Recipient of the Rex Foundation's 1998
BILL GRAHAM AWARD
This award, established in memory of pioneerng pro-ducer and founding Rex board member Bill Graham, himself a refugee, is designated for organizations and individuals working to assist children who are victims of political oppression and human rights violations.
The fall of communism in Eastern Europe has brought about a remarkable Jewish revival where hardly a whisper of Jewish life had been heard for nearly 50 years. The Ronald S. Lauder/American Joint Distribution Committee International Youth Camp in Szaevas Hungary, is both a symbol of this renaissance and a vehicle for maintaining that momentum well into the future.
Opened in 1990, the Lauder/JDC Camp is the only international Jewish summer camp in East-Central Europe, and has served thousands of 6-18 year olds. The campers have returned home from their summer experience to become more active in their Jewish communities at home and to involve their parents and families in Jewish life.
Children from all over the region participate. Groups from Albania, Bulgaria, Poland the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Germany, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and of course Hungary have attended. Some of the children have traveled from tiny villages where theirs may be the only Jewish family. During the recent political crisis in Albania, the JDC was able to get children out of the country. Throughout the war in the former Yugoslavia, the camp was the only place Jewish children from different parts of the country could meet.
Through the fun-filled activities of a typical summer camp, these children are immersed in Jewish culture and tradition often for the first time in their lives. It may be their only opportunity to be with Jews all year and the only chance to nurture their Jewish identity. For most children, it is an experience that lasts them a lifetime.
In most cases the families can pay very little if anything for the camp expenses for their children. During 1998, a total of 1,710 children participated in one of four 2-week camp sessions, and an additional 191 in a special International Student's Week. No one was turned away due to lack of resources.
American Jewish Joint Distributation Committee, Inc., 711 3rd Ave., New York, NY 10017
