Memories That Last a Lifetime

/BY DANA SPECTOR/ //WEB EDITOR//

 

Back in my bat mitzvah year, my mom bought me a brown dress. This is the story of that dress’s journey.

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You might recall “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants” series, wherein a group of friends, incredibly enough, fit into the same pair of pants and then follows the ways in which their lives change while they share possession of the pants.

When I arrived at URJ Kutz Camp, I barely knew a soul, but a friend of a friend’s group adopted me instantly and we became a family.

That first Shabbat, the girls in my group decided to swap dresses, and out popped the brown dress. The dress fit everyone who wore it! I’ve heard it said, that we can pick our friends but we are born into our families. The brown dress helped me choose my Kutz Camp family.

The Kutz Camp experience continues for me today, even though I left the camp in 2008.

These men and women have traveled across the country to celebrate birth- days, to show support after a family loss, and even just to say hello. We’ve grown up apart, occasionally loosing contact, but can reconnect instantaneously right where we left off.

URJ Kutz Camp will celebrate its 50th anniversary next summer. Fifty years of empowering, inspiring, and molding an international community – proving that American Judaism will last.

Here’s to another 50!