Camp Tawonga is a 160-acre residential

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 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 on the middle fork of the

Tuolumne River The Tuolumne River (Yokutsan: ''Tawalimnu'') flows for through Central California, from the high Sierra Nevada to join the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley. Originating at over above sea level in Yosemite National Park, the Tuolumne ...

, a few miles west of

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...

, in the

Stanislaus National Forest Stanislaus National Forest is a U.S. National Forest which manages of land in four counties in the Sierra Nevada in Northern California. It was established on February 22, 1897, making it one of the oldest national forests. It was named after th ...

. The camp operates as a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

and is affiliated with the Jewish Community Center Association. The camp is located in

Groveland, California Groveland is a census-designated place (CDP) in Tuolumne County, California. Groveland sits at an elevation of . The 2020 United States census reported Groveland's population was 540. Groveland was created as a CDP prior to the 2010 census; previ ...

, although the nearest town is actually a tiny area called Buck Meadows. Tawonga has its main office in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

. Many attendees come from the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

, but attendees from Israel,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, and other states are often present as well.

History

Camp Tawonga was established by Louis and Emma Blumenthal in 1925 and was originally established in 1928 as separate camps known as Camp Kelowa for Boys, and Singing Trail for Girls at Huntington Lake just below the alpine level at 7,000 feet, located in the High Sierras, 65 miles Northeast of Fresno, and closed for several years during the Second World War. Camp Tawonga moved to its current site on the middle fork of the Tuolumne River in 1963. During 2003-2007, Camp Tawonga ran the Oseh Shalom-Sanea al Salam—the Palestinian-Jewish Family Peacemakers Camp—in cooperation with the Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue. On July 3, 2013, a tree fell at the camp, killing an Arts and Crafts specialist and injuring several others as campers were evacuated to the girls' side field. In August 2013, the camp was in the path of the Rim Fire. After the camp was evacuated, a staff member returned to the camp to rescue a

Torah scroll A ( he, סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה; "Book of Torah"; plural: ) or Torah scroll is a handwritten copy of the Torah, meaning the five books of Moses (the first books of the Hebrew Bible). The Torah scroll is mainly used in the ritual of Tor ...

which had previously survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. The camp lost three buildings to the fire; other damage was described as repairable and is now rebuilt. On July 31, 2018, just two days into the last summer session of the year, all of Camp Tawonga evacuated due to dangerous air quality caused by the local Ferguson Fire and the firefighters' " back burning" techniques. In the summer of 2019, Camp Tawonga became one of the first summer camps in the United States to offer all-gender cabins. In 2020, the camp procured a replacement Torah scroll from the former B'Nai Israel synagogue in

Olean, New York Olean ( ) is a city in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. Olean is the largest city in Cattaraugus County and serves as its financial, business, transportation and entertainment center. It is one of the principal cities of the Souther ...

. On July 11, 2021, a counselor named Eli Kane died from drowning off-site while working at the camp. https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/07/17/berkeley-high-grad-champion-soccer-player-dies-in-river-near-yosemite/

Facility

Camp Tawonga's facility supports roughly 500 attendees and staff, with about 2,000 attendees and staff participating each year. There are around 30 rustic-style cabins without electricity, running water, or heating, used for campers in the summer. There are around 20 heated or powered cabins that are used for other guests. There is a lodge-style dining hall equipped with a Kosher kitchen and back porch overlooking a lake. An Arts-and-Crafts shed, Olympic sized swimming pool, team building ropes course, and outdoor amphitheater are just some of Tawonga's many on-site buildings. Among its programs are an

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

family weekend (Camp Keshet), the only such program in the country.

Cultural references

Steve Almond Steve Almond (born October 27, 1966) is an American short-story writer, essayist and author of ten books, three of which are self-published. Life Almond was raised in Palo Alto, California, graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School and receive ...

has written about his experiences at the camp in his works, including '' (Not That You Asked) Rants, Exploits and Obsessions''.''Which Brings Me to You: A Novel Of Confessions'', Steve Almond and Julianna Baggott. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2006, p. 131

References

External links

Camp Tawonga's official websiteCampsite history (video at camp website)
{{coord, 37.8543, -119.9500, display=title Tawonga Buildings and structures in El Dorado County, California Buildings and structures in Tuolumne County, California Youth organizations based in California Tourist attractions in El Dorado County, California Tourist attractions in Tuolumne County, California Non-profit organizations based in California LGBT events in California 1925 establishments in California Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco 1963 establishments in California

History

Facility

Cultural references

See also

References

External links