Camp Solomon Schechter

Home About Camp Meet the Staff Camp History Board of Directors Contact Us Links

Year Round Family Camp Men's Camp Reunion

Connect With Alumni Alumni Events

Rentals Facility Tour Rental Packages

Donation Opportunities Matching Campaign

2010 Parent Handbook CSS Scholarship Application Oded Application Returning Staff Application New Staff Application Camper Health History Form Camper Health Care Recommendations Form Clinic and Hospital Form Canadian Border Crossing Consent Form Bar/Bat Mitzvah Tutoring Form Family Camp Application Mens Camp Application

Purchase Schechter Wear

Founded in 1954, Camp Solomon Schechter provides Jewish youth, families, and adults from the U.S. and Canada with a Jewish, active, and fun camping and retreat experience year-round in the Pacific Northwest.

The Camp Solomon Schechter community is comprised of campers, alumni, professional staff, and co-sponsoring Conservative synagogues and agencies.

We work in partnership to honor the long-standing tradition of community excellence and program innovation, and to preserve Camp Solomon Schechter's unique, natural setting.

History

Camp Solomon Schechter (CSS) held its first session in 1955 at Echo Lake, in the northern part of Seattle, Washington. There were approximately 25 high school-age campers at a one-week session. The following summer, the camp session was expanded to two weeks with approximately 40 campers. The Echo Lake facility was quite primitive, with two old buildings serving as sleeping cabins in which the campers slept on the floor, and an old army tent that served as the chapel and meeting room.

That 1955 session was organized primarily by Rabbi Joshua and Goldie Stampfer. For many years thereafter, Rabbi and Goldie jointly operated the camp, together managing the program and finances, with Goldie serving as the bookkeeper, administrator, and kitchen manager. While others helped with the camp, it was the founding leadership and continued devotion of the Stampfers that resulted in Camp Solomon Schechter becoming a reality.

To provide for expansion after the first two seasons, CSS was relocated to Camp Casey on Whidbey Island for its third summer. An abandoned army base purchased by Seattle Pacific University, Camp Casey was rented out to various groups, including CSS. At this facility, CSS grew to three sessions of approximately two weeks each, serving children from 4th grade through high school. It is estimated that 2,500 campers attended CSS during the camp’s 11 years at Camp Casey.

In 1968, CSS was forced to find a new home after the University informed CSS that Camp Casey was no longer available.

After extensive research, the Stampfers found a camp available for purchase — the former Trails’ End Camp, in Tumwater, Washington. A new legal entity, Camp Solomon Schechter, Inc. facilitated the purchase and ownership of the camp. Prior to incorporation, the camp had been run as a loose, informal operation. The acquisition of the Trails’ End facility required a more structured organization, and on August 27, 1968, Camp Solomon Schechter became a not-for-profit corporation.

Present at the first organizational meeting at the Trails’ End facility on September 2, 1968, were Solomon Menashe, Ted Suher, and Rabbi Stampfer, who comprised the initial Board of Directors. Also in attendance were Maurice D. Sussman, the original incorporator, and members of Conservative Synagogues in Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Spokane and Vancouver, BC.

According to the minutes of this first meeting, Rabbi Stampfer outlined the vision of having a facility which would not only allow for the continuation of CSS, but could also serve as a meeting place, as a place for retreats, and as a home for other functions for the Conservative Synagogues and for all Jews and Jewish organizations in the Pacific Northwest.

Mission

Camp Solomon Schechter has operated at the Trails’ End facility for the past 34 years. During these years, significant strides have been made toward accomplishing the two-pronged goal originally conceived by Rabbi and Goldie Stampfer:

(1) Camp Solomon Schechter has moved forward, enhancing and perpetuating the summer camping experience for Jewish children in the Pacific Northwest.

(2) The Trails’ End facility has become a campus at which Jewish organizations would “foster and perpetuate the religious, educational, and cultural values of Judaism” as expressed in the original Articles of Incorporation.

On November 11, 1999, the Board of Directors of Camp Solomon Schechter, Inc., adopted the following resolution to honor Rabbi Joshua and Goldie Stampfer:

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Directors of Camp Solomon Schechter, Inc., as the owner of the Trails’ End facility, which has served as the home of Camp Solomon Schechter since 1968, and in gratitude for Rabbi Joshua and Goldie Stampfer’s lifelong commitment to Judaism, for their ongoing commitment to the Jewish children of the Pacific Northwest, and their dedication to countless Jewish organizations, hereby declares that the Trails’ End facility shall hereafter be known as, “THE STAMPFER CENTER.”

In adopting this resolution, the CSS Board expressed its intention to hold many more years of Camp Solomon Schechter’s camping sessions at The Stampfer Center, and to continue to develop The Stampfer Center as the home, on either a long-term, short-term, or occasional basis, for other Jewish organizations of the Pacific Northwest. Revenue generated by the use of The Stampfer Center will continue to help fund the Camp Solomon Schechter program and the capital expansion of the facility.

If you'd like to be part of the future of Camp Solomon Schechter, click here to find out about our Board of Directors.

Countdown to Aleph:
Countdown to Echad:
Countdown to Bet:
Countdown to Gimmel:

[clock1]

[clock2]

[clock3]

[clock4]