Why You Probably Won't Have Racial Microaggressions At This Jewish Summer Camp
Camp Be'chol Lashon is a sleep-away camp that is specifically for Jewish youths of color. The campers are encouraged to discuss race and identity against a backdrop of swimming and horseback riding.
by Rachel Wisniewski
Sep 16, 2021
4 minutes
Editor's note: We are only using the campers first names for fear of retribution against minors.
When Kenya Edelhart was in fourth grade, her teacher looked at the Star of David necklace Edelhart wore around her neck and said, "That's not funny. Religion isn't something to joke about." This was not the first or the last time that Kenya's identity as a Black Jewish person was questioned. Before she began attending Camp Be'chol Lashon in 2010—the only camp in the country designed for Jewish kids of color—she'd only ever met one other Black Jew.
Meeting other Jewish kids of color, she says, was "wholesome." "Camp was definitely the first time where it's like, 'Ok,
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