Camp Kinderland
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Camp Kinderland is a summer camp located in Tolland, Massachusetts, for youngsters aged eight through sixteen. The camp's motto is summer camp with a conscience since 1923. The main topics of the curriculum are: equality, peace, community, social justice, activism, civil rights, Yiddishkeit, and friendship. Campers may stay for four weeks in July, three weeks in August, or all seven of the offered weeks. There is also a two-week session available for first-time campers in the youngest group.
Kinderland was founded by members of The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring, a leftist Jewish fraternal organization, in 1923 in Hopewell Junction, New York. As a result of internecine conflicts between organizers of the camp who were closer to the Socialist Party and others who were closer to the Communist Party, there was a serious breach within the Yiddish-speaking Jewish left, one side pro-Communist, one side anti-Communist. As a result, there were starting in 1927, two different camps, Camp Kinderland, in the pro-Communist sector, which was run by a pro-Communist Yiddishist Jewish organization, and Camp Kinder Ring, which continued as the camp of The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring. As of 2025, both camps still exist.
Politics
The camp's left-wing politics led it to be the place many red diaper babies were sent growing up,[1] which caused it to be investigated during the McCarthy era. Attendee and counselor Katie Halper directed and produced Commie Camp, a light-hearted 2013 documentary on the camp.[2]
Notable Kinderland alumni
- Spencer Ackerman, progressive blogger
- Chesa Boudin, lawyer and activist; San Francisco District Attorney.
- Lawrence Bush, editor, Jewish Currents
- Jules Dassin, film director
- Delia Graff Fara, philosopher of language
- Ted Gold, a member of Weatherman Underground
- Katie Halper, comedian and writer
- Max Kellerman, sports commentator
- Michael Klonsky, education policy expert
- Harvey Kurtzman, cartoonist and founder of Mad Magazine
- Ivy Meeropol, documentary filmmaker, granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
- Marky Ramone, drummer, The Ramones, Misfits
- Suze Rotolo, artist and teacher[3]
- Ben Shuldiner, 2006 Democratic candidate for New York's 19th Congressional District
- Paul Stanley, singer and guitarist, Kiss
- Sol Stern, senior fellow, Manhattan Institute
- Marisa Tomei, actress
- Merritt Wever, actress
See also
- Itche Goldberg (brief mention of shules)
- Camp Boiberik