Kayitz Kef/Hebrew@Camp
Kayitz Kef (Hebrew@Camp) partners with Jewish camps to strengthen Hebrew and Israel engagement by leveraging the culture of camp and the talent already on site, including Hebrew-speaking staff and Israeli shlichim, so that Hebrew is spoken naturally during daily activities and becomes part of lived camp experience and relationship-building. Launched in 2013 with one camp and one small cohort, Kayitz Kef has grown, in this bar/bat mitzvah year, to partnerships with roughly 50 camps across North America, supporting a range of program models across the immersion continuum. We do this through practical training, mentoring, and targeted grants and resources that help camps build sustainable Hebrew-rich environments that deepen Jewish identity and strengthen campers’ personal connection to Israel through real relationships and shared experience.
At Kayitz Kef, Hebrew is not treated like a subject to study; it is a language to live. We are not focused on what kids know about Hebrew, but on what they can do with it. This distinction is at the heart of our model, and it is backed by research in language acquisition. Children do not acquire language by memorizing rules; they acquire it by engaging with it in context and in real time. That is why camp works. It is immersive, it is experiential, and it allows Hebrew to become a natural, living part of daily life.
If you are interested in bringing Kayitz Kef to your camp, contact Sharon Schoenfeld.
Follow us on Facebook for more updates!
