Last year one Israeli Scout leader — Shir Gilo — spent the summer at Camp Naish, the 1,100-acre Boy Scouts of America camp located in Bonner Springs. She enjoyed it so much that she brought 12 teenage Tzofim (Scouts) — nine boys and three girls — and a second adult leader back with her this year to get a little taste of what she experienced last year.
Gilo, a 25-year-old native of Beit Hashmonay, a small village located about 5 kilometers south of Ramla in central Israel, wanted to return to Camp Naish because she missed the people she met last year.
“I still miss them. I don’t have enough time to spend with everyone,” she said, noting the limited amount of days the Israelis were actually at Naish.
“I had a great experience last year and I wanted to give others a chance to be a part of it and feel the same warmth and love I felt and to meet people from another culture,” she continued.
Gilo got connected with the camp last year when she met a group of people from Leawood who were visiting the Gezer Region as part of the sister-city relationship between the two communities as well as the close relationship the Israeli community has with the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City. This visit grew out of efforts to continue strengthening these relationships.
The group arrived in Kansas City on June 21 and returned to Israel on July 2. They stayed with host families, many of which are connected to Congregation Beth Shalom’s Troop 61, before and after they went to Naish. The host families showed them many sites in the area. As a group while they were at camp they also visited the Grammy Museum Experience and the College Basketball Experience, both connected to the Sprint Center.
Tom Johnson, the Heart of American Council international scouting committee chairperson, explained the Israeli Scouts came as a pilot project of a wider International scouting camping experience to broaden the understanding of scouting internationally. He pointed out that scouting is one of the world’s largest youth movements, with a membership of more than 34 million Scouts who live in 216 countries. Today there are 60,000 Jewish Tzofim in Israel, with another 25,000 Arab Tzofim participating in the program.
“The scouting ethos, our Scout oath and law, is the same worldwide, as first written by Lord Robert Baden-Powell of Gilwell, U.K.,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the Israeli Scouts took part in the BSOA’s Venturing program.
“It’s coed and aimed at young people ages 14-21. It is one of the most popular programs we have with loads of international opportunities,” he explained.
This summer a group of Kansas City Scouts will visit the Swiss Alps at Kanderstag. Gilo and Johnson said there are hopes that a group of local Scouts will soon travel to Israel to see how Scouting works there.
“The Heart of American Scout Council’s International Scouting Committee is developing a sister Scout exchange program with Gezer, Israel, to parallel the city of Leawood’s program with Gezer. This Scout exchange is the first pilot activity, and we could not have been more pleased with the outcome this week,” Johnson said.
Coincidentally another group of officials from the Gezer Region were visiting Leawood at the same time, and got a first-hand look at Camp Naish during their visit in an effort to get this scouting exchange off the ground.
“We plan to make this an ongoing part of our full program and are committed to foster better relations of culture understanding through the scouting programs in both of our countries,” Johnson added.
“Our vision is to make this into something that happens every year with kids in eighth grade. We hope kids from Kansas will go to Israel and we will take them to our summer camp. We feel that it will be good because our kids are really enjoying it here and next year the kids that are now in seventh grade will have the opportunity to come to Naish also,” Gilo added.
While at Naish, Johnson said the Israeli Scouts experienced a full range of program activities including orienteering, pioneering, fire building, camping, cooking, hiking, scuba diving, Frisbee golf, climbing and rappelling.
Last week on one of the hottest days of the year so far, Gilo took a little time out from her day along with two other Scouts, Tahel Mantel and Tal Dahan, both 13-year-olds who will enter eighth grade in the fall, to discuss their time at Naish and their visit to the Kansas City area.
Neither Tahel — one of the three girls on the trip — nor Tal spoke English well. But as they spoke of their experiences in Hebrew, which were then translated by Gilo, they always had huge smiles on their faces.
“Kansas is beautiful, and it’s very expensive,” Tal said.
In English, Tal said communicating with the Americans at the camp was going “so-so.”
“I don’t speak English very good,” he said, “but my friend Brian is helping me with everything.”
Gilo said the language barrier was a small challenge, not a huge problem, for the kids and said it is amazing to watch them become friends with each other.
“They find a way to communicate and be friends. Today we had a program where they had to learn cooperation and learn teamwork and it went well,” she said. “It’s amazing to see them so connected in just three days. The first time they saw each other it was like magic. Sometimes they speak with their hands and sometimes they speak with their mouths and sometimes they are just smiling.”
Tahel said she and her Israeli friends love the camp staff and have a really good connection with them. They also love the other Scouts participating in Venturing Camp.
Both of the Israeli Scouts, Gilo said, were really impressed with the way the local Scouts respected the American flag and Scout traditions. They did a variety of things while “in Kansas” as they say, including visiting the Cosmic Dome in Olathe and shopping. They also went to the pool at the Jewish Community Center.
“I think they had a really good time there,” Gilo said.
Tal’s family took him fishing, which was a brand-new experience for him.
On behalf of Tal and Tahel, Gilo said this area is a very beautiful and interesting place filled with wonderful people.
“They are having so much fun here and they all want to come back. They feel like little ambassadors of Israel and they are very proud of our country and to be here and represent our country,” Gilo said.
“They really appreciate the efforts that all the people around here do for us and take care of us every place that we go,” she said. “They also like to find the similar things that Americans and Israelis have.”
All the Israeli Scouts had to pay for their trips here, which Tal characterized as “an experience of a lifetime.”
“We don’t want to leave.” Tahel said. “We will never forget it.”
