriving at camp with enough sweet, savory, chocolatey, and gummy goodness to feed a small army, I enjoyed the most rewarding and fulfilling faculty stint I had ever done. By leaps and bounds. Because I wasn’t just at camp, I was in camp, enmeshed in it, surrounded by the Bubble and its daily happenings. And now I don’t think I’ll ever go back to serving just one week.

In the six weeks I have spent at Eisner these past three summers, rather than half that time, I have become part of camp. Campers and staff know me and remember me well from the summers, and I have gotten to know many of them. They know that they can bring me new songs to utilize in my “Godify” course, where we explore theology and philosophy through popular music. But they also know I’ll jump in on a pickup basketball game or play the outfield in a baseball game. They know they can come to me with questions about Judaism, but they also know they can talk with me about fantasy football, Harry Potter, Hamilton, acapella groups, and, of course, Phish. And as a result, they know that I’m here for them, and that, when they need to broach something a little more serious than last night’s score, they can talk to me about whatever that may be as well.

As someone who fell in love with Jewish camps at URJ Camp Harlam in the Poconos, I’m constantly reminded that both Harlam and Eisner were founded in 1958 as “institutes of living Judaism.” Serving as faculty for Eisner Camp is easily among the most rewarding and fulfilling aspects of my rabbinate, precisely because it is both where Judaism is lived every hour of every day, and it’s a Judaism that is very much alive and vibrant. It is where I feel I can bring and contribute all of myself, all of my interests and passions and loves that make me who I am – as a person, as a Jew, as a rabbi. I am truly blessed by my congregational family to have this time here at Eisner, to be able to push the figurative “refresh” button on Judaism each summer, and bring those successes and that energy back to our home communities. I’m grateful to every congregation who are represented by the fantastic clergy and educators they share with our camps. And the connections and moments I have been blessed to be a part of, to know that I have made an impact with even just one camper, just one staff member, is a priceless gift to me, one that carries me through some of the harder moments of this work and this life.

I used to worry that two weeks at camp was too much time. Now I’m like a camper again, each year sad to leave, wishing I could stay just a little bit longer.

Rabbi Joshua Strom ’08 serves as the rabbi at Congregation B’nai Yisrael in Armonk, NY.