MADISON – Camp Laurelwood, Connecticut’s only overnight Jewish camp, has been selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of JFAM, a new initiative of the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s (FJC). This innovative program, funded by the Maimonides Fund, provides overnight camps with financial and programmatic support to launch or expand their family camp offerings to provide meaningful Jewish experiences for families with young children.

As a participant in the JFAM program, Camp Laurelwood will offer three new and different family camp weekends each year for five years, beginning in 2022. FJC will provide important resources to pilot these programs at camp, and will include training as well as a grant covering capital funding, staff capacity funding, and subsidies for participating families. Laurelwood will work with partner organizations throughout this process, who will lead recruitment efforts with support from the camp. 

After being forced to close last summer due to COVID-19, Camp Laurelwood quickly realized the need to safely invite the community to visit camp in some capacity. To meet this need, Laurelwood offered three weeks of family camp over the summer on its sprawling, 140 acre Madison campus. Founded in 1937, this was the first time Laurelwood had ever explored family camp offerings, and the positive response was overwhelming. FJC’s JFAM program will allow Laurelwood to expand on the programs offered this past summer and build on a vision of year-round community programming rooted in Jewish values and traditions. 

“Camp is a technology that we use to build Jewish identity, and we know that it works,” said Rabbi James Greene, Laurelwood’s executive director. “It is what Laurelwood has been doing for more than 80 years. We are so excited to partner with Foundation for Jewish Camp to bring the magic of camp to families across the region and to build the JFAM program in the years ahead.”