Un Anyo Mas, Un Sehel Mas – Another year, Another Piece of Wisdom by Ethan Marcus

This year at SAC, we’ve brought Sephardic pride and education into our camp program like never before! Our Camp theme, “From Spain to SAC”, is giving us the incredible chance to teach our campers from around the world about the beauty of our shared Sephardic identity, culture, and values. Each bunk is named after a Sephardic city in the Mediterranean, like Rhodes, Salonika, Tekirdag, and Cairo, and is paired with a Sephardic mascot from the city’s history. We’ve highlighted great Sephardic sages like Rabbi Reuven Eliyahu Israel, the last Chief Rabbi of Rhodes, along with cultural icons like Sephardic singer Dario Moreno from Izmir and Sephardic community advocates like Laura Papo Bohoreta of Sarajevo.

Instead of just lecturing this history at campers, we believe the best ways to teach about our heritage is through experiential learning; building a tangible connection to the many historical figures and traditions that can feel so distant to a camper in the 21st century, all while having fun. We’ve developed a series of Sephardic skits that campers learn and star in, playing these characters in front of the entire camp every few days as they travel on a journey to each Sephardic city. In the Mess Hall, our Sephardic World Map highlights each city, it’s mascot, and some fun facts about their Jewish pasts. Every morning at Desayuno (Breakfast), we ask a Sephardic Question of the Day, where campers have to figure out the answer based on our world map. The daily winner gets a special prize, but more importantly, learns about their rich Sephardic history.

What’s more, we’ve taken Ladino language education to a whole new level. Every day at our flag raising, we announce a Ladino word of the day, like Ke Haber? – How are you? or Bavajadas! – Nonsense! These different words and phrases are used by counselors and head staff alike, and campers are encouraged to use and even make fun of them. Our very own Haham holds Ladino 101 sessions with individual bunks, teaching them some of the basics of pronunciations, conversational language, and even proverbs that give deeper meaning to our Sephardic life philosophy. In Avraham & Sarah’s Tent, Haham teaches the basics of writing in Solitreo, our Ladino cursive script, where kids learn to decode secret messages, riddles, and even letters from hundreds of years ago. All of this gives campers a unique, fun, and meaningful experience that will last well beyond our 17-days at SAC.

Our Sephardic activities also get campers on their feet! This year, we brought back our Escapando de Espana – Escape from Spain night activity. Campers travel with their Sephardic “families,” a mix of different campers and counselors outside of their individual bunks, grouped into different Spanish cities like Toledo, Grenada, and Seville. These families compete against one another in a relay race, navigating through stages like obstacle courses to decoding a secret Ladino message on how to get to Turkey, all while traveling with their “Spanish passports” to escape Spain, avoid our CIT Police, and reach the Ottoman Empire. But the activity doesn’t end just with their arrival in the Ottoman Empire, campers then have to go from the Ottoman Empire to Seattle, passing through American Customs, Passing the Peshkado at Pike Place Market, and proving their Sephardic credentials to our camp Papo to win the race. These, however, are just a few highlights of some of the awesome work we’ve done this year. Not only are we bringing our traditions alive at SAC, but are working cultivate the next generation of Sephardic leaders around the world. For that, we Say Hazak U’Baruch to all our awesome counselors and staff for all their hard work!