Living Torah Archives

Blessings for campers and staff of Camp Gan Israel in Montreal, Canada.

There are many details and rituals connected to the various obligations of a Jew. Even when it comes to matters of the heart, such as prayer and repentance, there are many laws and requirements.

Rabbi Yisroel Shemtov was a sixteen year old student in 1956. He recalls the Rebbe’s visit to Camp Gan Israel that summer, and the farbrengen the Rebbe held there. During the gathering, news arrived of a terrible accident that had involved a busload of people on their way to the camp. The Rebbe’s reaction to the news was wholly unexpected, and seemingly miraculous. (1956)

Newly discovered film of the Rebbe’s third visit to Camp Gan Israel in Swan Lake, New York, accompanied by an interview with Rabbi Tzvi Telsner, who was a camper at the time.

When Rabbi Moshe Lazar was a yeshiva student in his late teens, he wrote to the Rebbe with the idea of opening a Chabad summer camp for Jewish children – an initiative the Rebbe embraced. (Mid 1950's)

The Rebbe visits the first Gan Israel overnight camp and addresses its campers.