| Pripstein's Camp Mishmar
מחנה משמר
| |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
 | |
| Coordinates | 45°58′59″N 74°21′26″W / 45.98310°N 74.35732°W / 45.98310; -74.35732 |
| Information | |
| Type | Private summer camp |
| Established | 1941 (1941) |
| Closed | 2014; 10 years ago (2014) |
| Age range | 7–16 |
| Language | English |
| Tuition | $1000–$2000/wk[1] |
| Communities served | Jewish and anglophone communities |
| Affiliation | Ontario Camping Association |
| Website | mishmar |
Pripstein's Camp Mishmar (Hebrew: מַחֲנֶה מִשְׁמָר) was a private co-educational summer campinSt. Adolphe d'Howard, Quebec, which operated from 1941 to 2014. Though not strictly a Jewish summer camp, Mishmar predominantly catered to a middle- and upper-class Jewish clientele. In its seventy year history, the camp hosted a number of prominent future writers, businesspeople, and politicians.
Camp Mishmar was founded by Chaim Pripstein, a Hebrew teacher at United Talmud Torahs who had fled Poland to Canada before World War II.[2]AHebrew teacher at United Talmud Torahs, Pripstein became a peddler in the Laurentians to supplement his income, acquiring land from a local farmer near St. Jerome in 1941. Pripstein decided to rent it out to local Jewish families during the summer, and soon left his job as a school teacher to run a modest Jewish country hotel on the land with his wife Pearl.[3] The hotel became known for its literary gatherings, hosting such writers as Isaac Bashevis Singer.[4]
As their business grew, the Pripsteins set up a residential camp for about ten children, which quickly grew into a proper summer camp complete with a playing field and tennis court.[5] The camp emphasized Jewish culture and physical fitness.[6] The camp relocated to the shore of Lac des Trois Frères in St. Adolphe d'Howard in 1954, after local authorities deemed the river running through the original site polluted.[6]
At its peak in the 1960s, the camp had an average of 240 campers each summer.[2] The camp was closed in 2014 because of declining enrolment and financial difficulties.[7]
Camp Mishmar boasted top-quality sports facilities, including a covered pool, a covered basketball court, a 1,765-square-metre (19,000 sq ft) sports complex with an indoor roller rink, skate park and rock climbing centre, and an indoor ice rink.[3] Food at Camp Mishmar was 'kosher style', though the camp only served kosher meat in its early years. Jewish rituals such as lighting Shabbat candles were nonetheless maintained.[2]
Leonard Cohen fictionalized Pripstein's Camp Mishmar in The Favourite Game (1963), which was based upon a journal he kept while working at the camp as a counsellor.[8] Sarah Mlynowski used her ten years at Pripstein's as inspiration for her novel Spells and Sleeping Bags (2007).[9]
|
Jewish overnight summer camps in Canada
| |
|---|---|
| Atlantic Canada |
|
| Ontario |
|
| Quebec |
|
| Western Canada |
|
See also: History of the Jews in Canada | |
