Back when I was a kid in Manalapan, New Jersey, our family would drive to Freehold every Shabbos morning and spend the day with the rabbi of the Conservative temple, Rabbi Fishman — services at the temple, then seudos and zemiros at his home, staying until Maariv. His wife was a great cook and we loved the table conversation. Even though our family wasn’t religious yet, Rabbi Fishman clearly had a sense that we were pulled in that direction. He was a big catalyst for change in our lives.
One area in particular where his guidance was helpful was summer camp for the kids. Rabbi Fishman was a big fan of it in general, and he raved about the sleepaway camp where he sent his own daughter, Camp Sternberg. My parents listened with great interest, and by the end of Shabbos they had resolved to send my sister there. The following week, they had signed her up and paid the deposit.
There was just one detail that Rabbi Fishman “forgot” to mention — Camp Sternberg was completely Orthodox. My parents didn’t figure it out until they brought my sister to Brooklyn, from where the bus was departing. This was after my parents had already bought her supplies and sewed on name tags and loaded her duffel bag — besides which, my sister was really excited to go. So even though he had misgivings, my father decided to just put her on the bus and let her go.
My sister had the time of her life at Camp Sternberg, even though she was the only nonreligious girl there. She struck up a close friendship with the counselor of her bunk, a young Lubavitch girl named Debbie Kaufman. Even after summer ended and my sister was back home, Debbie started coming to our house for Shabbos at least once a month. She usually brought at least three friends along, with their own food and lots of ruach.
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