Gindling Hilltop Camp is a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

summer sleep-away camp administered by

Wilshire Boulevard Temple Wilshire Boulevard Temple, known from 1862 to 1933 as Congregation B'nai B'rith, is the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, California. Wilshire Boulevard Temple's main building, with a sanctuary topped by a large Byzantine revival dome an ...

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in Little Sycamore Canyon between the

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and the

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on a coastal ridge, 750 feet above sea level. The camp serves approximately 120 campers, ages 7–15, and has a staff of about 40. Gindling Hilltop has been described as "the prototype for the American Jewish youth camping movement". Hilltop and its sister camp, Camp Hess Kramer, are run by Wilshire Boulevard Temple Camps, an organization associated with the

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. The director of WBTC supervises both camps, but Hilltop is run on a day-to-day basis by a residential director. The camp's staff is made up of

camp counselor 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 academic ...

s, activity specialists, religious educators, supervisors (for programming, counselors, and counselors-in-training), and health personnel.

History

Gindling Hilltop Camp was opened 1968 as a sister camp to Camp Hess Kramer because enrollment at Hess Kramer had become too high. The camp is named after Albert Gindling who worked on several of the Hess Kramer facilities. Camp Hess Kramer was the site of the Chicano Youth Leadership Conference (CYLC). The conference was founded in 1963 by

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, a teacher at Lincoln High School> The annual three-day event was designed to inspire and motivate Chicano students in LAUSD high schools. Actors

Zachary Gordon Zachary Adam Gordon (born February 15, 1998) is an American actor. He rose to prominence by playing Greg Heffley in the first three films of the '' Diary of a Wimpy Kid'' film series. He then went on to play Tate Wilson in '' Good Trouble'' and ...

and

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are among the camp's alumni. Another notable alumni is singer-songwriter

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. The camp was destroyed on November 9, 2018 by the

Woolsey Fire The Woolsey Fire was a wildfire that burned in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties of the U.S. state of California. The fire ignited on November 8, 2018, and burned of land. The fire destroyed 1,643 structures, killed three people, and prompted th ...

; as of early 2019, they were still in the process of rebuilding the camp. In the summer of 2019, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple Camps temporarily relocated to

California State University Channel Islands California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI, CSU Channel Islands) is a public university in Camarillo, California. It opened in 2002 as the 23rd campus in the California State University system. CSUCI is located on the Central Coast of Ca ...

In 2020, the camp's summer was spent on

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, free of charge. In 2021, and until rebuilding in Malibu is complete, the camp will be spent at Buckhorn Camp, located in Idyllwild, California

References

External links

* {{coord, 34.059895, -118.964225, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-CA, display=title Reform Judaism in California Reform summer camps 1968 establishments in California