The Jeffrey Feld Camp Scholarship Fund was established to celebrate Jeffrey in honor of his 70th birthday. Distributions from the fund will go toward financial assistance for campers at the Pittsburgh JCC’s Emma Kaufmann Camp. Contributions to this endowment fund will expand the corpus of the fund to elevate the amount that is distributed each year, with the hope that the fund lasts in perpetuity.
When Jeffrey was 13, shortly after his Bar Mitzvah, he lost his father, Morris, to a heart attack. Without his dad's income, the family had to tighten their budget and there was no money for him to continue attending the Emma Kaufmann Camp of the Pittsburgh JCC. Summer camp was deeply meaningful to Jeffrey; camp was a place where he was forging a strong Jewish identity while growing into adulthood.
Others in his community understood this and they generously donated funds to ensure Jeffrey could still continue this summer tradition. This g’milut chasadim, as Jeffrey would tell you today, is what inspired him to devote his career to Jewish communal leadership, starting first as a camp counselor and assistant director at Emma Kaufmann Camp, later rising to lead Jewish Federations in Savannah, Georgia, Memphis, Tennessee, and Naples, Florida.
Camp is a transformative experience in the life of a child. The impact of Jewish camp is immediate—campers return home connected to a community with friends that will last them a lifetime. Children with pivotal Jewish camp experiences are more likely to become adults who value their Jewish heritage, support Jewish causes, and take on leadership roles in their communities.
The Jeffrey Feld Camp Scholarship Fund will help send Jewish children to Emma Kaufmann Camp who would otherwise be denied the experience and who will have an opportunity to blossom and strengthen their Jewish identity. The endowment will honor the legacy of that generous gift to Jeffrey Feld all those years ago, ensuring that the fund will live on in perpetuity to provide children with the seminal Jewish overnight camp experience for generations to come.
Jeffrey’s landmark teaching, the philosophy on which he has based his career and lives his life daily is, kol yisrael arevim ze baze: All of Israel is responsible for one another. Join us in celebrating Jeffrey Feld, our dad, by donating to the Jeffrey Feld Camp Scholarship Fund and ensuring the creation of this legacy gift.