The American Moshav Movement

There's something inherently campy about Jewish community. Across the spectrum from Reform to ultra-Orthodox, Jewish summer camp is most certainly a thing -- even in biblical times, while wandering the desert out of Egypt, the Hebrew tribe set up camp en route to the Promised Land. Shabbatons for teenage youth groups or Pesach programs for entire families can feel like camp for a weekend or a whole week, while Hasidic bungalow colonies draw parents and children from Brooklyn and into the Catskills all summer, reminiscent of pop-up villages, tucked away amid the nature of upstate New York. In Israel, moshavim and kibbutzim function as such villages all year round, and even at festivals like Burning Man or Rainbow Gathering, there are Jewish camps calling in Yiddish or Hebrew speakers, offering Shabbat dinners to the greater community, and serving as a contained micro-environment for Jews to practice what it means to be a light unto the nations.