Wexner Member Profile: Skip Vichness

If you ask Skip Vichness (MetroWest) what makes him such a good camp director, he will tell you with a laugh that it’s because he understands Napoleon. Vichness has been a camping professional for nearly twenty-five years but he started out as a European History professor after studying the French Revolution and Napoleonic history for his doctoral degree. Somehow, he shifted his attention from the battleground to the campground and made his way from counselor to his current position as president of the National Ramah Commission, the umbrella board for Ramah camping movements around the world.

Vichness spent seven years as business manager and then associate director of Camp Ramah in the Berkshires. Sixteen years ago, he purchased Harbor Hills, a secular day camp in Randolph, New Jersey. Six years ago, he joined Ramah’s board and served as Vice President of Operations and Finance before becoming President. In a nutshell, Vichness says, "Camping is my life."

"I think it is a pivotal experience for children," Vichness explains. "I think it can be formative and transformative for these kids." In fact, he has had campers call him up twenty-five years later to tell him how much their summers at Ramah influenced their lives. Vichness says that because camping is such a potentially powerful experience, it is the responsibility of the Jewish community to make it a priority to expand and renovate existing facilities, found camps where there is a void, and create compelling programming.

"The first issue is to understand that sending kids to a Jewish camp is about survival of the Jewish people. It’s not just about survival of the family," Vichness says. "Number two, I don’t think kids should have to settle for second place to choose a Jewish camp. Its facilities, its programs ought to be as good as any other camp out there." Vichness says camps need help to achieve that level of excellence. "Camp is so diverse. It’s a whole world so there are a lot of different places people can plug in their expertise." He suggests that Wexnerites looking to become involved should choose a camp "whose philosophy, whatever it is, fits in with what they think is important because it’s not just camping. It’s camping with a purpose. And then find out what that camp needs from laymen."

Vichness believes the emphasis placed on Jewish Day School education is laudable but it’s time for some emphasis to be placed on camping as well. He has a friend who often states that, "Solomon Schechter gave to kids their Jewish head. Camp Ramah gave to them their Jewish heart." Vichness believes there are elements of camping that cannot be replicated in a school or home environment. "At home and the rest of the year other things get in the way," Vichness says. But at camp, "you really can create an idealized world that can accomplish great things for kids."

In fact, one of the reasons Vichness has dedicated his career to camping is that he believes it is "one of the few value-based careers that you can have. Being able to build a world for young people that is pure and idealistic, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s terrific. We don’t give our kids enough of that."

"You can really create role models that have an impact," Vichness adds. "What really matters to a kid, that makes it special, is bonding with a counselor. How many nine year-olds have a nineteen year-old friend who goes to college, wears the cool clothes, thinks I’m special and cares about me?" Therefore, Vichness believes it is essential to recruit counselors who can teach the camp’s philosophy by example. In turn, camp directors must realize that the counselors are part of the constituency in which they are trying to imbue those values.

Jewish camps, Vichness says, bind children to other children with similar values. They then teach those children the joy of living a life of Jewish observance. "That can create a sea change for a kid that lasts a lifetime."

Reprinted with permission of The Leader: the newsletter of the Wexner Heritage Foundation -- The original article appeared in the Summer 2000 edition of The Leader (Vol. 2, No. 5) .