Orthodox Jewish Summer Camps Plead With Upstate NY Officials to Allow Opening

By: Robert Smith

The Brooklyn-based Association of Jewish Camp Operators wrote a letter to Sullivan County officials, pleading with them to allow the overnight camps to open — many as early as the end of June — and to not contact Gov. Cuomo about shutting down the operations, The NY Post reported.

All Reform Jewish summer camps will remain closed for the 2020 summer due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, JTA reported previously.

The landmark decision made last week will affect 16 overnight camps across the country, which collectively served some 10,000 campers in 2019. The Reform movement, the largest in the United States, is the first to suspend its entire summer camp network.

However, Orthodox camps want to open this summer.

“We are writing to you to request that Sullivan County representatives understand the overnight camp plans for operation this summer, and not send a letter to Governor Cuomo requesting that overnight camps not be allowed to operate in Sullivan County this summer,” association officials wrote.

The NY Post reported: In the letter, dated May 5, the consortium also promised the camps would be “run differently this summer” because of the deadly outbreak.

The Post continued: All children and staff members would be tested before coming to the camps, they said, and a “full and complete lockdown” would be enforced once on site, with no field trips or outside visitors allowed. Staff members could not leave the grounds on their days off.

If an outbreak would occur, the group pledged that local hospitals would not be “overwhelmed” because anyone who falls ill would be taken to city hospitals by Hatzolah, a volunteer emergency medical services group.

The association is considering closing non-overnight camps, they said.