Wings of Hope Soars at the JCC

If you have recently walked down our fitness hall you may have seen a colorful new mural. Wings of Hope was created by children attending the J Camps program, in partnership with J Life. The activity was part of Israel Week, a way to acknowledge, celebrate and learn about the country.

J Life, Joyful Jewish Experiences, connects the joys of Jewish traditions to families and youth. This summer they supported J Camps in a variety of different ways. Rather than leading an activity for each bunk of the camp to attend once a week, J Life spent considerable time and effort thinking about creating Jewish times and spaces throughout the camp experience.  By creating an overall camp theme, and values by week, the J Life team invited leadership, specialists and counselors into the work of making meaningful Jewish moments throughout camp.  

From flagpole, to lunch, to special events and everywhere in between, staff were invited into Jewish ritual experiences like Havdalah on Monday and making Motzie before each lunch period.  Informal Jewish conversations happened in all sorts of times and spaces, prompted by activities, or through interactions with shlichim. 

This year Israel day became Israel week. Israel was infused into regularly scheduled activities to spark interest in Israel through many avenues/ aspects of the diverse Israeli land, culture and people. 

The culmination of Isreal week was a special project called Wings of Hope. The original Wings of Hope was created in July 2023 by Livnat Kutz Z”L and members of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, located in southern Israel. Livnat originally made these wings as part of art therapy for her kibbutz. Replications of these wings throughout Israel and the world was done in memory and commemoration of the late Kutz family, who were tragically murdered on the morning of Saturday, October 7, 2023.

J Camp created a piece of artwork that is decorated with colorful wings made from old toys that were donated, found, or repurposed, as a symbol of a happy childhood at Kibbutz Kfar Aza. All participants created their own take-home version of the wings while also contributing to a collaborative piece of art that is displayed at the JCC.  Our Wings of Hope serve as a testament to a connected community, that goes beyond the borders of a kibbutz in Israel.

Melissa Seltzer, Senior Director of Arts & Culture and J Life, said, “Art has the ability to connect people with places they have never been and people they have never met. Our hope was for campers to create a connection to Israel and diverse people using experiential inroads that created empathy and compassion of shared hopes dreams.”.

The JCC is encouraging people to take their own personal photos of themselves with the wings, post on social media, and tag the JCC of Greater Baltimore.

For more information about JLife, please visit jcc.org/jewish-life/j-life/