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Tablet Studios

Notes on Camp: Ep. 96

Tablet Studios

Tablet Magazine

Judaism, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.61.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2017

⏱️ 65 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Break out the bug juice—it’s summer camp week on Unorthodox! We’re talking campfires, Color War, and Mark’s traumatic summer at a nudist camp. Our first guest is Sandy Fox, a doctoral candidate studying language and everyday life in Zionist, Yiddishist, and denominational summer camps. She’s also the founder of Vaybertaytsh, a feminist podcast entirely in Yiddish. She explains how different Jewish ideologies shaped each kind of camp, tells us about a post-war summer camp for children of Holocaust survivors, and breaks the news that while summer camp is distinctly Jewish in many ways, Jews didn’t actually invent it (we totally reshaped color war, though). Micah Hart, co-host of the podcast Campfires and Color Wars, talks to us about what summers were like as the camp director’s son, the difference between a Jewish camp and a camp where most of the campers happen to be Jewish, and what it means to be ‘camp hot.’ We also talk to writer Jordana Horn, who hated camp but whose kids love it—all six of them are attending some form of Jewish camp this summer. She tells us how Jewish camps give her children a space to develop their own Jewish identity and community, how social media has changed the camp experience for campers and their parents, and what really goes down when the kids ship out for the summer. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, behind-the-scenes photos, and more! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we may read your note on air. Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag  @markopp1 @liel @stuffism This episode is brought to you by Harry’s. Go to Harrys.com and enter code UNORTHODOX at checkout to get a free post shave balm. This episode is also brought to you by AT&T. Enjoy unlimited entertainment with unlimited data from AT&T. Learn more at att.com/unlimited. Music:  "Mikveh Bath" by Golem "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" by Allan Sherman "Suburban Kids with Biblical Names" by Shitty Weekend "Gucci Gucci" by Kreayshawn "Rose's Turn" by Stephen Sondheim, performed by Bette Middler "Hatikvah" performed by Francki Perez et Broadway "That Power" by Childish Gambino

Transcript

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0:00.0

What better way to be proudly Jewish right now than with our book, the Newish Jewish Encyclopedia?

0:07.0

It's the perfect coffee table book for your proud Jewish home,

0:10.0

and it covers everything from Jewish history pop culture holidays and of course food

0:14.2

all with our trademark irreverence and love our publisher is offering a special

0:18.8

20% discount on newest Jewish and their entire Hanukah shop. So head to artisan books

0:23.3

and use the code unorthodox at check out. That's artisan books.com discount code

0:28.6

unorthodox all caps. Hey Jews this is a special summer camp episode.

0:35.0

That means the kids are away.

0:36.0

They're off at JCC camp or Rama or Tell Yahuda or Young Judea or

0:41.0

Joudeia or Camp Netteny Yahoo or Jabatinsky Lake.

0:44.4

And with the kids away, we are inclined to use adult language.

0:47.6

But that means that if your kids are home,

0:50.3

you have to send them out of the room,

0:51.4

so we can all yuck it up. That's your obscenity warning. Now stay tuned.

0:54.6

I love Campnitin, yeah.

0:56.6

Campnit and you like that?

0:57.6

Yeah. What would they do there? What would they do at Javatinsky Lake and Kemnihonnah Cream Social every night. Hm-Hmm.

1:03.0

Hello, campers!

1:08.0

This is a special summer camp episode of Unorthodox.

1:11.0

I am your liberated host, Mark Oppenheimer. Two of my four kids are off to sleep away camp and now I get to relax in Argo studios with Stephanie Butnik.

1:19.0

Hello. And Lyle Leibouin.

1:21.0

Our guest this week are Summer Camp Historian Sandy Fox, Summer Camp Podcaster

...

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