Camp Boiberik Explained

Camp Boiberik was a Yiddish cultural summer camp founded by Leibush Lehrer in 1913. In 1923 the camp purchased property in Rhinebeck, New York where it would remain until closing in 1979.^[1] It was the first Yiddish secular summer camp in America at the time.^[2]

Affiliated with the Sholem Aleichem Folk Institute,^[3] named after Sholom Aleichem, Boiberik was a secular, apolitical institution which emphasized Yiddishkeit or Yiddishkayt,^[4] or Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish folk culture, including songs, dance, food in the tradition of the Borscht belt, theater, and humor. Although non-religious, Boiberik observed shabbos and kept a kosher kitchen.

Boiberik had interactions with and was somewhat similar to Camp Kinder Ring.

The name 'Boiberik' appears as a town in which the Tevye stories by Aleichem are set, as a fictionalization of the resort town Boyarka.

In 1982, the former campgrounds were purchased by the Omega Institute which currently resides there. Omega hosted a reunion of former campers in 1998.^[5]

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
• Book: Strom, Yale . The Book of Klezmer: The History, the Music, the Folklore . Chicago Review Press . 2011 . 2002 . 978-1-61374-063-7 .
• 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
• Krasner . Jonathan B. . Passionate Pioneers: The Story of Yiddish Secular Education in North America, 1910–1960 (review) . . Project Muse . 96 . 3 . 2011 . 1086-3141 . 10.1353/ajh.2011.0000 . 225–227. 161869467 .
• 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's Mitchel Resnick
• About Omega: Camp Boiberik. Omega Institute

Notes and References

1. Fox . Sandra . 2020 . "Is This What You Call Being Free?": Intergenerational Negotiation, Democratic Education, and Camper Culture in Postwar American Jewish Summer Camps . The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth . en . 13 . 1 . 19–37 . 10.1353/hcy.2020.0021 . 1941-3599. free .
2. Web site: Reid . Olivia. Summer of Peace, Love, and Yiddish Song: The Legacy of New York’s Camp Boiberik . 2023-08-27 . Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage . en-US.
3. Gottesman . Itzik . 2014-01-01 . The Folkshuln of America . International Journal of the Sociology of Language . 2014 . 226 . 10.1515/ijsl-2013-0083 . 1613-3668.
4. Fox . Sandra F. . 2019 . "Laboratories of Yiddishkayt": Postwar American Jewish Summer Camps and the Transformation of Yiddishism . American Jewish History . en . 103 . 3 . 279–301 . 10.1353/ajh.2019.0031 . 1086-3141.
5. Web site: Napoli. Lisa. Former Campers Use Internet to Organize Reunion. The New York Times.