Chapter Six
Tawonga in the 1990s
Finding Room to Grow
The 1990s opened with Camp Tawonga growing in size, confidence, and ambition. New programs were added throughout the decade, the Wilderness program continued to expand, and more families began to see Tawonga as part of their year-round Jewish lives rather than simply a place children went for the summer.
A New Dining Hall
In the summer of 1990, Camp Tawonga opened a new Dining Hall overlooking the lake. The building replaced the original Dining Hall that had stood in the same location since the camp purchased the property from the Columbia Park Boys’ Club in the 1960s. It was the first major capital improvement built at camp since Tawonga’s reopening in 1965 and reflected how much the camp had grown throughout the previous 25 years.
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, June 8, 1990
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, June 8, 1990
The Dining Hall had long been the social center of camp, and the new building was designed to serve that role on a larger scale. Meals, announcements, music, evening programs, and Shabbat gatherings all took place in the Dining Hall. Large windows and outdoor decks opened toward the center of camp, while the nearby stage provided additional space for campfires, song sessions, skits, and a Torah service on Saturdays.
The new Dining Hall interior, with empty walls, 1990
The new Dining Hall interior, with empty walls, 1990
The new Dining Hall also allowed the kitchen to expand. Under Ken Kramarz’s often-repeated phrase — “food is king” — the kitchen became an increasingly important part of the camp experience. Menus expanded beyond the standard camp fare of earlier decades, with vegetarian options, fresh produce, and accommodations for different diets becoming more common.
A 1999 newspaper article about camp food noted that the “powdered government-surplus eggs and milk, and the canned fruits and vegetables of the 1970s” had largely disappeared from camp kitchens. At Tawonga, food was becoming part of the camp’s identity — with long tables crowded with campers, vegetarian options alongside traditional camp favorites, and meals that many former campers still remembered years later.
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, April 23, 1999
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, April 23, 1999
The intentionality increased throughout the 90s, and much of that can be attributed to several great summer staff hires. Max Magen was kitchen manager in 1994 and 1995, and Nina Kaufman became kitchen manager in 1997, the first camper alum to hold this role. Kaufman was skilled and passionate, continuing great food traditions and creating new kitchen protocols, menus, recipes, and structure still used today.
Longtime kitchen manager Nina Kaufman, 1990s
Longtime kitchen manager Nina Kaufman, 1990s
Kaufman’s mantra — “validate the corners” — started as a way to make sure the corners of a platter were filled with the same portion of wonderful ingredients as the center, but became a kitchen mantra to remind us not only to not cut corners, but to put love and attention in everything we do.
Kaufman’s legacy at Tawonga is long. To this day, she returns every summer to camp to help train kitchen managers during staff training.
Counselor Andy Grossman with campers, 1990s
Counselor Andy Grossman with campers, 1990s
Mia Gutfreund shows off a typical 1990s cabin (photo courtesy of Ryley Katz)
Mia Gutfreund shows off a typical 1990s cabin (photo courtesy of Ryley Katz)
Wilderness, Teva, and the Outdoors
Under Deborah Newbrun’s leadership, outdoor programs continued to expand during the 1990s. Backpacking trips, rafting excursions, and longer travel programs became a larger part of camp life, especially for older campers and teens. Programs that had begun in earlier decades, including Sierra Trails and Pacific Quest, became more established during the 1990s.
Description of Quest program in Camp Tawonga’s 1993 promotional brochure
Description of Quest program in Camp Tawonga’s 1993 promotional brochure
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, May 1, 1998
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, May 1, 1998
Pacific Quest took campers far beyond the camp property itself. Small groups traveled through the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and the Sierra, combining hiking, rafting, camping, and long stretches of shared life on the road. One newspaper article described the program as “camp on wheels,” carrying the essence of Tawonga into the wider landscape.
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, May 12, 1995
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, May 12, 1995
The trips emphasized shared responsibility as much as outdoor skills. Campers cooked meals together, planned schedules collectively, and held Shabbat services wherever Friday evening found them.
As the Wilderness program expanded, camp also developed more formal systems for training staff and organizing trips. Wilderness leaders began arriving early for Wilderness Weekend, a period devoted to preparation, safety training, gear organization, and practice trips before campers arrived.
By the mid-1990s, Wilderness Director Lom Friedman expanded the program into Wild Week, a longer immersive training that included backpacking, cooking, trail leadership, and emergency scenarios.
Lom Friedman, pictured in the early 2000s
Lom Friedman, pictured in the early 2000s
The Shvitz
In 1995, staff alumni Adam Miller and Jennifer Bean helped design and build a sweat lodge — often called the shvitz at camp — near the river. The structure, built with the help of staff and campers, was another addition to Tawonga’s evolving blend of wilderness culture and Jewish ritual.
More than 30 years later, the shvitz remains a beloved tradition at camp, enjoyed by older campers.
First page of a scrapbook created by Jennifer Bean to commemorate the construction of the sweat lodge. (Courtesy of Jennifer Bean.)
First page of a scrapbook created by Jennifer Bean to commemorate the construction of the sweat lodge. (Courtesy of Jennifer Bean.)
Staff member Jon Boxerman displays the Shvitz commemorative plaque
Staff member Jon Boxerman displays the Shvitz commemorative plaque
Music and Songleaders
Music filled much of daily life at Tawonga during the 1990s, from the Dining Hall and campfires to Shabbat gatherings and freilach (the post-Shabbat meal song session and dance; the literal meaning of the Yiddish word is "cheerful.")
During these years, the role of the songleader became more formalized, and many of the songs and musical traditions still associated with Tawonga took recognizable form.
Jonathan Ferris, songleader, on the right with guitar at an outdoor Shabbat service
Jonathan Ferris, songleader, on the right with guitar at an outdoor Shabbat service
Jonathan Ferris joined the staff in 1992 after attending Hava Nashira, a national Jewish songleading workshop led by musicians including Debbie Friedman and Jeff Klepper. Ferris helped professionalize the role of songleader at Tawonga, emphasizing collaboration among multiple songleaders, expanding the musical repertoire, and developing a style of participatory singing and dancing built around ruach (spirit), movement, and shared participation.
Jonathan Ferris, left, with Ken Kramarz and Sydney Mintz
Jonathan Ferris, left, with Ken Kramarz and Sydney Mintz
Over the course of the decade, through a collaboration between Jonathan Ferris and Ken Kramarz, the Tawonga songbook evolved into the form that today’s Tawongans recognize.
By insisting that chords be included for every song, Kramarz made it possible for campers and staff to pick up the book and learn to play, regardless of prior experience. With those chord changes included and a hand-drawn cover by staff member Natasha Litt, the Tawonga songbook became the practical and distinctive guide .
In 1996, under Ferris’s direction, Tawonga recorded its first CD, allowing campers and staff to bring camp music home after the summer ended. The recording mixed live singing, guitars, campfire sounds, and familiar camp songs into what one newspaper article described as “an entire session of camp.”
Cover of the 1996 “Camp Tawonga Live!” CD
Cover of the 1996 “Camp Tawonga Live!” CD
From left to right: Judith Joffe-Block, Ryley (Share) Katz, and Barrie Zipkin, 1990s. (Photo courtesy of Barrie Zipkin.)
From left to right: Judith Joffe-Block, Ryley (Share) Katz, and Barrie Zipkin, 1990s. (Photo courtesy of Barrie Zipkin.)
Joyful Judaism in Practice
By the 1990s, many of the forms of Jewish life introduced during the previous decade had become familiar parts of camp routine. Shabbat gatherings, outdoor Torah services, song sessions, Havdalah, and informal discussions about Jewish life shaped the rhythm of each session.
Israeli counselors returned through the shlichim program, while staff leaders including Deborah Newbrun and Jewish specialist Sydney Mintz helped expand opportunities for Jewish learning through music, ritual, and outdoor life.
Sydney Mintz lighting Shabbat candles. Mintz was the Jewish specialist for the first half of the 1990s while she studied for the rabbinate at the Hebrew Union Theological Seminary. She later went on to serve as rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco.
Sydney Mintz lighting Shabbat candles. Mintz was the Jewish specialist for the first half of the 1990s while she studied for the rabbinate at the Hebrew Union Theological Seminary. She later went on to serve as rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco.
Both Newbrun and Mintz — who were married in 1995 — later went on to become nationally recognized Jewish educators and leaders. Mintz was ordained to the rabbinate in 1997 and Newbrun in 2022.
Deborah Newbrun and Sydney Mintz, with their son, Eli Newbrun-Mintz, circa 1998
Deborah Newbrun and Sydney Mintz, with their son, Eli Newbrun-Mintz, circa 1998
Jewish ritual at Tawonga was most often expressed through the ordinary rhythms of camp itself: singing after dinner in the Dining Hall, dancing at freilach, the sights and smells of Havdalah, and reading from the Torah on Saturday mornings near the firepit at the stage.
Campers reading from the Torah at a Saturday morning service, late 1990s
Campers reading from the Torah at a Saturday morning service, late 1990s
Tawonga taught that Jewish life at camp was inseparable from the natural environment that surrounded campers. Outdoor services, wilderness trips, and riverside rituals all reflected the belief that spirituality could be experienced most powerfully in the natural world.
Under Newbrun's leadership, Camp Tawonga became a national leader in the field of Jewish wilderness education during the 1990s.
Deborah Newbrun, 1990s
Deborah Newbrun, 1990s
“We tie spirituality into being outside. . . . Kids are often moved to feel God’s presence when they’re outside.”
Counselor Dan Roisman with campers
Counselor Dan Roisman with campers
Becoming Independent
For most of its history, Camp Tawonga operated as part of the United Jewish Community Centers (UJCC) of San Francisco. That relationship changed in the mid-1990s, when the UJCC dissolved and each of its three regional community centers (San Francisco, Marin, and the Peninsula) became separate organizations. With the UJCC disbanded, Camp Tawonga became an independent nonprofit organization for the first time.
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, March 31, 1995
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, March 31, 1995
The transition marked a significant institutional shift for the camp. Responsibility for governance, fundraising, staffing, and long-term planning moved directly to Tawonga’s own leadership and board. Ken Kramarz continued in his role as executive director while Deborah Newbrun became associate director, formalizing a leadership partnership that had already shaped camp life for more than a decade.
A third longtime leader, Ann Gonski, continued to play a central role in guiding camp through these years of growth and transition as administrative director. Together, Kramarz, Newbrun, and Gonski — along with board leadership — oversaw the programs, staff, and institutional changes that carried Tawonga forward as an independent nonprofit organization.
Ken Kramarz, Ann Gonski, and Deborah Newbrun in 1991
Ken Kramarz, Ann Gonski, and Deborah Newbrun in 1991
G-10 bunk during Session II, 1996. Casey Cohen — Tawonga’s director of communications since 2015 — is fifth from the right, wearing a white T-shirt.
G-10 bunk during Session II, 1996. Casey Cohen — Tawonga’s director of communications since 2015 — is fifth from the right, wearing a white T-shirt.
G-4 cabin in 1994. Current interim CEO Ryley (Share) Katz is in the back row, second from the left. Former CEO Jamie Simon is in the front row, third from the left. Barrie Zipkin, editor for this visual history project, is in the front row, third from the right.
G-4 cabin in 1994. Current interim CEO Ryley (Share) Katz is in the back row, second from the left. Former CEO Jamie Simon is in the front row, third from the left. Barrie Zipkin, editor for this visual history project, is in the front row, third from the right.
Expanding the Community
During the 1990s, Tawonga also began creating programs for younger campers, families, adults, and people seeking forms of Jewish community not always available elsewhere.
In 1991, Tawonga first offered "Session Aleph" (later renamed "Taste of Camp"), a shorter session designed to introduce younger children and first-time campers to the camp experience. The program quickly became popular and also helped bring new families into the Tawonga community, including Soviet Jewish émigré families who continued to settle in the Bay Area during those years.
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, February 15, 1991
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, February 15, 1991
During the same period, administrative director Ann Gonski, in partnership with multiple Bay Area Jewish organizations, helped develop bereavement retreats for Jewish families coping with the death of a loved one. The weekends combined grief support, Jewish ritual, and camp community in a setting designed for families navigating loss.
Camp also continued to experiment with other forms of community programming during the decade, including an Adults Only weekend introduced in 1996.
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, June 14, 1996
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, June 14, 1996
In 1999, Deborah Newbrun organized Tawonga’s first Keshet Family Camp weekend for LGBTQ Jewish families after recognizing how difficult it could be for gay and lesbian parents to find welcoming spaces within Jewish communal life. The weekend was the first program of its kind at a Jewish summer camp, creating a place where LGBTQ families could gather and feel at home in a Jewish camp setting. As a newspaper article from the time noted, the goal was simple: to create a place where participants “don’t have to explain themselves.”
The Keshet Family Camp weekend reflected values that had been taking shape at Tawonga for years. In 1992, Deborah Newbrun came out publicly to the Tawonga Board of Directors, becoming the first openly lesbian director of a Jewish summer camp. Newbrun has recalled that Board President Saul Rockman offered unwavering support, a response that affirmed the board's commitment to the inclusive community Tawonga was striving to build.
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, August 20, 1999
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, August 20, 1999
Boog Bookey, left, and Teryl George at Keshet Camp, circa 1999
Boog Bookey, left, and Teryl George at Keshet Camp, circa 1999
Deborah Newbrun, right, at Keshet Family Camp, circa 2006
Deborah Newbrun, right, at Keshet Family Camp, circa 2006
Fire Returns
Concerns about wildfires continued throughout the 1990s as fires burned periodically in the forests surrounding camp. In 1992, a nearby fire threatened the area around Highway 120. In response, camp leadership increasingly began thinking about evacuation plans, water systems, and fire preparedness as part of ordinary operations.
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, August 7, 1992
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, August 7, 1992
Those concerns became more immediate later in the decade. After another nearby fire in 1996, camp expanded its firefighting infrastructure, adding additional hoses, water tanks, and emergency equipment around the property.
In 1999, the Pilot Fire in the Stanslaus National Forest reached Camp Tawonga itself. Summer camp had ended, so no campers were on the property at the time. The fire destroyed the Teen Village and the Teva nature center, but firefighters were able to save the rest of camp. No one was injured.
A view of the Teen Village (located in the area currently known as the Burn) in the late 1990s
A view of the Teen Village (located in the area currently known as the Burn) in the late 1990s
Firefighters at Camp Tawonga during the Pilot Fire, 1999
Firefighters at Camp Tawonga during the Pilot Fire, 1999
The fire marked the first time buildings at Tawonga had been lost to wildfire. It also foreshadowed a challenge that would continue to confront camp in the decades that followed.
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, September 3, 1999
The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, September 3, 1999
Even after the Pilot Fire destroyed the Teen Village and Teva nature center in 1999, camp staff were on location, simultaneously feeding firefighters and preparing for the next Family Weekend at camp. Only days later, families returned to the meadow, the Dining Hall, and the river once again.
By the end of the 1990s, many of the ideas that had emerged during the previous decade had become part of Tawonga’s everyday life. The camp had grown in size, expanded its programs, become an independent organization, and found new ways to welcome an increasingly diverse Jewish community. As Tawonga entered a new century, it did so with much of the culture, leadership, and programming that would shape the decades ahead.
The Story Continues . . .
We hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter of Almost Heaven: A Visual History of Tawonga at 100
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