Camp Kadimah just reopened for its 79th year. Meet the family who's been there for 77 of them

Camp Kadimah was founded in the 1940s to give Jewish kids from small, disparate Maritime communities the chance to meet each other. Its creation resulted in many lifelong friendships and even a few marriages—including the Conters, who have just sent a fourth-generation family member to the camp.

On July 3, Karen Conter saw off her six-year-old grandson for his first summer at the historic Jewish summer camp. Conter attended in 1970s, even meeting her husband there; her mother and children attended as well. She believes they might be the only family in Kadimah's history to reach that milestone.

This summer's camp season is historic for another reason, too: it's the first time since 2019 that the camp opened, due to the pandemic. And even still, campers will show up to find numerous anomalies: no visiting day, for example, due to COVID, and more health and safety protocols around the dining room.

Members from all four generations of the Conter-Abramsky family join to talk about what the camp means to them, recall their favourite memories and explain how they feel sending Reuben off with the pandemic not quite behind us.

What we talked about:

• Visit Camp Kadimah's website at campkadimah.com
• Watch The Kadimah Movie at thekadimahmovie.com
• Read about the 70 toppled gravestones in Winnipeg

Credits

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.