This photo, which was captioned “kids leaving the Educational Alliance for Camp Vacamas ” ran in The Forward in 1931. In August 1924, when Camp Vacamas had its inaugural season, the city was experiencing a five-day heat wave with temperatures reaching just below 100 degrees. The front page of The Forward told of five heat-related deaths, and of workers passing out on the job. But the illustrated art section also featured a full page of photos of the first group of Vacamas campers enjoying some much needed rest and recuperation from their stifling tenements. The photographs showed them learning to swim and had captions reading: When these five children arrived at camp, two were so run down in health that they had to be sent to a hospital for several days. The doctor advised an extra week of rest for them and they were kept three weeks at the camp, instead of the usual two weeks. The camp was funded in part by generosity of Forward readers who responded to the Forward’s appeal for donations to: The Forward Vacation Fund. A typical caption was “Where The Children of New York’s Needy Enjoy A Summer Vacation.” Captions also emphasized the kids were “Safe and Happy.”

To fundraise for Camp Vacamas, aside from soliciting donations in the paper, The Forward also supported a theatrical revue called: The Forverts Vacation Follies. In August 1939, these were held at The Yiddish Art Theatre at 932 7th Avenue, across the street from the New York Athletic Club, pictured above. It promised a night of massive entertainment with drama, humor, music, song and dance. A special feature would be a movie showing the best of last year’s follies! The Forward Follies ad noted that funds raised were to be used to help subsidize hundreds of children for two weeks at camp. Over fifty top Yiddish theatre and more mainstream artists performed, including Rosemari Brancato, Jan Peerce, Maurice Shwartz, Sholem Secunda and more.Tickets prices ranged between $1-$3 and were available for purchase at the Forward office.

Sophie Tucker among those billed as performing at the Forward Vacation Follies, was a famous Jewish actress, singer and comedian whose nickname was “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas.” Tucker, who frequently peppered her racy songs with Yiddish bits, was born in Ukraine but moved to Boston with her family as a baby. She went on to perform in vaudeville and eventually even had her own radio show. Even though she spent her early days in New England, she spent most of her life in New York, where she died in 1966 at her 737 Park Avenue home, near the apartment building seen above. In July 1931, the front page of The Forward featured a delightful fundraising pitch whose headline cited a popular Yiddish song about kids playing beneath the shade back home in the old country. The song, “Under The Little Green Trees” was written by Jewish national Hebrew bard Hayim Nachman Bialik and had great appeal to those immigrants laboring away in America, with little leisure time nor simple pleasures in sight. “Remember this old song?” The Forward pitched readers. “ Those kids were out playing in nature, but the children of the poor in this country in the vast metropolis of New York don’t have that option. These impoverished children don’t have access to fresh air or nourishing food. They aren’t able to grow into healthy productive citizens. Many of them, with your help, can have this opportunity if you donate to the Forward Vacation Fund.”

The camp and the fundraising survived the war and its losses, and as late as 1947, with the Holocaust and World War II at an end, The Forward published its annual pitches for summer relief and noted workers at a local manufacturing shop who gathered a collection from their earnings in support of sending the kids to the country. Avrom From wrote this note along with his donation. “I’ve gathered this together at Breihaltz Brothers Fur Shop at 155 West 29th Street, near the building pictured above. It’s five dollars and fifty cents for the Vacation Fund. We support this important fund and hope workers at other shops will follow this good example in order for more children of the working class and poor to be sent to the country for fresh air they so badly need.”

In 1930 The Forward’s first English supplement ran a full page article on the Educational Alliance’s art school. Located at the University Settlement on Eldridge Street near Rivington, seen above. Citing the Alliance’s support for Jewish immigrants, the article highlighted the art school’s founder, artist Abbo Ostrovsky himself an immigrant who literally, per The Forward, recruited his first students off the sidewalks of the Lower East Side. Having begun with a mere handful of art students, by 1930 The Forward reported registration for the school to be 150, with ages ranging from 7 to 50. There was crossover among staffers of the Educational Alliance, a Lower East Side non-profit, and Camp Vacamas. In 1939, as war loomed in Eastern Europe and the fate of Jews there was being determined, a cottage at the camp was named for Forward General Manager B. C. Vladeck, a major supporter of the camp and City Council member who had died the year before.

Born in Minsk in 1886, Baruch Charney Vladeck moved to New York as a young adult and became a labor leader. He was active in city government, helping to establish public housing for low-income residents. The Lower East Side housing project the Vladek Houses were named for him after his death. The building seen above is adjacent to the future site of this project.

The Educational Alliance was a sponsor of Camp Vacamas. It was founded by Jewish philanthropists in 1889 as a settlement house for Eastern European Jews immigrating to New York City. The organization, whose headquarters can be seen above, offered classes in English, stenography and other practical topics useful to new Americans. Besides Camp Vacamas, the Educational Alliance founded other camps in the region, including Surprise Lake Camp for Boys in 1900, Edalia Vacation Home for Girls in Rumson, N.J. in 1915 and Camp Salomon in 1922. which became a camp for older adults in 1958. In 1931, as early as June, The Forward’s front page published instructions for working class parents to sign their kids up for some quality time in the country. “Today between 8 and 9 p.m. registration begins for working class and poor children. Registration takes place at the Education Alliance on East Broadway and Jefferson Streets.” The Forward’s pitch stressed: What they will gain being in the country is the ability to work on their growth and development for their entire future. Who could resist? “If you’ve got a human heart” they persisted, “you’ve got to donate to the Forward Vacation Fund.” A July 1939 photo in The Forward told of “200 of the poorest children sent by the Education Alliance for a vacation in Camp Vacamas.” The Forward further noted the children were enabled to go for a brief vacation through the assistance of the Forward and its readership, that contributed to the Vacation Fund. In the first half of the 20th century many summer camps were sponsored by other non-profits.

The picture above shows an abandoned summer camp building in Bath Beach which formerly held the Children’s Aid Society’s camp for poor children in the city. This camp actually included special accommodations for physically disabled children.

As summer camps evolved into a tradition for Jewish children, the Forward reported on many of these camps, not only the ones they sponsored. Above is a picture of children from the Pride of Judea orphanage on their way to camp in Long Beach, Long Island.

That era also saw a massive increase in public swimming pool construction as society began to value summer-specific activities for city dwellers. The massive Works Progress Administration capital construction program was responsible for building or expanding 11 city pools in 1936 including Astoria Park Pool, seen above.

Before the 1930s, there were very few outdoor pools in New York, perhaps making summer camp even more appealing for the opportunity to swim on hot days. Above we see a summertime image of young, urban children spending time outdoors playing checkers to beat the heat. Today many of the summer camps founded in the 1920s and 30s still operate. In 2020, after much debate, many of them were forced to temporarily close due to the coronavirus pandemic. They hope to reopen in the summer of 2021 to continue the tradition of fun, community and summer freedom.