Cross-posted on URJ Camp Coleman's Blog.
This week, Chalutzim spent 4 days out of camp on the Chalutzim trip. Campers explored the theme of “Discrimination, Tolerance, Acceptance” as we crisscrossed the Southeast.
Our first day took us to Atlanta, GA. In the morning, we explored what it feels like to be blind, as we opened our other senses at Dialogue in the Dark. Dialogue in the Dark allows campers to experience everyday scenarios in complete darkness. At the end of the simulation, campers sat down with their vision-impaired tour guides to “dialog” about living in blindness.
“It was interesting to experience the challenges that people who are born blind go through everyday, and feel how they overcome that challenge.” –Preston
Later that afternoon, we went to The Temple in Atlanta to learn about the Temple bombing in 1958. The Temple was targeted for advocating for civil rights, and stands today as a symbol of Black-Jewish relations. Campers would experience echoes of the Temple Bombing the next day at Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church.
“It’s really amazing how deep intolerance can go, for someone to be able to bomb a place of God. It’s also amazing that some Jewish people were able to reach out to reach out to the Black community to show support during this ugly period of American history.” – Sara
Campers learned about the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the MLK Center in downtown Atlanta. At the Eternal Flame next to Dr. King’s grave, campers considered similarities between Dr. King, Yitzhak Rabin, and John Kennedy, all assassinated leaders who spoke out for peace at different moments in their careers and who are memorialized by an eternal flame. Inside the museum, we learned how Mahatma Gandhi influenced King’s non-violent methodology. After the museum, campers reflected on Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Campers made dream pillows stuffed with lavender, encapsulating their own hopes and dreams.
That night, we saw the Atlanta Braves beat the Washington Nationals, 5-0.
We spent our second day in Birmingham, AL. In the morning, we toured the 16th Street Baptist Church, a center of civil rights leadership, which was infamously bombed in 1963, killing four little girls. Next door to the church, we toured the Civil Rights Institute and learned about the history of segregation and the quest for integration. At the end of the museum, we learned about modern struggles for freedom and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In a beautiful park in Birmingham, campers learned about Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a civil rights advocate who marched with Dr. King in Selma, AL. Rabbi Heschel famously said, “When I marched in Selma, I felt like I was praying with my feet.” Campers explored what it means to “pray with your feet”—what foot print they will leave behind and whose shoes they would like to fill.
That afternoon, we had fun at Alabama Adventure Amusement and Water Park. That night, we went to see Toy Story 3 in 3D.
On Wednesday, we traveled to Whitwell, TN, home of the famous Paper Clips Holocaust Memorial. The middle school in this small bible belt town was learning about the Holocaust, and a group of students couldn’t imagine the number 6,000,000. They set out to collect 6,000,000 paper clips, in order to fathom the weight of this atrocity. Their project caught the attention of the national press, and they ended up receiving in the mail more than 20 million paperclips. They put 11 million on display—in memory of all the people, Jews and others, who were murdered in the Holocaust. The display is housed in a German cattle car that was formerly used to transport Jews to their deaths. This stunning memorial in the unlikeliest of places is a symbol of understanding and acceptance, and was an inspiration to our whole group.
“At first, it kind of seemed like a random place to have a Holocaust museum, but then, it kind of made sense. It shows that you can have an emotional attachment to an event that happened even if you don’t have a personal attachment.” –Michael
We camped that night in Ocoee, TN, and woke up early the next morning to whitewater raft the Ocoee River.
“Civil rights is human rights. So everyone must contribute even if they don’t have a personal attachment. There’s that Holocaust quote [by Pastor Martin Niemöller]: ‘First they came for the Gypsies, and I did nothing, because I wasn’t a Gypsy…’ Or, in the words of Bobby Harris: ‘If one of us has got a problem, we’ve all got a problem.’” –Harry
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