Kadimah

Hi I’m Dinah and I have been going to Kadimah summer camp for 6 years and I have never looked back. What first attracted me to Kadimah was the huge sense of friendship and team spirit. On my first ever time going, my parents took me to West Sussex where Kadimah was held for 5 years, I was very nervous as I had only been to Mapalim before ( a 4 day camp in the Easter holidays) however I already had 2 friends from there(we are still friends now !) after my parents left we all went to our dorm were I was greeted by 2 extremely enthusiastic dorm leader Suzi and Liz (liz now works for LJY netzer) there was also 9 other apprehensive 8 and 9 years old there. If you are thinking of going I’m happy to say that the dorms have got smaller know so there are normally about 5 or 6 people to a dorm.

This is me and my friends in about 2002 doing Shabbat prep we had finished painting our posters and decide to paint each other!

Shabbat is a very important part of Kadimah life. We spend all afternoon doing site perpetration which is basically where we decorate the site with posters and clear it up before Shabbat. After either making candles or decorating the dinning room or the main hall. Everyone goes to shower and get dressed for our Shabbat service. This normal involves the girls rushing around trying to find something to wear and frantically doing there hair and make-up and the boys … well to be honest they don’t really do a lot (but don’t worry as they get older they normal find a shirt from somewhere to wear and some even have a shower!)

dorm time on our last night

Throughout kadimah we pray normally 3 times (don’t worry they are not as long as a Saturday service) we pray before and after lunch and dinner and before we start evening activities. The services are written by the Madrichot (leaders) especially for us. In every service at least 1 leader plays the guitar and as we get older those who can play guitar have the chance to play in the services! There is a chance for the older ones to lead parts of the services. But what ever age you are, if you play an instrument bring it along as there is a talent show on the last night!

If you would like to contact the Synagogue for any reason then please feel free to email us at: