Camp Moshava Wild Rose enjoys an excellent reputation for it’s web content. Not only do our YouTube videos have close to 30,000 views but our virtual tour is by and large the best of any camp on the internet. We invite you to visit our virtual tour for an up close look at all of our facilities. Viewers can now enjoy updated photos of the renovations on The Hill, our kollel, the newly dedicated boys migrash and many other places. Please share the virtual tour with friends, family, past and future Moshavanikim.

https://moshavawildrose.org/tour

Thanks so much and see you next summer!

Dear Alumni and Friends of Camp Moshava Rolling Prairie, Indiana & Wild Rose, Wisconsin;

We all look back with fond memories of our days at camp, so in an effort to “relive” and reminisce those fun times, we are forming an alumni association. This group is open to all former campers, staff members, friends of the camp, and supporters.

The camp traces its history back to 1939 in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, and over 70 years later is still running strong. So please sign up!
There are several ways to register as an alumni;

1)       Online at https://moshavawildrose.org/alumni/ – If you sign up on the website, you may be the lucky winner of an iPad that will be given away by December 31, 2010.

2)       Become a fan on Facebook

3)       Mail in your name and address, and the years you attended to the office at: 3740 West Dempster, Skokie, IL 60076 USA

4)       Fax in your name and address, and the years you attended to the office at: 1-847-674-9736

Feel free to send in pictures from camp, copies of mailing lists, or other items of interest.

We are planning alumni events, so stay tuned for more information.

Finally, please forward this message to your friends, so that hopefully it will “go viral”, and we will hear from many alumni.

Thank you and best wishes for a Shanna Tova!

Dan Maeir ( Alumni Committee Chair )

Shop for camp duffels, backpacks, luggage, laptop cases, tote bags and travel accessories and earn money for Camp Moshava of Wild Rose, WI!  Irv’s Luggage in Northbrook will give 5% of your purchase back to Camp Moshava.  Click here for the printable coupon.

More than 150 chanichim, madrichim, family members, and alumni gathered to enjoy one last Moshava night together before the end of the summer. The weather was perfect… and Moshava alumnus Steve Greenberg’s Tailgators provided a delicious BBQ that was enjoyed by all. Moshava Committee volunteers planned the evening, and lead a sing-a-long of tried and true Moshava camp songs. A great time with great friends. Photos will be posted soon.

The next Moshava event will be the Alumni Kumzitz….

This article originally appeared in the Chicago Jewish News on 8/13/2010.  See the original article here.

Summer camp is supposed to be educational, but kids at Camp Moshava in Wild Rose, Wis. received a little extra real-life learning earlier this summer.

They witnessed the bris of a baby boy born to a family living in nearby Door County.

It’s the third bris, or ritual circumcision, that Rabbi Moshe Kushner has performed at the camp over the last two decades.

Kushner, now the executive director of the Chicago Rabbinical Council who served as director of the camp for 22 years, said he received a call from an Israeli couple, Jennifer and Ronen Eliyah, living in Door County. They had a new baby boy, and there was no rabbi near them. Kushner told them to come to the camp.

The Eliyahs, who own a business selling T-shirts at the Dells resort area, arrived with baby Matan and their three daughters, and Kushner performed the bris in front of the campers and staff. A festive meal followed. (Watch a YouTube video of the event at moshavawildrose.org.)

“Moshava is an educational camp, and I felt this was hands on,” he said with a laugh. “I felt it was a good way to bring something different to the camp, something religious and educational, and to get the kids involved in questions and answers. They had a great time.”

Camp Moshava is sponsored by the Religious Zionists of Greater Chicago and Bnei Akiva.

Camp staff member Jack Gottesman wrote in an e-mail that “Rabbi Kushner spoke directly to the campers, which made them feel included in the brit. Having a brit at camp accomplishes one of our primary goals here, which is to bring the mitzvot to life as much as possible. In our attempt to make camp as educational as possible, this opportunity for the campers to watch the brit directly from the sidelines is one we are sure that they will never forget!”

Rabbi Kushner performed his first bris at the camp 18 or 19 years ago when he was the director. At that time, unbeknownst to Kushner, an Israeli shaliach (representative) at the camp and his wife were trying to adopt a baby.

Kushner was awakened with a 6 a.m. phone call on a Friday in July and said to his wife, “I feel in my blood this is a phone call about a baby.” It was the shaliach, asking the rabbi if it was permissible for a couple of adopt a baby during the Nine Days, a traditional period of mourning. A baby had just been born in Pittsburgh and was available for them to adopt, he explained.

“I got them to (the nearest airport at) Appleton and then they were able to get to Pittsburgh before Shabbat,” Kushner said. “The next Friday I did the bris.”

That baby is now a young man serving in the Israel Defense Forces who keeps in touch with Kushner and recently sent him a picture of himself with his unit.

The third bris at the camp took place about three years ago, Kushner said, and was for the child of an Israeli couple living in Rhinelander, Wis. For them to come to Chicago, or for the rabbi to go to their home, would have been an eight-hour trip. He told them he would meet them half way and performed the bris at camp.

To his knowledge, he said, Moshava is the only camp that has ever hosted a bris, much less three of them.

KESHET JOINS CAMP MOSHAVA!

Our Dream Becomes a Reality

The Ruben Family Keshet Overnight Camp at Moshava.

In 1993, after many months of planning and preparation, Keshet’s dream of an integrated overnight summer program became a reality.  For four weeks that summer and every summer since, Keshet children have joined Jewish children from around the world at Camp Moshava in Wild Rose, Wisconsin.

A special thanks to then Moshava Executive Director, Rabbi Moshe Kushner and the Moshava camp committee for the time and energy that was put into making this program a reality.

In 2004, Joyce and Dennis Ruben announced the establishment of The Ruben Family Keshet Overnight Camp at Moshava.  This generous support has helped carry on the vision of Keshet of offering a fully integrated overnight experience for campers with special needs. Moshava provides this opportunity to participate in a four week overnight Jewish camp.

Overnight camp experience, while fun, is not a luxury for the Keshet campers. Play can be hard work. With the proper staff and supervision, the summer is a time of tremendous personal development. This four week program is customized to meet each individuals needs. Our staff members are hand- selected and trained as peer support. At Moshava, campers work, learn and play alongside their typically developing peers. It is wonderful and amazing to see the independence and confidence gained by the Keshet campers at Moshava.

Keshet campers participate in all the activities ranging from sports to arts and crafts, davening to canoeing, swimming to study groups, special trips, and a whole lot of socializing.  The nights end late, but are filled with an exciting array of games, competitions, singing, dancing, and much more. Highlights of the summer are strawberry picking, the trip to the Wisconsin Dells, bowling and roller skating.  The most popular of all is the “chutz”, the overnight camping trip, where blankets and rocks became tents, and meals are cooked over an open fire. The Maccabiah, or color wars, another favorite and eagerly awaiting tradition at Moshava, signals the end of the summer.  For two days, the red and blue teams compete in athletics, banner-making, singing, and a final evening of moving presentations.

And, all of this is possible because Moshava opens their doors to Keshet.

– Sharon Frankel

Director of Special Events at Keshet