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From Camp Romimu:
June 11, ’20
Dear Romimu Family,
Thank you for your continued support and trust. The letters and calls of encouragement that we have gotten over the last few weeks give us the chizuk to keep fighting for camps to open.
There have been many texts and messages that have been circulating. Many of them are based on bits of information that are based on a snapshot in time and are not accurate at all.
I have been working to get camps open and giving 100% of my energy to the effort. There are askonim from all walks of Yiddishkeit that are working together with Agudas Israel in the push for Albany to give overnight camps the green light. I am working together with Agudah leadership who have been lobbying Albany incessantly on our behalf. The fight is NOT over, we have not given up. There is a chance that we MAY receive a green light. Is it 20%, 50% or 90%? We simply do not know. We are hoping for an announcement early next week. Keep in mind that we have been expecting an answer for approximately one month and it has been pushed off time and again.
What if we get a green light? Terrific, camp is ready! We will, IYH, have our most amazing summer ever. Everyone’s dreams for the summer will have been realized.
What if we get a no or we don’t get an answer by early next week? As a backup, we would open an extended day camp program for all ages. It would be 6 days a week and would extend into the evening. If we don’t get an answer, we will send out information about our day camp program. Unfortunately, this would leave out the many hundreds of boys who are not upstate during the summer. I know this would be devastating for all those boys and would pain me very much personally. We will, therefore, continue to battle to open overnight camps.
Are we looking into a campus in Pennsylvania or another state? That is still a possibility, but it is highly unlikely. We looked at camp sites and did not feel that they would be a good fit for Camp Romimu. We are still exploring other campsites, but again this is not likely.
Wishing you and your mishpacha much hatzlacha. B’ezer Hashem, we hope to rejoin with our Romimu family very soon!
Rabbi Shlomo Pfeiffer
These camps are private for-profit businesses whose main consideration is their bottom line. Like any profitable business they are fighting to stay open. They shouldn’t pretend they care so much about the tzibbur (and hence use the tzibbur as their excuse to justify reopening), unless they are willing to lower their fees to something the average family can afford without hardship.
In fact, some non-profit camps declared a while ago that they wouldn’t reopen since they couldn’t see how to do so safely. Those camps actually had their campers interests in mind first and foremost. The camps fighting to reopen apparently don’t have the health of their campers and their families as their primary objective.
Emes mr rose emes