Leading and Teaching with Intentionality

Welcome Home

As I step into my temporary quarters at URJ Camp Newman I notice the door mat. “Welcome Home,” it reads. Returning to Camp Newman is indeed a coming home for me; this is my 33rd summer at camp. In this community I made life-long friends, set upon my path to becoming a Jewish educator and rabbi at HUC-JIR, and give back each summer as a member of the educational faculty.

Camp Newman fell victim to the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Since then, the indefatigable senior leadership, several of whom are HUC-JIR alumni, have been rebuilding the property and community with assiduous intentionality. With the camp’s values always in their sights, we see this intentionality in everything from camp signage to educational programs.

Secondary Evacuation

New signposts stand at all paths and intersections of camp serve their purpose to point the way out should we, God forbid, need it.  They, along with 30+ vehicles that stand at the ready to evacuate the community, remind us that safety is Newman’s highest value.

We All Belong Here

Upon arrival at camp, all members of the community are oriented to the camp rules. Along with the obvious ones, we engage in conversation about what it means to build a community in which all members know they deserve to be here, belong here. This value is celebrated in moments of fun, such as creating posters for the URJ Camp Newman Pride Parade. It is evident in the diversity of staff and campers. For the first time ever, the head song leader is a trans Jew of Color. It is enacted in challenging moments such as determining logical consequences for a camper who says hurtful things to a peer. And it is part of our moments of Jewish learning, when we wrestle with texts and traditions, such as 9- and 10-year-old campers studying Torah from a feminist perspective.

In the Master of Educational Leadership program in HUC’s Rhea Hirsch School of Education, we continuously explore what it means to lead with intentionality, to create learning spaces and design learning experiences that are intentionally grounded in values. Here at Camp Newman, campers and staff are recipients of this values driven mindset and co-partners in bringing it to life.

Rabbi Laura Novak Winer, Ed.D. ’95, is the director of the Master of Educational Leadership Program, HUC-JIR Rhea Hirsch School of Education.