There's a wonderful write-up of Camp Tawonga's Noar L'Noar (Teen to Teen) program in the current edition of J Weekly. Check out "Ethiopians at Tawonga find colorblindness, kinship" and see for yourself!

“Tawonga changed me,” said [Kobi] Ambeu, a slender soccer player wearing unlaced red Pumas, a red baseball cap and a San Francisco sweatshirt. “Sometimes people don’t like me because I’m Jewish. Other people don’t want me because I’m black. At Tawonga, people don’t say, ‘He’s black or Jewish.’ It’s like family now. It’s like a dream, Tawonga.”

Read the full story here

Session 4's Israeli campers say goodbye to San Francisco at a barbecue with friends in Marin.

Special Tawonga KUDOS go out to everyone who made them feel welcome by hosting, driving them around and showing them how their Northern California family lives!

If you were at camp Session 4, then you know that Camp Tawonga is producing a promotional DVD! We are looking for an intern who will assist us with logging 16 hours of DV tape into a spreadsheet so that we can start our editing process. The assignment starts ASAP and needs to be finished within a few weeks.

We're looking for someone who:
- Has her/his own DV camera or deck for viewing the tapes (you can work at home if you want)
- Has some experience logging video, or is excited to learn
- Understands summer camp enough that you can figure out what's going on in the scenes

Bonus points (but not required) if you:
- Love kids. Most of the video is kids playing or talking to the camera
- Have a good understanding of the Bay Area Jewish community
- Went to Camp Tawonga

We can provide letters for school credit or community service hours, plus a $100 stipend. Additionally, if you're interested, you can go on to assist the director in the edit process itself.

Please send us an email explaining why you're interested and what your background/education in video production is. We are very happy to work with responsible teens. Please forward this notice to any friends who might be interested as well!

Interested? Send a well-thought out email to Sarah at marketing@tawonga.org by August 25.

The troopers of B-8 did an awesome 6 mile hike out to Rancheria Falls last week and the pictures are back! Above is the group on the bridge in front of Wampama Falls, about 3 miles from the O'Shaughnessy Dam at Hetch Hetchy.


Some of these guys had never been backpacking before, and some were old hands, but the crew really came together for a killer 3 day trip. The unanimous highlight for everyone? Natural waterslides!





Everyone was exhausted and ready for naps at the end of the trip! But they were all happy campers...especially when the sandwiches came out!

Dear Camp Tawonga,

Here are 2 photos from Sessions 4 Carmel. The first is two girls getting on the bus to leave and the second is them arriving home after 2 weeks. The best part is, these girls met for the first time waiting for the bus in the parking lot and became fast friends.

This just in from our friends at JVibe Magazine:

Attention campers (and staff!): Do you like to write? Do you have some funny camp tales to share? JVibe wants to hear all about it! If you didn't already know, JVibe is a national teen print and web magazine for Jewish teens. We are always on the lookout for teens with a passion for journalism and/or writing. So, if you've got an idea you'd like to write about or just want to learn more, we'd love to hear from you. You can e-mail the editors and be sure to mention Camp Tawonga in your message to us, so we'll know how you found us!"

Hello, I am Ran, the group leader for the delegation of Israeli campers this session at Camp Tawonga.

After two weeks of amazing times here at camp, we are entering our last week. In the past two weeks we have gone backpacking in Yosemite, celebrated Shabbat twice, played sports and gotten "gnarly." We did some arts and crafts, and we danced at the song sessions. We have five more days, and soon we will be on the bus back to SF, and shortly after that we will be on our way home to Israel. Thank you, Camp Tawonga, for the amazing experience!

Ran Tsrouya, Noar Le Noar Group leader.

Hanging out with the boys of B-1 is always awesome, but today was really special at Arts & Crafts. The boys made hand dipped candles for Havdalah (and just for fun) while Oren told beautiful Jewish stories about light.

At this morning's Torah service we sang some new songs, paraded the Torah through Makom Shalom, heard from the amazing Parashat players, and shared things that we're thankful for! Here are some shots of the beautiful service.











Here, all of camp strolls into the Makom Shalom through the cedar trees, while Gal and Nora welcome them with music, and unit heads, counselors and other campers shake people's hands: Shabbat Shalom!

Last week's mock Knesset at Camp Tawonga has made international headlines! If you weren't there, here's the scoop: Haifa and Chalutzim campers learned about 10 political parties in Israel, then re-enacted 2004's historic vote on whether or not to "disengage" from the Gaza strip. Read all about it on the website of Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot!