Moshe (next to the flag) climbed up to get a glimpse of his parents as they waited
for the entrance to be unlocked.
Our Aliyah Chronicle
By Shmuel Katz
I skim through the paper regularly (and yes, I do still check to see which page I am on; after ten years it is still a kick to be on the front page), and as I was “flipping” through the online version a couple of weeks ago I enjoyed seeing Larry Gordon’s semi-regular lament about the visiting-day ritual performed each summer in the Catskills. As you know, we sent our two youngest to camp for (almost) three weeks, which is about the longest session of camp that is available to us here. And yes, they have a visiting day as well.
I am not sure why we need a visiting day for a camp that lasts all of 19 days. It might be that the Anglo parents expect it and therefore the camps schedule it. Alternatively—and this is my suspicion—it could be an easy way for them to have an unprogrammed camp day. Instead of the camp having to take the kids on a hike or schedule another day of the same activities they did all week, the parents come up and occupy the day for them. And buy lots of stuff at the canteen. (We aren’t allowed to take them out of camp.)
Of course, it has to be done, as all other things, in signature Israeli style. Since Sunday is a workday and Friday is not, visiting day is held here on Friday from 10:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. So instead of navigating through end-of-the-weekend traffic on the way home, like in the U.S., we have to deal with beginning-of-the-weekend traffic on the way there. We’ve sat in both, and I am honestly not sure which is more frustrating, although I would say it’s the Friday traffic, since it usually makes us late in getting to the kids (although not this year, when we arrived 15 minutes early).
Every year we finish our tour of the camp in about 15 minutes. Then we set ourselves down in the shade somewhere and enjoy the pizza we bought for lunch along with fruits and treats that Goldie prepared for us. And then the real business of visiting day begins: hanging out.
After resupplying the kids’ nosh and candy stock, the adults all wander from group to group, socializing, while the kids socialize among themselves. Since it’s a Moshava/Bnei Akiva camp, this essentially means that I get to hang out with and see many of my neighbors from Bet Shemesh along with many of my Chicago- and New York-based friends who have made aliyah.
With the day off happening on Friday in Israel, we do not get a chance to do things or visit people much here. In the U.S., we would often go to a museum, the zoo, aquarium, etc., on Sunday afternoons. Sunday was a nice day to have fun together. In Israel, many Israelis take advantage of Friday as the day off. But most olim do not.
We are used to spending Friday getting ready for Shabbat. We also like to bring in Shabbat early, so that the little kids can join us for the seudah. We grew up this way, and for the first 16 years of our marriage that was how we raised our family. So while we occasionally do something on Friday, it’s not the big family day we’ve enjoyed in the past, even in the summer.
Without Sunday, we have little chance to visit or socialize with people outside of Bet Shemesh. We can’t just head off to a barbecue or other social gathering, since we are working all day and the kids have to be in school the next day. About the only time we get to see people is either at a simcha or, l’havdil, a funeral.
I have been talking with other Chicagoans for years about making an annual barbecue in a park somewhere in the middle of the country one summer evening. We all agree that we are tired of seeing each other at funerals and need an excuse to be happy to see one another.
Visiting day is an opportunity for that. We get to visit with old friends and freak our kids out a little as we reminisce about what we did in the days when we were their age. So, even though the camp is a whopping 19 days long and they will be back home before we know it (with the endless chorus of “I’m bored”), I guess visiting day serves a purpose—less so for the kids than the parents, but a purpose nonetheless. v
Shmuel Katz, his wife Goldie, and their six children made aliyah in July 2006. Before making aliyah, he was the executive director of the Yeshiva of South Shore in Hewlett. You can contact him at shmuel@katzfamily.co.il.