Camp Kinderwelt
Camp Kinderwelt, (pronounced kin-der-velt, with Kinderwelt meaning Children's World in Yiddish) was a Jewish sleepaway summer camp of the New York chapter of the Farband labor Zionist landsmanschaft (mutual aid association). Located in Highland Mills, New York, Kinderwelt shared its 250 acres (1.0 km2) with the Farband's adult summer colony Unser Camp (with Unser meaning Our in Yiddish). Kinderwelt, founded in the 1920s, remained in operation until 1971, with Unser closing the following year. Despite its Yiddish name, most of the children attending Kinderwelt spoke English, creating a linguistic divide with the Yiddish speaking adults at Unser, aside from the "cultural" divide between the mostly American born children and the mostly European born adults. After the creation of the State of Israel, mornings before breakfast and late afternoons before dinner found the campers assembled at two adjacent flagpoles: one with the flag of the United States, the other with the flag of Israel.
The year following the creation of the Young Poale Zion Alliance in 1931, Unser Camp played home to the YPZA's first Camp Kvutzah, which then moved to Accord, New York in 1933.
An episode of the American TV sitcom The Nanny (Season:2 Episode 15: "Kindervelt Days") found its heroine attending a Camp Kindervelt reunion party, reflecting the fact that some staffers of the show were former Kinderwelt campers.
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See also
References
- "Accord 1933" by Jocob Lemberger in Adventures in Pioneering: Twenty-Five Years of Habonim Camping
- Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry by Samuel G. Freedman.