Taking heed to the heightened awareness of the dangers of scaring children, the staff at CGI Montreal chose to use an elaborate spoof, instead of a scare, to break out bog war. They even created a fake Anash.org article.
By Anash.org reporter
A spoof without a scare.
With summer every year comes camp. With camp, comes color war. And with color war…comes a breakout.
A longstanding camp tradition has staff coming up with creative ways to ‘breakout’ color war to the campers, heralding in days of fun, excitement and competition.
Traditionally, the breakout might involve a frighting or confusing scene, which is then revealed to be just a setup to start the days-long competition. In recent years, however, a heightened awareness to the dangers of scaring children has had some camps tone down the breakout, or remove it altogether.
Not wanting to give up the tradition, while still wanting to maintain the highest level of educational standards for the campers, the staff at CGI Montreal decided to come up with a breakout that would excite the campers without scaring them.
After putting their heads together, the staff came up with a plan to arrange an elaborate spoof that would not involve any scare, but still have the whole camp up on their feet.
The staff began circulating a rumor about a visit of the Tosher Rebbe, leader of the Tosher Chassidus which is based in Kiryas Tosh, only a short distance from CGI Montreal. The staff told the campers that the previous Tosher Rebbe had a tradition to visit local mosdos chinuch, and the present Tosher Rebbe would be continuing that tradition.
Taking the spoof to the next level, a staff member created a fake Anash.org article, which he sent around to the staff. When children asked to use their counselors’ phones for a phone call home, the staff ‘accidentally’ left it open to that page, and soon enough, the children started spreading the rumor themselves.
On the day of the “visit”, the staff officially announced the visit after shacharis, and had the entire camp dress in their Shabbos clothes, and line up outside to wait for their illustrious visitor. The camp was plastered with ‘tzadik ba l’ir’ signs, and staff encouraged the campers to make sure to behave properly. They also arranged for a car with a siren to drive up, followed by a fancy black car.
The entire camp stood at attention, singing ‘yomim al ymei melech tosif’, and waiting for the Tosher Rebbe to emerge. But instead, a group of staff members burst out of the car with shouts of ‘bog war!’ They were immediately joined by the rest of the staff in a rousing rendition of ‘lo yisa goi el goi cherev’, joined after a few seconds by the entire camp.
The camp then headed to the shul, where they were divided into three teams of ‘Sheish Shanim’, ‘Shemittah’ and ‘Hakhel’, and introduced to their generals, with General Mendel Matuf, LT Mendel Deitsch, LT Mendel Minkowitz, Captain Dovid Deitsch for team Hakhel (Green), General Mendy Hirsch, LT Sholom Francis, LT Shmuli Cunin, Captain Levi Ladaiov for team Sheish Shanim (Blue), and General Shloimy Slavin, LT Kasriel Trourig, LT Yossi Hirsch, Captain Levi Feldman for team Shemita (Red). Justices were Menachem Cunin, Mendel Goldman, Zalman Lew, Dudi Ashkenazi and Schneur Motchkin.
“Baruch Hashem, we were able to have the complete bog war experience without any scare, and the children enjoyed every moment of it,” one of the staff members told Anash.org.
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I think that this idea is absolutely spectacular
I love to see how much energy and chayus The boys give off to the campers
I remember my brothers used to come back to petrified
This article is so beautiful I really appreciate all the pictures thank you
Nice to see that camp staff are becoming more sensitive about this. Some of the young kids would really get scared.
I’m glad that this is catching on.
My son told me and I said you should go ask the Tosher rebbe a brocha he called me back a few days later disappointed that it was a breakout not the rebbe actually coming!
Great idea but left some kids disappointed.
But b”h he is having a great summer overall!
I’m a learning teacher here in cgi Montreal right now and I can tell you that this was all the head staff’s idea, not the general staff.
And one more thing… I don’t think the agenda was to make a breakout that wouldn’t be a scare, just one that they would believe.
I think it’s extremely disappointing that the counselors are giving their phones to campers
How can this happen in the rebbes camp
It’s really good that the camps are caring not to scare the kids, it’s a great idea!
My question is why councelors have access to smartphone
We don’t give a reward for finding the Afikoman because we don’t want to teach or encourage stealing.
We ought to give serious thought to what these breakouts and blatantly lying to the kids does ‘from an educational standpoint’.
As lubavicher chasidim whith the highest standard in frumkeit why is this accepted that all the staff which are bochurim in Yeshiva have smartphones especially when they are not allowed by the yeshivos?!
Stam Lehoir common day Yeshivos allow with restrictions just totally blocking out = more people with them WITHOUT restrictions…
When I was is Morristown the summer of נ”א, the color War breakout was someone mimicking the voice on the WLCC hookup after the Rebbes sicha saying that the Rebbe wants all bochurim to come to 770 right away.
The staff did not allow us to leave the shul as they were organizing a bus and didn’t want the Tiferes bohurim coming on our bus as there wouldn’t be enough room. I remember one guy in camp crying that he couldn’t go to the Rebbe in slippers, they took him to get his shoes and swore him to secrecy.
Much better than a scare. That said, and as great as the Tosher are tremendous tzadikim, but we have a Rebbe, un a Rebbe is nor Einer.