January 11, 2011
Reform launches special-needs summer programs
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The Union for Reform Judaism has launched two new summer programs for children with special needs.
Camp Chazak in Massachusetts, opening this summer, is for middle-school children with communication and social delays. It has recreational and therapeutic programming.
Like the Reform movement’s existing programs for autistic teens—the Mitzvah Corps program at Camp Kutz in Warwick, N.Y., and the Camp Nefesh program at Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, Calif.—the new camp aims to provide a Jewish experience to youngsters often left out of mainstream opportunities.
The second new program, Israel in a Special Way, is a travel program to Israel for older teenagers with learning disabilities and emotional/social difficulties. It is the first Reform program in Israel for those with special needs.
More information on the programs is available at www.urjcamps.org/programs/specialneeds.
