For an Israeli teenager living with the strain of war, spending time at a North American Jewish summer camp offers the chance to be a kid again. It is also a powerful reminder that Jews around the world are there for one another.

In July, when I visited Camp Livingston in Indiana, the presence of Israeli teenagers carried a significance far beyond an ordinary summer at camp.

They came from Kibbutz Karmia, Cincinnati’s partner community near the Gaza border through The Jewish Agency for Israel’s Communities2Gether program. They attended Camp Livingston as part of Campers2Gether, in which The Jewish Agency brings Israeli teenagers from communities affected by war to Jewish overnight camps across North America, giving them time away from the stress and uncertainty that have shaped their lives since the October 7th attacks.

While visiting, we asked the campers a simple question: What was the best thing about camp, and what was the worst?

They had plenty of answers for the best: the new friends they were making, the food they were enjoying, the activities, and the experience of spending a summer in a rural American setting and a different culture.

The worst? Every one of them told us there was nothing.

Watching their happiness, I was reminded of........

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