Gesher (Bridge)

In addition to cooking gourmet dishes, taking leadership roles in camp, and getting fitter, faster, and stronger, teens enjoy special events and programs. Think late-night campfires and song sessions, movie nights, discussion circles, informal hang-out time at our canteen, and so much more.

We limit our teen program to about 40 girls and guys each session. Teens who have spent summers at Zeke tell us that the friendships they make over three or six weeks at camp are often closer and more meaningful than the friendships they make during the entire school year. By the end of the experience, you’ll not only gain new cooking and fitness skills, but also new lifelong friendships with a group of like-minded Jewish teens.

Almost every day, you’ll have the opportunity to engage with younger campers and lead various programs throughout camp. You’ll be paired with a counselor mentor, and you’ll help lead activities like strength training, cooking, song sessions, dance, soccer, and so much more!  You’ll also be able to plan some of the all-camp evening programs that the whole camp loves, and hold certain coveted roles in the camp community, such as leading Rope Burn during camp Olympics.

You’ll also join skill-building sessions just like the ones our counselors experience during staff orientation. In these workshops, you’ll enhance essential leadership and communication skills, and build many other key lessons that will help you at college and in future jobs — of course the first of which should be counselor at Camp Zeke!

Give back to the community while building your resume and earning volunteer hours for school. We issue a formal letter at the end of each summer that you can use to certify your hours. In addition to playing sports, joining fitness activities, cooking, and making lifelong friendships, you’ll have the opportunity to give back while having a truly meaningful summer experience.

Want to master the skills that will help you thrive in college and eventually, the professional world? Come to camp! Every week, you’ll enjoy interactive training sessions that focus on “21st Century Skills.” These go far beyond learning how to shake a hand or making a good first impression (though we’ll cover that too!).

So what are “21st Century Skills?” Researchers recently canvassed top American companies, such as Apple, Lego, and AT&T, to understand what attributes their happiest and most successful employees shared. Not surprisingly (to us at least!) collaboration, creative thinking, taking initiative, having an effective leadership style, and being responsible came out on top. We think it’s no coincidence that these are exactly the life skills fostered by the camp experience!

While all campers gain these skills through their summer experience, we created a series of interactive sessions just for teens to learn to develop and apply the skills in camp, outside of camp, and in the future.