Abstract
Summer camps are powerful educational tools that have been utilized for decades as socialization enterprises to espouse values that meet an organization’s or individual’s vision of a better future. For many years, those educational tools included the stereotypical portrayal of Native American and Black cultures, in the pursuit of creating ideal American citizens. After World War II, Jewish Americans were situated somewhere in between black and white in the racial matrix that existed in the American consciousness. As Jews sought to integrate into American society and maintain aspects of their religious identity, they created spaces that mirrored those of non-Jewish institutions, providing them with socially relevant experiences within a Jewish context. Black and Jewish Americans shared histories of discrimination and persecution, and both groups respectively faced racism and antisemitism in American society. These shared experiences made Jews a likely partner in the Civil Rights Movement. Yet as Black and Jewish interests began to focus inward, and each group prioritized their own goals separate from the other’s, what was called the Black-Jewish alliance fractured, many asserting beyond the point of repair. This thesis looks at the changing relationship between Black and Jewish Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, the racial and social roots of summer camps, and how those histories inform a path forward for summer camps to begin to play their part in the renewed fight for racial justice.