Minsk Camp, Belarus

1) Tanya, 15, always knew that she was Jewish, but she always thought of being Jewish as something shameful.  She had long come to the conclusion that the only thing that Jewishness brings is trouble.  This is why Tanya had always hidden her Jewishness from her friends.  When Tanya's parents suggested that Tanya go to Jewish summer camp, Tanya refused.  She said that if she went to Jewish camp, her friends would know that she was Jewish and then they would reject her.  Tanya's parents did not give up, and after much shouting back and forth, Tanya decided to go--on condition that her parents not tell anyone. 

At the beginning of camp, Tanya kept to herself.   She was very a quiet and didn't want to do any of the activities.  On the 3rd day of camp, after a session about famous Jewish people (e.g, Freud and Einstein), Tanya came up to her counselors and asked them: "Are you really serous?  All of these famous people were Jews and they weren't ashamed and everyone around them knew about it?"  For the rest of camp, Tanya was an active participant, expressing much interest in Jewish history and religion.  When she saw a Torah for the first time, Tanya almost burst into tears. 

Sometime toward the end of camp Tanya called her friends and told them that she is Jewish and proud of it (though Tanya had expected her friends to turn away from her, this didn't happen).  In September Tanya plans to attend a Jewish Agency youth club in Minsk. 

2) To her counselors Anita, 14, was like a homely caterpillar turning into a beautiful butterfly right before their very eyes.  At the beginning of camp, Anita was an angry, closed adolescent, but as camp progressed she flowered and opened up to people.  It turns out that Anita was born in Israel, but a few years ago, because of family difficulties, Anita was sent back to Belarus to be with her grandmother--with Anita's parents staying on in Israel.  Anita misses her parents very much and dreams of going to Israel to be with them.  She said that camp was almost like her dream coming true.  The camp gave her a warm feeling of connectedness to Israel.  At the camp she was happy again, just as she had been in Israel. 

3) Natasha, 10, is from the small town of Borisov.  This was her second time in a Jewish camp. On the first day at camp Natasha was loud and laughing, but at the end of the day she was sad and crying.  When her counselor asked her about this, Natasha said that she misses her parents.  On the second day, the same thing happened,  This time, her counselor stayed with Natasha and talked more to her, and Natasha told her that in reality her father had passed away many years ago and that Natasha didn’t even remember him.  Asked why she had come back to Jewish camp, Natasha said that at camp she gets to express herself, to meet a lot of new people, and to make a lot of new friends.  Indeed, Natasha's counselors noticed that a lot of the campers came to Natasha for advice and that she usually led her team when they played sports and intellectual games.  Natasha summed up her feelings about camp to her counselor by saying: "I love camp because you show me support and because I can hug you."