Save the Date

70 Years at Camp Solomon Schechter

Dear Solomon Schechter Family,

For the past 70 years, Camp Solomon Schechter has been the Jewish home away from home for hundreds of campers, staff, alumni, and other community members. Every summer, we create an ideal community for Jewish youth from across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. What started as a one-week session with two dozen attendees at a motel near Echo Lake, has since blossomed into a multi-session, fully-equipped summer camp that attracts more and more campers every year.

The number 70 in Judaism represents a lifetime, so profoundly that many celebrate a second bar/bat mitzvah at the age of 83, thirteen years into their “second” lifetime. Similarly, Jewish tradition holds that it takes a carob tree 70 years to grow from seed to fruit. Yet despite this length of time, we plant these trees not for our own benefit, but for future generations. And just as our ancestors once planted the trees which today provide for us, so too must we now lay the foundations for future generations to thrive.

This year, we celebrate the first lifetime of camp. 

We celebrate the hundreds of Shabbatot, the thousands of songs sung together in the chadar ochel (dining hall), and the countless hours spent relaxing by the shores of Lake Stampfer. We celebrate adventures on the challenge course, long hikes to the bog, and endless days floating down the Deschutes. 

We also celebrate the quiet moments of connection, as we whispered with our friends in the stillness of the night. We celebrate the light from the havdalah candle, the lifelong friendships, and the strong Jewish identities we built that will carry the Jewish future forward. We celebrate each of us! With hope, determination, and profound gratitude for the incredible journey ahead, let us embark on our second lifetime with hearts full of joy, and a steadfast commitment to a future as rich and as meaningful as our illustrious past.

As we enter our 70th year, please join us as we reunite with old friends, make new ones, and celebrate the legacy and the future of Camp Solomon Schechter, where Judaism and Joy are One!

L’Shalom, 

Zach Duitch

Executive Director