Jewish Summer Camp Remembered

September 30, 2000

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

On September 30, 2000, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported that "what you see first is a huge sign with hand-painted letters reading 'Blue Star Camps.' It's mounted on two blue panels, nailed to 7-foot wooden poles. Then there's a long silver canoe. And a tiny cot and bedroom used by young campers. And a white nurse's uniform owned by Hilda Ney, 75, who wore it for more than 20 years in the camp's health center. A new exhibit mounted by Atlanta's William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is bound to evoke happy memories for tens of thousands of aging metro area adults who attended the Southeast's oldest Jewish summer camp in the 1940s, '50s, '60s and '70s. And for many of their kids as well. Museum director Jane Leavey said archivist Sandy Berman worked closely with a number of Atlanta camp alumni, including Carol Rubin, 55, and her husband, Joe, 58, and their two now-grown children, all of whom attended Blue Star. 'We began looking into gathering artifacts; the response was overwhelming,' says Rubin. 'We actually reached the point we were turning stuff down.' She says the camp and others in the South have tens of thousands of alumni, most of whom are from the Atlanta area. The exhibition, which will run through Jan. 28, is called 'Hello, Ema (mother), Hello, Abba (father): Celebrating Southern Jewish Camping Experiences.'"