Michelle Pearlstein still remembers the Israeli dances and Hebrew songs she learned at Camp Achva four decades ago. Pearlstein remains involved with the Jewish day camp that was formative to her — and her sister and two daughters’ — childhood years. That camp is celebrating its 55th anniversary.
Pearlstein serves as development director of the Pozez Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, where she promotes and fundraises for JCC programs, including Camp Achva.
Campers 5 to 14 participate in traditional summer camp activities such as archery, slingshots, woodworking and arts. There are about 200 campers who spend three to six weeks at Gesher Jewish Day School in Fairfax.
‘Judaism is the norm’
Camp Achva incorporates Jewish learning into its daily activities while remaining kid-friendly.
“The reason Jewish camping — and [Camp] Achva in particular — is so successful is because it’s not formal learning. It’s just recreational; it’s everyday experiences,” Pearlstein said. “It’s going back to your roots and carrying forward generations of Jewish camping.”
Campers say prayers before they eat and wear white on Fridays for Shabbat. Camp groups have Hebrew or Israeli names, she said. The tradition of performing a skit on Fridays, known as ruach — “spirit” — dates to Camp Achva’s early days. Pearlstein met Israeli children who visited camp every summer.
“[Judaism] just sort of becomes part of what you do and how you talk,” Pearlstein added. “We did have Israeli dance and we did do a lot of singing.”
Greg Feitel, director of Camp Achva, said the camp’s values and interpersonal connections are informed by Judaism.
“We say that we’re infused with Judaism: our values, the words we use at camp, the way that we approach campers and staff relations, all stem from Judaism, like humanistic principles, especially that of kindness, tikkun olam and perseverance,” Feitel said. “It is a place where Judaism is the norm.”
‘Friendship, brotherhood and unity’
Achva, Hebrew for “friendship, brotherhood and unity,” sums up Pearlstein’s camp experience.
“I am still connected with several people I went through camp with,” she said. “It’s so hard to quantify, but I just have such positive memories when I think about it.”
Feitel attended Camp Achva as a child in the 1990s and worked as a camp counselor until the age of 20.
“There’s something about giving back to the community that I grew up in that I think is a phenomenal piece to who I am,” Feitel said.
Reflecting on his time as a camper, Feitel said he made lots of friends and memories.
“I think that it was a place where I was really, truly able to be myself,” Feitel said of Camp Achva.
‘We adapt to the times’
Laura Fuchsman Adler, the senior director of marketing and communications at Pozez JCC, said the Camp Achva team hired a graphic designer to redesign Camp Achva’s logo in commemoration of its 55th anniversary. They chose to use red in the logo to reclaim the original logo’s color.
“While the color of the camp logo has changed throughout the years, incorporating the original dancing figures keeps the spirit of the camp’s roots alive,” Adler said in an email.
Other aspects of Camp Achva have changed over the years. In 2007, Pozez JCC launched its Inclusion and Disabilities Services department. In 2009, Pozez JCC created a camp designed for neurodivergent children; simultaneously, Camp Achva began offering inclusive programming for children who were able to participate with the help of an assistant, Pearlstesin said. Over time, Camp Achva became “more of an inclusive experience” rather than placing disabled campers in a separate, neighboring summer camp, Pearlstein said. Camp Achva became an inclusive camp in the summer of 2023.
About 50% of today’s Camp Achva campers are neurodiverse. Feitel said the staff make efforts to adequately support those campers, such as participating in ongoing, comprehensive training to “learn how to meet each child where they are.”
Camp Achva added a virtual sports room due to a 2022-2023 grant from Fairfax County.
“Knowing that our campers have various levels of physical strength and physical mobility, we have a virtual sports room that equalizes some of that,” Feitel said. “The campers choose between tennis, badminton, bowling, Just Dance, where they’re getting moving but it’s on in-console … That way, it’s not just sports that [are] outside; it is also a way for kids to stay engaged with one another in small groups and actively play something together.”
Feitel said Camp Achva has had a high turnover of camp directors in recent years, which brings a diverse range of perspectives to the camp.
“It allows a lot of different people to bring their expertise to our campus,” Feitel said. “We don’t say, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ We try and we change; we adapt to the times. And that has to do with the idea that people have changed.”
Camp Achva has served generations of campers in Northern Virginia’s Jewish community. Feitel said there are about 15 staff members who are “Achvaniks” and many Pozez JCC employees are Camp Achva parents and former campers as well.
“I have two former camp directors’ children who are currently on staff and one other former camp adminstrator’s child who is currently on staff … For us, it’s another way that we are honoring our 55th [anniversary], by having so many alumni,” Feitel said.
Pearlstein said Northern Virginia was once “very transient;” home to people in the government or military who lived there temporarily. She said her generation is the first to stay.
“People my age think of Jewish Northern Virginia as very young,” Pearlstein said. “Having a camp is an important piece of the whole pie of Jewish life in Northern Virginia, and making sure there’s access to Jewish engagement, whether it’s a synagogue or JCC or a camp or however people want to engage. I think that a successful Jewish camp shows a strong Jewish community.”
