News Posts for Category: Uncategorized

The 2022 Camp Kinderland Newsletter is Here!

We are so excited to share our 2022 Camp Kinderland Newsletter! Our annual newsletter contains announcements, highlights, milestones, remembrances from the last year.
Click here to read it from your computer or tablet, take it with you on your phone, or print it out at home. It is easy to share with family and friends – just forward them the link or direct them to the Kinderland website!

2022 Olympics Journal

Swords into Plowshares

For the past 63 years, our campers and staff have participated in a very special tradition at Camp Kinderland.  The Kinderland Peace Olympics has been an integral part of every season in that it reflects camp’s values of peace, equality, and social justice.  Our goal is to pay tribute to the people, events, and social movements that reflect our commitment to make the world a better place. In addition, the Peace Olympics provides us with a framework of group cooperation and respect for one another’s abilities. Children can exercise their many skills, explore new ideas and capacities, and share with each other across age groups.  Best of all, they do all of this while having a great time.

We are proud to unveil the murals from this summer’s Peace Olympics! Our theme of the summer is “Swords Into Plowshares” and the teams were:
CHIPKO MOVEMENT, also called Chipko andolan, nonviolent social and ecological movement by rural villagers, particularly women, in India in the 1970s, aimed at protecting trees and forests slated for government-backed logging. The movement originated in the Himalayan region and quickly spread throughout the Indian Himalayas. The Hindi word chipko means “to hug” or “to cling to” and reflects the demonstrators’ primary tactic of embracing the trees to impede the loggers.
LANDLESS WORKERS MOVEMENT (MST), Portuguese Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, Brazilian social movement seeking agrarian reform through land expropriation. The Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra; MST) is one of the largest and most-influential social movements in Latin America. Thousands of Brazilian families live in its land-occupation settlements in an effort to redistribute land to rural workers for small-scale farming.
THE GREEN WAVE MOVEMENT. In Argentina, the movement that has fought for abortion rights and had a major influence over the country’s legalization of abortions has come to be known as the “Green Wave.” The Marea Verde or “Green Wave” movement for abortion rights continues to sweep across Latin America. On the heels of a historic win in Argentina , Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that criminalizing abortion is unconstitutional, paving the way for Mexico to become the most populous Latin American country to legalize abortion.Now the movement has spread to other countries on the continent.
ABOLISHING APARTHEID. The laws of Apartheid denied basic human rights to the overwhelming majority of South Africans. Apartheid, under which the white minority held power over the entire population, was met with strong internal and external resistance. The most powerful form of resistance, however, was the refusal of South African blacks to remain prisoners in their own land. A multi-racial coalition, led by Black South Africans, ultimately forced the apartheid government out of power.

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Announcing the 2021 Camp K Newsletter!

2021 was quite a year for the Camp Kinderland community, and we are so excited to share the highlights with you in the latest Camp Kinderland Newsletter! Click the link above to read it from your computer or tablet, take it with you on your phone, or print it out at home. It is easy to share with family and friends – just forward them the link or direct them to the Kinderland website.

The 2021 KINDER-THON

The Kinderthon is our biggest fundraiser of the year, the one that makes it possible for Camp Kinderland to live by our values of economic and social justice and provide scholarships to nearly fifty percent of our campers.
Our commitment to offering scholarships to camper families depends on your support. It is so easy to sign up, and it makes a huge difference in lives of so many.
 

 
In case you missed it… why did we rename the Phonathon?
With the rise of spam phone calls, many folks do not answer an unknown phone number. We have found email, social media, and texts from our volunteers are much more effective outreach tools. That is why we asked our creative and dedicated community to weigh in and help us rename the Phonathon… as the Kinderthon!

The 2021 Olympics Journal + Two Zines!

Fight Racism with Solidarity

For the past 62 years, our campers and staff have participated in a very special tradition at Camp Kinderland.  The Kinderland Peace Olympics has been an integral part of every season in that it reflects camp’s values of peace, equality, and social justice.  Our goal is to pay tribute to the people, events, and social movements that reflect our commitment to make the world a better place. In addition, the Peace Olympics provides us with a framework of group cooperation and respect for one another’s abilities. Children can exercise their many skills, explore new ideas and capacities, and share with each other across age groups.  Best of all, they do all of this while having a great time.

The theme of our summer was “Fight Racism with Solidarity,” which comes from Fred Hampton. The teams were: The Rainbow Coalition (alliance between the Black Panthers, Young Lords, and Poor White Patriots Organization); The International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, which organized all workers regardless of race at a time when many unions were segregated (and featured in Salt of the Earth); STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) started by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson to represent groups marginalized by the mainstream LGBT movement; and Idle No More, a movement for the rights of native peoples to protect the land and water. (more…)

Kinderland: A Film by Amy Grappell


Award-winning filmmaker Amy Grappell invites the Camp Kinderland community to a private work-in-progress screening of her new film KINDERLAND. The screening will be followed by a live Q&A. All proceeds from ticket sales will help support Amy’s completion of the film.

KINDERLAND tells the story of two Jewish summer camps, Kinderland and Kind Ring, founded in upstate New York in the 1920s and still in existence today. Both were established by secular working-class Jews on either side of the leftist political divide and committed to generating Mentshlekhkeit, a Yiddish word meaning ‘humaneness’ or becoming a better person so you can help the world be a better place. Many early alumni became leaders in the American labor movement and the fight for civil rights. Despite numerous commonalities, the two camps enjoyed a legendary feud from opposite ends of Sylvan Lake, where the sparring was ideological and the activities, such as re-enacting the Spanish Civil War, were mind-boggling. Present-day campers carry the mantle of their predecessors in the ongoing fight for social and economic justice and equality, offering hope in today’s disheartening political climate.

In telling this story, the film highlights not only the vital contributions of first-generation Jewish Americans, but also the act of remembering as an integral unifying force in the ongoing fight for social justice. As Leda, a counselor and former camper says in the film, “History is our greatest weapon, because the erasure of history is how power maintains itself.” It is with this in mind that Amy feels a sense of urgency to get this film out into the world and hopes you’ll consider supporting her in this endeavor.

Live Screening + Q&A on Monday, May 3rd at 7:00pm ET
Private screening window open from May 3rd – May 31st

Please view the trailer above, and share this private screening invite with friends and family. All proceeds from the screening will go to completing post-production, in hopes of premiering at film festivals in 2021/2022.

Registration for Summer 2021 is Open!

We are registering campers for summer 2021!

To register for camp, please click here. You’ll see options to log in (for returning campers) or set up a new account (for new campers).  If at any time you’re asked for an invitation code, it’s “KINDERLAND”.

Returning campers: Please log into the system to register using the link above. Your Username is your email address.  If you do not remember your Password, you can reset it yourself through the above link and clicking “Forgot your password.”  Once in the system, click “Applications” to access this year’s registration form.  Please email Mike Salop at mike@kinderland.org with any questions.

New to camp: Please set up a new account using the link above, and then fill out the registration application.

If you have any questions, please email Mike Salop at mike@kinderland.org

Open Call for 2020 Camp Kinderland Newsletter

Every fall, we round up stories, photographs, announcements, and remembrances from the previous year to share with our camper families, alumni, and supporters in the Kinderland Newsletter.
 
In these unprecedented and unpredictable times, it is more important than ever to celebrate and remember the personal and collective milestones that took place within our community over the last year.
 
Please send your birth notices, remembrances, announcements, stories, and upcoming events to joeyp@kinderland.org so that we can include them in this year’s Kinderland Newsletter. Make sure to include details and photos/images.