Sacramento’s Camp Nefesh hosts refugee children during World Refugee Day

Refugee children from Honduras, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Russia, Venezuela and Fiji were welcomed at this year’s Camp Nefesh.

The free summer day camp, hosted by Congregation B’nai Israel in Sacramento was started by founder Lucy Beckett when she was 16. The camp has been providing free, fun, summer activities for refugee children since 2018.

Jason Weiner, whos on the Board of Directors for Camp Nefesh, said the production is organized and run by teen members of the congregation and volunteers with a purpose of giving refugee children an opportunity to have fun and let go of their troubles.

A planning committee works throughout the year in preparation; this includes raising money, hiring volunteers and planning the activities, according to Camp Director Gali Schwarz.

Schwarz, 16, has been involved with Camp Nefesh since she was a child. “I was 11, and I was probably more annoying than I was helpful, but I really loved it and I’ve come back every year since,” she said.

Led by 50 teen volunteers, the team works to execute a theme every day of the two-week-long camp, which began Monday and continues until the end of next week.

Friday’s theme will be under the sea, and campers can prepare to cool down with a slip ‘n slide and ice cream.

The day-camp experience starts bright and early, and gives campers the options to make friendship bracelets, play board games and get some recreational time at the playground.

This year, Camp Nefesh has 43 campers, all with different English-speaking capabilities. Schwarz said they can either translate through an older sibling, use hand signals or use an app.

“Without Google Translate, I don’t know where we’d be,” said Ross London, co-camp director.

Since the camper demographic is multi-religious, Weiner said they have time and space available for campers to pray if needed throughout the day.

A safe space at camp

The Rahmani family are just one of many refugee families that found a safe space at the camp.

Siblings Samina, Zenat and Abuzaid left Afghanistan in 2019 and are in their second summer spent at Camp Nefesh.

Abuzaid, 9, said his favorite thing to do at camp is “play with the new kids.”

“I play soccer, tag and basketball,” he said.

His eldest sister, Samina, 12, said she learned many things during her time at the camp, but one of them was “taking responsibility.”

The campers aren’t the only ones who are learning new things: Schwarz said she’s learned resilience from her campers.

“Seeing them be able to act like kids after all they’ve gone through is just incredible,” she said.

Schwarz said that she loves having a moment to sit down with an individual kid and make a connection.

When the campers are picked up by their parents, London, 16, said his favorite thing is to hear from the parents how happy their kids are and what a good time they are having.

Schwarz, London and a majority of the teen volunteers are members of Congregation B’Nai Israel.The congregation partners up with two immigration refugee agencies, World Relief and Norcal Resist, to promote aid services to refugee families and offer support.

London said the Temple “is really focused on trying to give back to the community.”

Weiner said social actions are a core value of being Jewish, “changing the world, or we call it, repairing the world.”

“We have members involved in every cause you can think of,” he said.

The Hebrew words tikkun olam, means to repair the world, Weiner said.

Congregation B’Nai Israel utilizes a Social Action Committee that offers members various methods to fulfill that the tenet of tikkun olam.

Subcommittees include, a LGBTQ+ rights, a racial justice committee and an immigration and refugee assistance committee, which is what Camp Nefesh operates under.

Nefesh in Hebrew means soul or spirit, according to Weiner, so Camp Nefesh is meant to be a “universal welcoming place” for the spirit and soul of everyone in the community.