Tawonga in the 2000s

A Living Bridge

Beginning in the late 1990s and continuing through the early 2000s, Tawonga expanded its shlichim — or “emissaries” — program, bringing more Israeli counselors and staff into daily camp life. With support from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the number of Israeli staff grew from two to five and then to 10 by 2003.

The shlichim served as counselors, song leaders, wilderness leaders, and other members of the summer staff. The goal was not simply to teach campers about Israel, but to create what Tawonga considered to be a “living bridge” between Jews in America and Jews in Israel — through music, Hebrew, wilderness trips, bunk life, and the ordinary relationships formed over the course of a summer.

Noar l’Noar

As travel to Israel declined during the Second Intifada, Noar l’Noar — “youth to youth” — brought Israeli campers to American Jewish camps. Ann Gonski championed bringing the program to Tawonga in 2003, with support from the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund.

For 14 years, Noar l’Noar invited Israeli teens to join cabin groups with American peers. Together, they backpacked, celebrated Shabbat, shared meals, and joined in the ordinary rhythms of camp. These experiences created direct relationships between American and Israeli teenagers — letting friendship and shared experience do much of the teaching.

The first delegations came largely from northern Israel. Over time, Tawonga and its Israeli partners broadened the program to include more of Israel’s varied communities. Ethiopian Israeli teens joined in 2005; in 2007, a delegation of 24 included four Ethiopian Israeli and four Arab Israeli teens; and later groups included Druze campers. The exchanges gave American campers a fuller view of Israeli society while giving the visiting teens a different experience of Jewish practice and community.

Some Noar l’Noar participants later returned as CITs or shlichim, carrying relationships formed as campers into the staff community. Across many summers, Israeli and American young people met on trails, in cabins, around campfires, and in conversation.

Changes in the executive director role began after the summer of 2005, when Ken Kramarz stepped down after two decades in the position. (He would later return to the role in 2011.)

Deborah Newbrun, who had been leading camp alongside Kramarz since the 1980s, became executive director in 2006.

When Newbrun left the following year for a new role at the San Francisco JCC, longtime administrative director Ann Gonski served as interim executive director while the board conducted a search.

Throughout these changes, Tawonga continued to benefit from experienced year-round leadership, including Mimi Gordon’s steady presence through the decade (first as associate director and later as director) and the growing leadership of Jamie Simon (who became camp director in 2007) and Ryley Katz (who became assistant director of administration in 2006). The continuity of leadership, values, and culture during this period proved invaluable.

In 2008, Tawonga’s board of directors named Adam Weisberg as executive director. Weisberg, who had been both a camper and staff member in the 1980s, returned to Tawonga after nearly a decade as director of Berkeley Hillel and joined a leadership team that included Mimi Gordon (director), Jamie Simon (camp director), Gregg Rubenstein (chief financial officer), Ryley Katz (assistant director of administration), Becca Meyer (assistant director of wilderness) and Aaron Mandel (teen program coordinator).

Campfire Conversations

In 2002, Deborah Newbrun and Mimi Gordon began a new camp tradition: separate campfires for girls and women, and for boys and men. The gatherings gave older campers and staff space to talk openly about gender, relationships, expectations, and the pressures they experienced in their daily lives.

At the women’s campfires, participants explored subjects including body image, pressures to conform, inclusion, and ways women could support one another.

The men’s campfires invited reflection on masculinity, vulnerability, friendship, responsibility, and how boys and men treated others.

The particular conversations differed, but both created structured spaces for honesty, reflection, and mutual support.

These conversations continued to evolve as Tawonga became more attentive to gender diversity and inclusion. In 2017, camp added a Beyond the Binary campfire for campers who did not identify as male or female.

Gender campfires remain a staple of Tawonga sessions, expanding with the community while preserving their central purpose. The campfires of the 2000s marked an important step in helping campers talk directly about identity, relationships, and responsibility — and helped lay the groundwork for a deeper culture of consent in staff training and community norms.