by stacey palevsky
staff writer
Camp Tawonga’s new directors are, well, not quite so new.
The leadership team of four has 42 years of experience among them — summers spent as campers and counselors or school years as professional staff. They’re new only in title.
“We really are a team,” said Jamie Simon, camp director. “There’s not just one person running camp, but four of us to think about what’s best for kids, staff and the community.”
Simon has worked full-time for Tawonga for two years, and she steps into the new role of camp director with two other colleagues who’ve long worked at camp. They are Mimi Gordon, director, and Gregg Rubenstein, chief financial officer.
The newest member of the team is Adam Weisberg, who comes to Tawonga after nine years as the director of U.C. Berkeley Hillel. This coming summer will be his first back at Tawonga in 20 years — he attended camp and worked as a counselor in the 1980s.
“Every success I’ve had at Berkeley Hillel can be traced back in some way to what I learned at Camp Tawonga,” Weisberg said.
“Our camp experience helps us understand our jobs in a way that is not just, ‘I get where you’re coming from,’ but ‘I’ve been where you’ve been,’” Gordon added.
The change in leadership occurred this year after the camp’s longtime administrative team of Ken Kramarz, Ann Gonski and Deborah Newbrun all left camp.
But the new leadership team says that there won’t be any major changes this summer.
“Tawonga is in a constant state of wanting to improve ourselves in whatever way we can,” Gordon said. “As we see the necessity to change, we will. But we have such rich traditions, and we still want those to be part of our culture.”
Those traditions, in the broadest sense, all relate to learning and community.
Nothing at Tawonga is accidental, staff say. Staff intend for every experience to be an opportunity for learning about personal relationships, integrity, Judaism, the environment. So a soccer game is not just a soccer game, but a chance to explore being a part of a team, playing fair, facing challenges head on.
The kids, though, don’t necessarily see that “everything we do has intention behind it,” Gordon said.
“For children, Tawonga is a place where you’re never encouraged to grow up too fast, but where you’re also challenged to go beyond your comfort zone.”
Tawonga staff say they’re proud of the community they create each summer. Weisberg said that strong sense of community is what he’s most looking forward to about returning to camp.
“If in fact we’re right, that Tawonga creates meaningful community, how can we maintain it throughout the year?” Weisberg said. He’s not sure yet how to answer that question, but said he plans to see if there’s interest from campers and staffers, and if so, if he can find funding to support expanding the camp community beyond summertime.
Similarly, Gordon said she’d like to explore ways to make Tawonga a gathering place for the Bay Area Jewish community, not just for campers and staff.
“Part of my passion is really helping this agency be a welcoming place for the entire Jewish community,” she said. She got the ball rolling last year when she added a new weekend camp called “I’d Rather be at Tawonga” that invited Tawonga alumni back to the camp.
Overall, the new leadership staff hopes to continue a long tradition of building community and Jewish identity.
“We love our jobs,” Simon said. “I feel so lucky to be where I am, and so blessed to be a part of this community.”
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California