Camp Boiberik was a

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

cultural

summer camp A summer camp or sleepaway camp is a supervised program for children conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as ''campers''. Summer school is usually a part of the academ ...

founded by Leibush Lehrer in 1913. In 1923 the camp purchased property in Rhinebeck, New York where it would remain until closing in 1979. It was the first Yiddish secular summer camp in America at the time. Affiliated with the

Sholem Aleichem Folk Institute Sholem is a given name and a surname. Notable people called Sholem include: Given name: * Sholem Yakov Abramovich (1836–1917), Jewish author, founder of modern Yiddish and Hebrew literature *Sholem Aleichem (1859–1916), Yiddish author and playw ...

, after

Sholom Aleichem ) , birth_date = , birth_place = Pereiaslav, Russian Empire , death_date = , death_place = New York City, U.S. , occupation = Writer , nationality = , period = , genre = Novels, sh ...

, Boiberik was a secular, apolitical institution which emphasized

Yiddishkeit Yiddishkeit ( yi, ייִדישקייט ) literally means "Jewishness", i.e. "a Jewish way of life". It can refer to Judaism or forms of Orthodox Judaism when used by religious or Orthodox Jews. In a more general sense, it has come to mean the "Je ...

or Yiddishkayt, or Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish folk culture, including

songs A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...

, dance, food in the tradition of the

Borscht belt The Borscht Belt, or Jewish Alps, is a colloquial term for the mostly defunct summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan, Orange, and Ulster counties in the U.S. state of New York, straddling both Upstate New York and the nort ...

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, and humor. Although non-religious, Boiberik observed

shabbos Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stori ...

and kept a kosher kitchen. Boiberik had interactions with and was somewhat similar to

Camp Kinder Ring Camp Kinder Ring is a nonprofit 501(c)(3), Judaism, Jewish summer camp located in Hopewell Junction, New York, accredited by the American Camp Association and run by The Workers Circle. History Camp Kinder Ring was founded in 1927 by The Workers C ...

. The name 'Boiberik' appears as a town in which the ''

Tevye Tevye the Dairyman, also translated as Tevye the Milkman ( yi, טבֿיה דער מילכיקער, ''Tevye der milkhiker'' ) is the fictional narrator and protagonist of a series of short stories by Sholem Aleichem, and various adaptations of th ...

'' stories by Aleichem are set, as a fictionalization of the resort town

Boyarka Boyarka or Boiarka ( uk, Боярка) is a city in Fastiv Raion of Kyiv Oblast (region) of Ukraine, about 20 km SW from Kyiv. It hosts the administration of Boiarka urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: . The populatio ...

. In 1982, the former campgrounds were purchased by the

Omega Institute Omega Institute for Holistic Studies is a non-profit educational retreat center located in Rhinebeck, New York. Founded in 1977 by Elizabeth Lesser and Stephan Rechtschaffen, inspired by Sufi mystic, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and his ecu ...

which currently resides there. Omega hosted a reunion of former campers in 1998.

References

*''A Worthy use of summer: Jewish summer camping in America''. Jenna Weissman Joselit, National Museum of American Jewish History (Philadelphia, Pa.) National Museum of American Jewish History, 1993 *''The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated''. Leo Rosten. Random House, Apr 14, 2010 * *''Rhinebeck''. Michael Frazier. Arcadia Publishing, 2012 *''Raising Reds: The Young Pioneers, Radical Summer Camps, and Communist Political Culture in the United States''. Paul C. Mishler. Columbia University Press, 1999 * *''A Bibliography of Jewish Education in the United States''. Norman Drachler. Wayne State University Press, 1996 *''We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945-1962''. Hasia R. Diner. NYU Press, Apr 1, 2009 *''The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology''. Melanie Kaye Kantrowitz, Irena Klepfisz. Beacon Press; August 31, 1989. p. 37
The Secular Yiddish School and Summer Camp: A Hundred-Year History
Barnett Zumoff. ''Jewish Currents''. August 9, 2013.

External links

Camp Boiberik Home Page
hosted by

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...

Mitchel Resnick Mitchel Resnick (born June 12, 1956) is Lego Papert Professor of Learning Research, Director of the Okawa Center, and Director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. , Resnick serves as h ...

About Omega: Camp Boiberik
Omega Institute {{DEFAULTSORT:Boiberik, Camp Defunct summer camps Jewish summer camps in New York (state) Secular Jewish culture in the United States Yiddish culture in New York (state) Borscht Belt