ABOUT CAMP AKIBA

For over 40 years, Camp Akiba, affiliated with Temple Akiba of Culver City, has offered a rich and rewarding camping experience to children ages 7 to 15. The program includes hiking, swimming, music, drama, sports, arts and crafts, nature, canoeing, rock climbing, archery, and a wide variety of unique creative activities.

This year we will return to the San Bernardino Mountains at Camp Ta Ta Pochon. This is an incredible facility with some very desirable features and blends nicely with our Camp Akiba personality. Rustic cabins, a beautiful lodge, large bathrooms and showers, a wonderful swimming pool, and a stream running through the center of camp help make this a beautiful environment for our program. The camp is located at over 7000 ft elevation off Hwy 38 (near Angelus Oaks) in the mountains above Redlands and is walking distance from Jenks Lake.

Our special brand of programming makes Camp Akiba a wonderful, enriching experience for every camper. The dedicated staff works tirelessly to provide each camper with a feeling of family and camaraderie. All of our counselors have been trained through our extensive Counselor in Training (CIT) program. Some members of our staff have been a part of the camp program for over 20 years, and many campers are children of camp alumni.

The philosophy of the camp is to provide a safe, fun, and positive Jewish experience for our campers. Each counselor is carefully taught that it is their obligation to the next generation of Jews to give back some of the love and caring that they received during their own years as campers. It is with that thought that each program and activity is creatively planned.

The camp provides a strong Reform Jewish foundation for children of all ages. First time campers, as well as the most experienced campers, come away with a warm, wonderful commitment to their Jewish heritage and a special appreciation for the outdoors. We teach Judaism not only by engaging the campers in tefillah, but by asking them to express, define and explore what Judaism means to them, by having them share with each other the importance of Judaism in their lives, and by allowing them to experience what it means to live Jewishly with other Jews from various backgrounds. Where most camps send their campers to the "climbing wall" because it's there, our campers are climbing to tear down the walls of Jericho, or to stuff private sayings into the Western Wall in Jerusalem, or to find out what it's like to look down from Masada! And maybe even to find a hidden clue on an Exodus leading them to the promised land. And the promised land they do indeed find...they find it in their units, their cabins, at meals, and when they lie down and when they rise up -- where they bond with their peers and camp family under the guidance and direction of their awe-inspiring counselors.