{"id":54273,"date":"2016-11-03T09:09:02","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T14:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=54273"},"modified":"2016-11-10T20:21:33","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T01:21:33","slug":"orthodox-girls-find-performance-spotlight-camp-maor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/orthodox-girls-find-performance-spotlight-camp-maor\/","title":{"rendered":"Orthodox Girls Find Their Performance Spotlight\u00a0at Camp Maor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gillian Herszage spends 48 weeks a year away from her best friends. As a ninth grader from Columbus, Ohio, Gillian had spent most of her life straddling two groups and never fully fitting into either: there were the frum kids at her school, who mostly didn\u2019t share her passion for dance and acting; and there were the public school kids at the JCC, who performed in plays alongside Gillian, but didn\u2019t understand why she was showing up in skirts and not shorts, like the rest of them. So when she went to Camp Maor for the first time three years ago, and she finally met a group of girls who were both Orthodox and passionate about performing arts, Gillian knew she had found her closest friends. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt first I was nervous,\u201d says Gillian, who had never been to sleepaway camp before Maor. \u201cBut I spoke to classmates and teachers, and they all told me I had to go. It was perfect for me.\u201d Gillian has been back every year since then. <\/span><\/p>\n

Gillian\u2019s first summer at Maor was also Maor\u2019s first summer. Started in 2014 by Sari Kahn, Camp Maor, now an NCSY all-girls camp<\/a>, was created as a response to a need that no other camp was filling. That need is the place where Orthodox Judaism and performing arts meet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in Florida, where my school put on annual performances on the same level as community theatres,\u201d says Kahn. \u201cMy daughters don\u2019t have that. When I started Maor, they were taking dance lessons, and we were coming up against a lot of issues: The dance lessons changed and were being scheduled over sefira; The type of music they were dancing to; The costumes they would be wearing at performances.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Kahn found that she wasn\u2019t alone in experiencing these challenges. Every parent she spoke to could empathize, and every performing artist she approached was excited about the idea of providing professional-level training to girls in an Orthodox setting. <\/span><\/p>\n

Rhonda Malkin is one of the first professionals Kahn spoke with, and she was immediately on board. Malkin, now a dance coach and personal trainer to celebrities, was a member of the Rockettes for twelve years; she has been teaching at Maor all three summers, and this past summer, her daughter joined her at camp as a camper. While Malkin raves about the unique training opportunities that Maor provides, she sees the camp as offering something even more important. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of confidence these kids gain is unbelievable,\u201d says Malkin. \u201cSome of them come to camp so talented, but so shy and timid because they\u2019ve never had the opportunity to explore their talents, and that\u2019s what they get. They grow within their own self-esteem and their willingness to step outside their comfort zone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The staff members at Maor are not the only ones who see the difference one month can do; parents who send their daughters to Maor are amazed at the changes they see over the course of camp. <\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Josh Joseph, senior vice president at Yeshiva University, is one such parent. His daughter Marsha attended Maor for the first time this July. Maor was not the first camp Marsha has been to, but it\u2019s the first time that her father has felt she was in the right place for her. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are direct quotes from her letters,\u201d says Rabbi Joseph. \u201c\u2018I love this camp; it\u2019s the best camp I\u2019ve ever been to in my life. This camp makes me the best Marsha I can be.\u2019\u00a0 <\/span>To see that in print\u2014literally, I was in tears.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike at most camps, when kids are bussed home en masse at the end of the summer, at Camp Maor, parents come pick their daughters up\u2014after watching them perform the skills they\u2019ve been learning all summer in two enormous performances. First, all family members are invited to a non-musical production, after which the singers and dancers perform for women only. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis year the performance was The Wizard of Oz,\u201d says Kahn, who makes sure that the production connects to a theme that carries through the full month of camp. \u201cThe theme this year was the power within<\/i>, and every chinuch lesson was connected to that theme.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Kahn adds that, rather than just focus on performing arts, Camp Maor strives to provide every camper with a full camp experience. In addition to daily Torah classes, or \u201cchinuch,\u201d campers get recreational activities like swimming and night activities. Each camper can even choose whether to participate in daily sports, or something like Zumba or yoga instead\u2014after all, one of the reasons Maor was started was to provide an alternative to the traditional sports-centric summer camp offerings. <\/span><\/p>\n

And what about the futures of these girls? Kahn and Malkin are both certain that they are being prepared for successful futures, whether they choose to pursue performing arts as careers or simply carry the lessons they learned from Maor with them in other ways. Shaindel Antelis, a Jewish pop star who has released three studio albums, was a voice teacher at Maor this past summer, and she couldn\u2019t agree more. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese girls are beautiful and worthwhile, and can do anything they set their minds to,\u201d says Antelis. <\/span><\/p>\n

Though Maor was created to provide a place for artistic Orthodox teens, with few outlets, to express their creativity, it has become something much more than that to every girl who has attended. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a family,\u201d says Ilana Lashak, a Stern College freshman who was a counselor at Maor this past summer. \u201cYou hear the girls saying, \u201cThese are my people.\u201d They may not have this type of group of friends at home, where they can combine performing arts and Judaism. They feel so understood; Camp Maor is a safe space for them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Avigail Klein flew over 9,000 miles to reach that space. Maor\u2019s only camper from Singapore, Avigail is a fifth grader who loves acting, dancing, and singing, and came to Maor to be among other girls who share her passions. Her favorite part of the camp, though, was the spirit of inclusion the staff provided. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone gets a turn on stage,\u201d Avigail says. \u201cThat is what\u2019s most important about Maor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gillian Herszage spends 48 weeks a year away from her best friends. As a ninth grader from Columbus, Ohio, Gillian had spent most of her life straddling two groups and never fully fitting into either: there were the frum kids at her school, who mostly didn\u2019t share her passion for dance and acting; and there<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nOrthodox Girls Find Their Performance Spotlight\u00a0at Camp Maor - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/orthodox-girls-find-performance-spotlight-camp-maor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Orthodox Girls Find Their Performance Spotlight\u00a0at Camp Maor - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gillian Herszage spends 48 weeks a year away from her best friends. 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