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Friday February 15, 2008

Camp Swig offered to Christian group

The Union of Reform Judaism board of trustees voted Feb. 6 to enter into a contract with a buyer for the dormant Camp Swig in Saratoga.

With the sale not finalized, the URJ refused to disclose the buyer, but did reveal that it is an independent religious group affiliated with the Methodist church.

“The sale is subject to due diligence and other normal real estate terms and conditions, so until the sale is final, we must maintain confidentiality about the buyer and the sale price,” said Emily Grotta, a URJ spokeswoman.

In November 2007, the URJ told j. that it had received a $6 million offer on the 185-acre camp from a non-Jewish organization. That offer trumped a $5 million bid by a local band of concerned former Swig campers calling themselves HaMakom (in Hebrew, “the Place”).

The probable sale to the Christian group was an open secret and HaMakom members had long foreseen this possibility.

“Sure, it’s to their great advantage to sell to a Jewish group,” HaMakom member Rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan told j. last year.

“But they’re under no direction to do this. And I respect that.”

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