User:Czgoldbe

Yaalozu by Chayim Goldberg

Yaalozu is a Jewish (Orthodox) wilderness program that's part of Camp Dora Golding, located in East Stroudsbourg, PA. Created in 1998 by R. Zev Freundlich in the now-closed Camp Yesharim, Yaalozu was moved the following year to Dora Golding and has been a division of the later ever since. Directed from its founding until 2004 by R. Freundlech, Yaalozu is currently directed by Tani Prero. The first-year program, directly run by Tani with the help of 4-5 counslers, is aimed at boys of all backgrounds that are either entering their first year of high-school or completing it, usually between the ages of 14-16 and consisting of around 25 campers. The second-year program, started in 2001, is a much more intensive program known as Yaalozu Extreme and is open only to those who have completed and excelled in the first year program. It's usually limited to a maximum of 15 kids, in the summer of 2006 it saw 8 campers and two counslers, Yosef Scott snd Chayim Goldberg.

The overall goal of Yaalozu is to create an alternative to the typical Jewish summer camp experience in which the values of working as a group and the belief that one can accomplish anything so long as he wants to are combined with the strict encouragement and enforcement of positive values to create a safe environment in which one can realize the true happiness that comes only through hard work. In the first-year program, campers live either in an army tent or a basic bunk-house and are exposed to various basic skills of wilderness living. They are also divided into groups that, with the guidance of a counsler, construct a building project of their choosing with the use of saws and ropes. They are also taken on three increasingly intense hikes of 2 days, 1 day and 3 days respectivley. Both programs are also taken to Albany for an indoor rock climbing and caving trip. Yaalozu Extreme lives in a corner of the campus in the woods not far from the site of Yaalozu 1 where campers are given a tarp, rope and saws and are expected to use their skills acquired the previous summer to build their own shelter in the trees. They then leave the following week for a 10 day, 60+ mile hike in the northern catskills along the Devils Path and Long Path that ranges from West Kill Mt. to Windham High Peak., through the North-South lake and Blackhead regions. The remainder of the month is spent living entirely in the woods, acquiring and honing such skills as cooking, fire by friction, camouflage, trapping-fishing. Modern tools for the ease of creating fire, eating utensils, and rope are denied until campers have shown their ability to make them on their own.