Camp Massad Records

Founded by Shlomo and Rivka (Wolman) Shulsinger, Camp Massad was the pre-eminent Hebrew camp in the United States. Massad’s aim was to help campers learn the Hebrew language and to develop a deep appreciation for their Jewish heritage and culture, accomplished primarily through a totally immersive Hebrew language experience. The idea for Camp Massad was conceived during the Winter of 1941 by the Shulsingers, Hayyim Kieval, David Alster, and other members of the Histadrut Hanoar Haiviri, an organization whose mission it was to promote Hebrew culture in addition to the Hebrew language and its use. That year, on July 7, 1941, Camp Massad officially opened its doors as a day camp in Far Rockaway, New York, with 25 campers.

In 1942, Massad opened a sleep-away camp within Camp Machanaim in Monticello, New York. The following year, Camp Massad opened what would be the first of their three sleep-away camps in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Massad Aleph, “the mother camp,” opened in Tannersville, Pennsylvania in 1943 with new cabins that could accommodate up to 250 boys and girls for the summer. Over the next few years, Massad Aleph’s success grew and their space could not meet accommodate all the children who wanted this immersive camp experience. In response, a second site – Massad Bet – located in Dingman’s Ferry, Pennsylvania was opened in 1945 to accommodate more campers. Massad Gimel, the third and final of the Massad sleep-away camps, opened in Effort, Pennsylvania in 1966.

Massad provided its campers with a living and breathing Hebrew language and cultural environment outside the traditional school framework. While there were no formal classes, there was a carefully crafted educational program at the center of every aspect of the camp. Campers learned about Jewish traditions, the Hebrew language, culture, Zionism, and current events through their everyday activities. Each summer Camp Massad had a theme which would permeate these activities, including the plays, literary activities, discussions, and even the arts and crafts projects. One of the biggest activities of the summer, the Color War (Maccabia), divided the camp into two teams with opposing themes. The campers competed in various activities including songs, skits, sports, pageants, etc., and were awarded points. Essentially, campers participated in sports and activities one would find at any other camp in America -- they just did them in Hebrew, with their own Hebrew terminology (compiled in The Massad Hebrew-English Dictionary) which allowed them to learn the language naturally and outside an artificial classroom setting.

In addition to the traditional and religious aspects of the camp, which included morning prayers and Sabbath observance, Camp Massad also aimed to inspire the love of living as a Halutz, or pioneer, in Israel through agricultural projects. Campers broke ground and planted seeds in gardens, each of which bore the name of one of the waves of immigration to Israel (Biluyim, Youth Aliyah). Not only did the campers have the opportunity to learn agricultural terminology, but they also learned of the importance of farming as it pertained to Israel at the time.

The work of Camp Massad went on for forty years and came to an end when the Massad Aleph, the first of the Massad sleep-away camps to open, became the last of the Massad camps to close when it shut its doors in November of 1981. The Massad movement, however, lives on in two Massad camps operating in Manitoba and Montreal, Canada, respectively, to this day. In creating this archive, the hope is to make available to educators and researchers the kind of educational materials which were successfully used in the language immersion program at Camp Massad.