Camp Shiny Shoe
Yesterday was visiting day at Camp Sternberg/Heller. This is OYD's fifth year at that wonderful camp. She loves it and MHW and I love it. (Where else can a 15 year old girl go the entire summer without blow drying here hair and not give a hoot?) The shtick and narishkeit that attend so many other camps don't seem to infect Sternberg.
On the other hand, the music.
From the moment we got there, we were bombarded with Shiny Shoe Music (TM). This choir; that choir; MBD, Shwekey, Fried. All day. And loud. Ich kenesht.
Luckily, I brought some Advil with me. Even more fortunate, we've managed to raise a strong daughter who is able to distinguish between the wheat and the chafe and maintain her sense of music despite this summer long assault.
Yesterday was visiting day at Camp Sternberg/Heller. This is OYD's fifth year at that wonderful camp. She loves it and MHW and I love it. (Where else can a 15 year old girl go the entire summer without blow drying here hair and not give a hoot?) The shtick and narishkeit that attend so many other camps don't seem to infect Sternberg.
On the other hand, the music.
From the moment we got there, we were bombarded with Shiny Shoe Music (TM). This choir; that choir; MBD, Shwekey, Fried. All day. And loud. Ich kenesht.
Luckily, I brought some Advil with me. Even more fortunate, we've managed to raise a strong daughter who is able to distinguish between the wheat and the chafe and maintain her sense of music despite this summer long assault.
Labels: J Music, Random Thoughts
posted by MoChassid @ 9:01 AM
25 Comments:
At 9:58 AM,
Anonymous said…
My girls just came back from Sternberg. Let me add my praise for the camp. Somehow they manage to be very frum, while at the same time avoiding most of the "frummer than thou" / "tznius above all else" nonsense that is running rampant in our community.
And the girls had a fantastic time.
At 11:37 AM,
Anonymous said…
It may seem that way to a NYer, but to an out-of-town parent, requiring girls to wear socks up to the knee in the Summer, is way over the top.
And, yes, the load shiny shoe music is obnoxious too.
At 11:43 AM,
kishke said…
requiring girls to wear socks up to the knee in the Summer, is way over the top.
So send your kid elsewhere. There are camps catering to every sock length.
At 12:30 PM,
Anonymous said…
Yeah Kishke,
I don't know about you, but my primary method of choosing a camp (or anything else for that matter) is sock length.
At 2:06 PM,
kishke said…
Look at sock length as an indicator of where the camp is on the frumkeit continuum. It's as good as any other, and hey, you're the guy who's worked up about the knee sock rule.
At 2:16 PM,
Anonymous said…
Kishke,
I have nothing against frumkeit per se, (which is why I send my daughter there).
What I do have a problem with is sock length as a frumkeit quotient. I'm guessing that you don't.
At 2:58 PM,
MoChassid said…
Clarification: They don't require socks up to the knee. where did you get that? They require socks. Most girls wear ankle socks.
At 3:29 PM,
Anonymous said…
MoC,
I have it on good authority (ie my Daughter) that this year they added a new requirement. She was none too happy.
At 3:52 PM,
MoChassid said…
I was there yesterday.
At 3:53 PM,
Anonymous said…
I was the first comment here, so I presume the point about knee socks was directed to me.
First of all, I'm not a NYer (boruch hashem!) and my girls who just came back about week ago did not wear knee socks.
There are certainly rules at Sternberg that are different than the way my family acts/interprets halacha. But the important thing is that at Sternberg frumkeit is portrayed in its positive form and not in the oppressive taliban way.
At 3:55 PM,
Anonymous said…
One more thing: I can't stand the term "out-of-town" to refer to non-NYers. Sounds too much like chutz l'aretz.
Never lived in NY (or NJ or CT) and never wanted to.
At 3:57 PM,
Anonymous said…
Anon- you're wrong - my daughter got back last week and I didn't send one pair of knee socks up - nor was she required to wear them - the rule is that they neeed to wear socks that cover the ankle (i.e. - no-shows aren't allowed). Although many girls do choose to wear knee socks only - Sternebrg is a huge mix.
Amazing how upset you sound over knee socks - it's no biggie if girls do wear them and it's a minhag hamakom issue - so if it realy bothers you send your kid somewhere else.
Kishke - not sure if you're kidding (I hope you are!!!) but if not you're off about sock length and frumkeit - at least with respect to Sternberg - you have girls from more MO schoosl (like YNJ) and you have hard core bais yaakov girls there (BYA, YOB, BYOB). They come because it's a unique program in girls camps - down to earth, not jappy, lots of sports.
Pretty shallow to judge frumkeit on sock length (and yes I send my girls to a Bais Yaakov where they can only wear knee socks/tights/stockings).
At 4:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
anon 3:53: I find your "baruch Hashem: comment pretty offensive. I grew up in NY area and still live here. I find it personally offensive to paint thousands of jews with one brush. Hopefully HKBH will judge you a little less harshly. We're not all materialistic JAPs.
At 4:19 PM,
MoChassid said…
I think everyone needs to chill
At 4:48 PM,
Anonymous said…
'Anonymous said...
anon 3:53: I find your "baruch Hashem: comment pretty offensive. I grew up in NY area and still live here. I find it personally offensive to paint thousands of jews with one brush. Hopefully HKBH will judge you a little less harshly. We're not all materialistic JAPs.
4:00 PM '
Amen.
I also find this attitude sometimes among SOME people who don't live in NY. It's no different than yout typical holier-than -thou attitude about other matters-look at us how friendly and normal we are, not like you guys who are so - insert derogatory comment. How about looking at other people's maalos instead of their chesronos, Mr. So Better Than The Rest Of Us Out Of Towner?
At 4:57 PM,
kishke said…
Yes, my sock comment was (mostly) tongue-in-cheek. It was a response to the guy (I can't keep these anons straight) who was worked up at the supposed requirement.
But it is true that camp dress codes are indicators of where they are on the frumkeit map, and help to weed out the people they don't want. This works both ways. The camps with more lenient dress codes will not interest the yeshivishe crowd; those with stricter dress codes don't interest the more modern crowd. And it's true; if you don't like your camp's dress code, you can easily find another more to your liking.
Agav, I've heard that Sternberg has instituted more stringent rules and acceptance criteria of late, in an attempt to woo the yeshivishe olam (which is where the numbers are). Don't know if it's true, but that's the hock.
At 6:40 PM,
MoChassid said…
kishke
it may be the hock but it isn't the limaisa based on what my eyes saw yesterday. Sternberg has a wonderful mix of girls. I hope they don't ruin it because of pressure from above.
At 7:09 PM,
kishke said…
I think it's more than hock. I heard about it from someone in the biz, and also saw an ad in the Yated this year that fit. But maybe the makeover didn't take.
At 8:22 PM,
Anonymous said…
Theh whole thing with the "crackdown" on the dresscode was the following (heard from members of the headstaff): since Sternberg attracts a mix, inlcuding some non-frum girls through kiruv organizations, they did allow certain girls to get away with dress that they wouldn't condone (i.e. - shorter caplike sleeves, shirt not meeting skirt). But, many of the ussuals (i.e. - a bit frumer) got nervous about what they saw on visiting day or what their daughters told them so all they did was crackdown on their dresscode and make it a priority in their mailings- they didn't make it more stringent. For example, they clearly stated shirts must meet skirts at all times - even when playing sports etc...nothing too drastic.
What I did not see this year which I saw last year was the plea not to bring overly dressy shabbos clothes to camp. Last year and in many prior years the quote was always "Shabbos in camp sternberg is not a fashion show." Loved it(as did my very fashion conscious daughter).
At 11:47 PM,
Anonymous said…
For us poor non Orthodox readers of your blog, what is "shiny shoe music"?
BTW, back in my childhood, one of the worst possible insults was to accuse someone of acting like a New Yorker. But that of course was the city where the Cabots speak only to Lodges and the Lodges speak only to...
At 8:24 AM,
MoChassid said…
anon 11:47
See this post for a good explanation
http://teruah-jewishmusic.blogspot.com/2007/02/shiny-shoe-music-and-shuckle.html
At 6:22 PM,
Anonymous said…
Apologies for my anti-NY comment above. It was unnecessary.
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