Detroit Camp Comes to New York

By COLlive reporter

The boys division of the overnight Camp Gan Israel Of Detroit traveled to the Big Apple to mark an auspicious day and for their summer’s Grand Trip.

They boarded a couch bus from Oak Park and made their way to New York to be near the Rebbe for Chof Av, the 70th yartzeit of the Rebbe’s revered father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson OBM.

In the week before this trip, campers were address by Detroit Mashpia Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Gourarie, Rabbi Elkana Shmotkin of JEM and Rabbi Shaul Wilhlem of Oslo Norway, about the importance of the day.

This is the second year that the Detroit camp is coming to the Rebbe for this day. It was led by Head Counselors Mendy Ceitlin and Levi Plotkin, as well as ECAD Efraim Kuaffman, Levi Dray and Levi Shemtov.

Arriving this past Friday, the campers began the visit at Lubavitch Headquarters – 770 Eastern Parkway, the offices of the JEM multimedia company and the Rebbe’s private home on President Street.

They left to the Rebbe’s Ohel in Cambria Heights, Queens, to spend Shabbos along with a sizable crowd of Shluchim and bochurim joining inspirational farbrengens that lasted for hours.

On Motzoei Shabbos, they headed out to the Five Towns in Long Island for a Melave Malka and a game show led by the creative Shliach Rabbi Meir Geisinsky of Chabad of the Five Towns in Cedarhurst, NY.

This memorable weekend concluded with a Grand Trip on Sunday, where they enjoyed a day at iPlay America, New Jersey’s premier indoor theme park with games, rides and attractions. They stayed overnight at Chabad of Cherry Hill, directed by Rabbi Mendy Mangel.

On Monday, they continued their action-packed schedule with roller skating and then pizza and sports at Chabad of South Brunswick, directed by Rabbi Levi Azimov. They returned to Crown Heights, to the home of Moshe and Fayge Rubashkin, for a banquet.

Besides for those mentioned above, the camp thanked the following individuals for assisting in making the trip possible:

Rabbi Abba Refson of Ohel Chabad Lubavitch, the Rubashkin family, Rabbi Mendel Krinsky, Rabbi Chaim Baruch Halberstam, Rabbi Avrohom Berkowitz, R’ Sholom Lain, R’ Yossi Katz and Rabbi Mendel Gotlib.