Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff to visit his Jewish summer camp, Cedar Lake

By JACKIE HAJDENBERG/JTA

Published: JULY 29, 2023 05:54

US SECOND Gentleman Douglas Emhoff speaks at a meeting of special envoys and coordinators on combating antisemitism, in Berlin, earlier this year. (photo credit: John MacDougall/Reuters) — US SECOND Gentleman Douglas Emhoff speaks at a meeting of special envoys and coordinators on combating antisemitism, in Berlin, earlier this year.

(photo credit: John MacDougall/Reuters)

Emhoff is headed to the camp next Thursday to visit his old stomping grounds and speak to the Jewish campers there about Jewish life and antisemitism.

Campers at Cedar Lake Camp in Milford, Pennsylvania, will experience a second visiting day next week when a special guest drops in: Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Emhoff is headed to the camp next Thursday to visit his old stomping grounds and speak to the Jewish campers there about Jewish life and antisemitism.

Emhoff has been traveling across the United States promoting the White House’s National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism, which was launched in May, visiting Columbus, Ohio, and Aspen, Colorado, in June. That month, he also met with a bipartisan group of mayors at the US Conference of Mayors to discuss joint efforts to counter antisemitism and hate.

At Cedar Lake Camp, which Emhoff attended as a teen for four years, he was voted “most athletic” in his division at 13. Emhoff’s circuit has brought him before Jewish youth in the past, including at the opening ceremonies of Jewish teen organization BBYO’s international convention in February, where he recounted his camp feats.

Alumni frequently seek to recapture the special feeling of summer camp

Michael Schlank, the CEO of NJY Camps, which operates Cedar Lake, said alumni of the network’s camps frequently seek to recapture the special feeling of their summers spent there.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of a president or a vice president, and his wife US Vice President Kamala Harris, stand beside a menorah during a Hanukkah celebration at the White House in Washington, US, December 1, 2021. (credit: REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE)

“They want to physically return to their home away from home. They want to walk the paths they walked, see the fields they played on, hear the sounds of camp that bring them back to their youth and to the immersive experience of being at Jewish summer camp,” Schlank wrote.

“We put a tremendous value on the idea of active memory in our tradition and alumni want to zahor (remember) their time in camp in a tangible and palpable way.”