13th of May 2008 /

Schechter director seeks Portland ties

By Deborah Moon

New Camp Solomon Schechter Director Sam Perlin wants to strengthen the camp’s ties to Portland, the city that spawned it, and uphold the vision of the camp’s founder, Rabbi Joshua Stampfer.

“The Portland community is special to the camp,” said Perlin, who visited with future campers and their parents at Congregation Neveh Shalom April 13. “I had the opportunity to meet with Rabbi Stampfer and Goldie; they are an amazing couple. The rabbi started this camp 54 years ago and I feel fortunate to continue his dream. … I am motivated to not let him down.”

The 160-acre facility in Olympia, Wash., that houses the summer camp is called the Stampfer Center in honor of the couple’s devotion to the Conservative day camp.

“He made a wonderful impression on parents and children alike,” said the rabbi of Perlin’s Portland visit. “He has a lot of experience and ideas and I think he’s going to do a great job at camp.”

In fact, Perlin brings 20 years of experience as a teacher and a school administrator to his post. For 10 years, Perlin has served as athletic director of the Seattle Academy. He held the same post at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School in Baltimore, Md., from 1991-98.

For the previous two years, he was a physical education instructor and coach at the Maryland Jewish day school from which he and his wife Sharon graduated, the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School.

“This is an exciting career move to do something I’m passionate about,” said Perlin in a phone interview with the Jewish Review. “It combines my teaching and administrative experiences with my passion for Conservative Judaism and this camp.”

Perlin holds a master’s degree in physical education with a concentration in athletic administration from Western Maryland College. He is active at Beth Shalom, a Conservative synagogue in Seattle. He has three children: Liat, 13, Amit, 11, and Maital, 3. The oldest two attend Jewish day school.

Growing up in a large Jewish community outside Washington, D.C., Perlin said his Jewish identity was formed equally by his strong Jewish family life, attending a Jewish day school, living on an Israeli kibbutz and attending Jewish summer camp.

“A lot of kids don’t have the option to travel to Israel or go to Jewish day school,” said Perlin. “For them, camp is the place they experience living and being with other Jews. In the Pacific Northwest, there is so much land mass and so many small communities with not a lot of Jews, so this is an important institution.”

Perlin said the Conservative camp is shomer Shabbat and kosher so campers live a Jewish existence often without even realizing they are following the rules of kashrut and Shabbat.

Perlin said he knows how well Solomon Schechter connects Northwest kids by watching his daughter Liat text her camp friends in Portland and Spokane, as well as Seattle. In addition to drawing campers from smaller communities in Oregon and Washington, he said many campers also come from Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

“We are all in the same boat and we need each other,” said Perlin of the NW communities.

Drawing on his strong sports and coaching background, Perlin said he hopes to eventually enhance the camp’s sports facilities.

“I hope to make it a great sports camp while maintaining its Conservative roots and traditional values,” he said.

For this year, Perlin said campers can expect “increased energy.”

For more information on CSS, visit www.campschechter.org or contact Perlin at 206-447-1967 or director@campschechter.org.