Camp Hemshekh
Camp Hemshekh (Yiddish for "continuation") was a Jewish summer camp in the United States started in 1959 by Holocaust survivors who had been active in the General Jewish Labour Bund in Eastern Europe. Sponsored by the Bund, the camp taught Bundist ideas like secular Yiddish culture, equality and justice, and doikayt—the belief in Jewish cultural and political engagement in the country where you live rather than seeking a separate homeland. Participants were called Hemshekhistn.
The camp ran at five sites in New York State: Liberty (1959), Beecher near Hunter (1960), Turkey Point near Saugerties (1961), Hunter proper (1962–1968), and Mountain Dale (1969–1978).
Notable alumni include Daniel Libeskind, Binyumen Schaechter, Zalmen Mlotek, Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Lazer Lederhendler, and Gloria Brame.
Ghetto Night was held every year on the third Sunday of August. It was a day-long remembrance of Jewish partisans and Holocaust victims, with a bilingual program in English and Yiddish that used poetry and song to convey the history and impact of the Holocaust. The event finished with a torch-lit walk to the Ghetto Denkmol. There were two memorial versions: the original 1962 white wooden structure with a Libeskind mosaic of a ghetto fighter, and a later replica featuring a ghetto wall topped with barbed wire, six black signposts naming the six million Jews killed (in Yiddish), and the central fighter mosaic.
On Ghetto Day, the oldest campers stood watch at the memorial, with a boy and a girl from the senior group taking turns hourly to maintain a solemn presence.
Singing was a central activity. Mornings in the dining hall started with Yiddish and English songs, and during rest hour campers rehearsed Yiddish musical numbers for Visiting Day, the midsummer Holocaust commemorations, or other events. Campers and counselors often gathered to play the guitar and sing folk songs. A banner above the stage read: “Let us carry the spirit that has been entrusted to us.” A rock garden used for campfires and meetings was named for Froim Lozer, a Bundist who advocated for a public park in Łódź for workers. Wooden plaques on trees honored Jewish resistance figures such as Henryk Ehrlich, Victor Alter, Mordechai Anielewicz, Szmuel Zygielbojm, and Emanuel Ringelblum.
Reunions included a November 15, 1987 gathering at Windows on the World in the World Trade Center with about 200 former campers, and a October 10, 1999 gathering at Terrace on the Park in Flushing Meadows Park with about 240 attendees. A booklet given at the 1999 reunion served as both a songbook and an address list, containing around 104 songs, most in Yiddish.
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, a reunion was held in New York City from October 10 to 12, 2009, with the main event on October 11 at the Workmen’s Circle Building. Saturday featured potluck gatherings with former campers, visits to the Hunter and Mountaindale sites, and photo displays. About 200 former campers attended the main event.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 10:03 (CET).