Camp Kinderland is a

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 ...

located in

Tolland, Massachusetts Tolland is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 471 at the 2020 census, making it the smallest town in Hampden County by population ...

for people aged eight through sixteen. The camp's motto is ''summer camp with a conscience since 1923''. The main topics of the curriculum are: equality,

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, t ...

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals ...

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

, Yiddishkeit, and

friendship Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept of ...

. Campers may stay for four weeks in July, three weeks in August, or all seven of the offered weeks. There is also a two-week session available for first-time campers in the youngest group.

Founding and history

Kinderland was founded by members of The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring, a leftist Jewish fraternal organization, in 1923 in Hopewell Junction,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Camp Kinderland, along with the rest of the left wing of the Workmen's Circle, split off in 1930 and created the

International Workers Order The International Workers Order (IWO) was an insurance, mutual benefit and fraternal organization founded in 1930 and disbanded in 1954 as the result of legal action undertaken by the state of New York in 1951 on the grounds that the organizatio ...

and became the official summer camp of the Jewish section of the

. In 1954, the IWO was shut down and its assets liquidated by the government, which had determined that it was a

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

organization. At that time, Camp Kinderland became an independent corporation. Camp Kinderland is now a multicultural summer camp and community. While campers come from around the US, many are from the

New York area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan area ...

, especially

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, where there is a ''kindershule'', or secular school.

Social values

Camp Kinderland promotes progressive social values through its cultural program. It is anti-death penalty, pro-labor union, and generally

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

. Every year it holds the Peace Olympics, where camp is evenly divided into four

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to inf ...

s, each representing a movement or nation that the camp's directors feel is advancing the progressive cause.

Politics

The camp's left-wing politics led it to be the place many red diaper babies were sent growing up, which caused it to be investigated during the

McCarthy era McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origina ...

Notable Kinderland alumni

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, progressive blogger *

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, lawyer and activist; San Francisco District Attorney. *

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, editor,

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, film director *

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, philosopher of language *

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, a member of Weatherman Underground *

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, podcaster * Max Kellerman, sports commentator *

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, education policy expert *

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, cartoonist and founder of

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* Ivy Meeropol, documentary filmmaker, granddaughter of

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, drummer,

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, Misfits *

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, artist and teacher * Ben Shuldiner, 2006 Democratic candidate for New York's 19th Congressional District *

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, singer and guitarist,

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, senior fellow,

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, actress * Merritt Wever, actress

Footnotes

{{Reflist

External links

Official camp website

online finding aid, Tamiment Library, New York University. Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Massachusetts Jewish anti-Zionism in the United States Kinderland Youth organizations based in New York (state) Youth organizations based in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Hampden County, Massachusetts Bundism in North America Tourist attractions in Dutchess County, New York Buildings and structures in Dutchess County, New York Yiddish culture in the United States 1923 establishments in New York (state)