Camp Naivelt
Encyclopedia
Camp Naivelt is located in Brampton, Ontario
, Canada
. It originated as a children's camp, evolved into a family camp and remains in operation as a left-wing, secular Jewish camping community.
" labour group, made up primarily of garment workers. They leased some property at Eldorado Mills, along the Credit River
. The Canadian National Railway
(CNR) owned the land in the early years, at the south west edge of Brampton
in the Credit River
valley.
In 1936 the League attempted to purchase about 103 acre (0.41682658 km²) of the property. The CNR was openly resistant to selling to Jewish organizations and even posted vicious anti-Semitic signs at the entrance, warning "No Jews or Dogs Allowed" to discourage the land purchase. However, the property was acquired through an individual not directly linked to the League, then transferred to them.
The United Jewish Peoples' Order
(UJPO) was founded in 1945 through a merger of the Labour League and other radical Jewish organizations and has operated and managed the camp ever since.
The children's camp remained in operation as an overnight camp until 1962 and as a day camp until 1971 serving up to 300 children each summer. A family-oriented adult campground that was used mostly on weekends and holidays developed adjacent to the children's camp that, at its peak, contained 90 cottages as well as room for tents. It is in this form that the camp continues to the present day.
A radical, Communist element was always part of the Park's early history. Canadian Communist Party leader Tim Buck
sometimes spoke there. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
monitored activities and goings-on there from time to time through the late 1940s and 1950s. The Mounties were known to 'stake out' the park entrance, recording license plate numbers of those entering for public events.
A key function of Camp Naivelt was to promote the peace movement
, social justice and labour rights, and to increase awareness of these issues among youth. Another principal aim was to give urban youth respite from the grime and heat of downtown Toronto
. It also served as a refuge for children facing the threat of polio infection every summer.
When purchased the camp contained a merry-go-round and a meeting hall from the early years of Eldorado Park. Initially only tents were used for the campers. Later permanent frame cottages clad in insulbrick or clapboard were constructed. In the 1940s the UJPO built a band shell, boathouse, swimming pool and two bridges over the Credit River. At one point some 90 cottages were on the property. In the 1970s the present Eldorado Park was established when a portion of Camp Naivelt was sold to the City of Brampton
.
Several dozen rustic frame cottages remain standing through the site; some arranged around large, open common areas and others in rows. These structures retain most of their original character-defining elements such as original wooden windows, doors and cladding (e.g. clapboard, insulbrick and shiplap siding). The cottages and setting form a significant and unique cultural heritage landscape in the City of Brampton.
Camp Naivelt has a deep and meaningful role to play in the exploration of Jewish cultural history in Canada. Jewish folklore, the Yiddish language, music, folk art and dance were studied at the Camp.
For example, the founding members of Canada's best known folk group, The Travellers
, met as children at Camp Naivelt and formed the group there. Their version of Woody Guthrie
's This Land Is Your Land
is a virtual Canadian anthem.
In July 1960, a summer evening concert was recorded at Camp Naivelt featuring the teenage voice of camp member Zal Yanofsky, who later co-founded the rock band, Lovin' Spoonful with John Sebastian
.
The tape also features the young voice of another Naivelt attendee, Sharon Hampson, later a member of the children's group Sharon, Lois and Bram.
Singer, songwriter, Eddie Schwartz who wrote, Hit Me With Your Best Shot for rock star Pat Benatar
also went to Camp Naivelt as a child.
Estelle Klein, the first artistic director of the Mariposa Folk Festival
was another alumnus of Camp Naivelt.
Legendary American folk singer Pete Seeger
(1919-), who composed, Where Have All The Flowers Gone, If I Had A Hammer, the civil rights anthem, We Shall Overcome
and Turn, Turn, Turn performed at Camp Naivelt on several occasions - sometimes with a folk group he and Woody Guthrie (composer of This Land is Your Land) formed in the 1940s called "The Almanac Singers". Seeger would visit the Camp for several days at a time from the 1940s to the 1980s.
Seeger co-founded the legendary folk group, "The Weavers
". Their rendition of Goodnight Irene was a major pop hit in the 1950s. In the 1955 he, along with other members of "The Weavers", were blacklist
ed after Seeger refused to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee
.
In the 1960s Seeger sparked the revival of American folk music. Pete Seeger provided major hit records for Peter, Paul and Mary
, "The Byrds
", Joan Baez
and "The Kingston Trio
". Seeger is a two-time Grammy award
winner. In 1994 he was given the nation's highest artistic award as a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of the Arts. In 1996 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
.
Paul Robeson
(1898-1976), the great American baritone, stage and film actor and political activist, also visited Camp Naivelt and performed there. Like Seeger, he too faced persecution during era of Senator Joseph McCarthy
, HUAC and "red-baiting
" for his support of the Soviet Union
, civil rights and labour unions. Robeson is best known for his performances in the musical, Show Boat
and Shakespeare's Othello
.
American folk singer Phil Ochs
, best known for the 'protest song' I Ain't A March'n Anymore visited Camp Naivelt and held an impromptu performance.
Brampton, Ontario
Brampton is the third-largest city in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada and the seat of Peel Region. As of the 2006 census, Brampton's population stood at 433,806, making it the 11th largest city in Canada. It is also one of Canada's fastest growing municipalities, with an average...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It originated as a children's camp, evolved into a family camp and remains in operation as a left-wing, secular Jewish camping community.
Early years
Originally known as Kinderland, it was established as a children's camp in 1925 when the Jewish Women's Labour League (the women's auxiliary of the Jewish Labour League Mutual Benefit Society). The Women's League was described as a "pro-BolshevikBolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
" labour group, made up primarily of garment workers. They leased some property at Eldorado Mills, along the Credit River
Credit River
The Credit River is a river in southern Ontario which flows from headwaters above the Niagara Escarpment to empty into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, Mississauga. It drains an area of approximately 1,000 km²...
. The Canadian National Railway
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
(CNR) owned the land in the early years, at the south west edge of Brampton
Brampton, Ontario
Brampton is the third-largest city in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada and the seat of Peel Region. As of the 2006 census, Brampton's population stood at 433,806, making it the 11th largest city in Canada. It is also one of Canada's fastest growing municipalities, with an average...
in the Credit River
Credit River
The Credit River is a river in southern Ontario which flows from headwaters above the Niagara Escarpment to empty into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, Mississauga. It drains an area of approximately 1,000 km²...
valley.
In 1936 the League attempted to purchase about 103 acre (0.41682658 km²) of the property. The CNR was openly resistant to selling to Jewish organizations and even posted vicious anti-Semitic signs at the entrance, warning "No Jews or Dogs Allowed" to discourage the land purchase. However, the property was acquired through an individual not directly linked to the League, then transferred to them.
The United Jewish Peoples' Order
United Jewish Peoples' Order
The United Jewish Peoples' Order is a secular socialist Jewish cultural, political and educational fraternal organization in Canada. The UJPO traces its history to 1926 and the founding of the Labour League...
(UJPO) was founded in 1945 through a merger of the Labour League and other radical Jewish organizations and has operated and managed the camp ever since.
The children's camp remained in operation as an overnight camp until 1962 and as a day camp until 1971 serving up to 300 children each summer. A family-oriented adult campground that was used mostly on weekends and holidays developed adjacent to the children's camp that, at its peak, contained 90 cottages as well as room for tents. It is in this form that the camp continues to the present day.
Political and cultural history
Camp Naivelt (meaning "New World" in Yiddish) was essentially a volunteer, summer, youth camp for Jewish working class families. It was referred to as a "Worker's Children Camp" and promoted Jewish culture and leftist political ideals. The Camp was described as:- reflecting a secular, non-Zionist, socialist perspective. It was a community of like-minded, working class people, largely in the needle-trade. There were people who were active in union affairs and, yes, there were people who followed the Communist line.
A radical, Communist element was always part of the Park's early history. Canadian Communist Party leader Tim Buck
Tim Buck
Timothy "Tim" Buck was a long-time leader of the Communist Party of Canada...
sometimes spoke there. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
monitored activities and goings-on there from time to time through the late 1940s and 1950s. The Mounties were known to 'stake out' the park entrance, recording license plate numbers of those entering for public events.
A key function of Camp Naivelt was to promote the peace movement
Peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
, social justice and labour rights, and to increase awareness of these issues among youth. Another principal aim was to give urban youth respite from the grime and heat of downtown Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. It also served as a refuge for children facing the threat of polio infection every summer.
When purchased the camp contained a merry-go-round and a meeting hall from the early years of Eldorado Park. Initially only tents were used for the campers. Later permanent frame cottages clad in insulbrick or clapboard were constructed. In the 1940s the UJPO built a band shell, boathouse, swimming pool and two bridges over the Credit River. At one point some 90 cottages were on the property. In the 1970s the present Eldorado Park was established when a portion of Camp Naivelt was sold to the City of Brampton
Brampton, Ontario
Brampton is the third-largest city in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada and the seat of Peel Region. As of the 2006 census, Brampton's population stood at 433,806, making it the 11th largest city in Canada. It is also one of Canada's fastest growing municipalities, with an average...
.
Several dozen rustic frame cottages remain standing through the site; some arranged around large, open common areas and others in rows. These structures retain most of their original character-defining elements such as original wooden windows, doors and cladding (e.g. clapboard, insulbrick and shiplap siding). The cottages and setting form a significant and unique cultural heritage landscape in the City of Brampton.
Camp Naivelt has a deep and meaningful role to play in the exploration of Jewish cultural history in Canada. Jewish folklore, the Yiddish language, music, folk art and dance were studied at the Camp.
Contributions to the history of music in Canada
Perhaps Camp Naivelt's most significant heritage attribute is its long and vibrant association with Canada's musical heritage.For example, the founding members of Canada's best known folk group, The Travellers
The Travellers (band)
For other meanings of the term see The Travellers For the American folk trio see Travelers 3The Travellers were a Canadian folk singing group which formed in the summer of 1953...
, met as children at Camp Naivelt and formed the group there. Their version of Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
's This Land Is Your Land
This Land Is Your Land
"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on...
is a virtual Canadian anthem.
In July 1960, a summer evening concert was recorded at Camp Naivelt featuring the teenage voice of camp member Zal Yanofsky, who later co-founded the rock band, Lovin' Spoonful with John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...
.
The tape also features the young voice of another Naivelt attendee, Sharon Hampson, later a member of the children's group Sharon, Lois and Bram.
Singer, songwriter, Eddie Schwartz who wrote, Hit Me With Your Best Shot for rock star Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar
Pat Benatar is an American singer and four-time Grammy winner. She had considerable commercial success particularly in the United States...
also went to Camp Naivelt as a child.
Estelle Klein, the first artistic director of the Mariposa Folk Festival
Mariposa Folk Festival
The Mariposa Folk Festival was founded in 1961 in Orillia, Ontario. It was held in Orillia for three years before being banned because of disturbances by festival-goers. After being held in various places in Ontario for a few decades, it returned to Orillia in 2000. Ruth Jones, her husband Dr...
was another alumnus of Camp Naivelt.
Legendary American folk singer Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
(1919-), who composed, Where Have All The Flowers Gone, If I Had A Hammer, the civil rights anthem, We Shall Overcome
We Shall Overcome
"We Shall Overcome" is a protest song that became a key anthem of the African-American Civil Rights Movement . The title and structure of the song are derived from an early gospel song by African-American composer Charles Albert Tindley...
and Turn, Turn, Turn performed at Camp Naivelt on several occasions - sometimes with a folk group he and Woody Guthrie (composer of This Land is Your Land) formed in the 1940s called "The Almanac Singers". Seeger would visit the Camp for several days at a time from the 1940s to the 1980s.
Seeger co-founded the legendary folk group, "The Weavers
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...
". Their rendition of Goodnight Irene was a major pop hit in the 1950s. In the 1955 he, along with other members of "The Weavers", were blacklist
Blacklist
A blacklist is a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle...
ed after Seeger refused to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
.
In the 1960s Seeger sparked the revival of American folk music. Pete Seeger provided major hit records for Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...
, "The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
", Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
and "The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
". Seeger is a two-time Grammy award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winner. In 1994 he was given the nation's highest artistic award as a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of the Arts. In 1996 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
.
Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
(1898-1976), the great American baritone, stage and film actor and political activist, also visited Camp Naivelt and performed there. Like Seeger, he too faced persecution during era of Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
, HUAC and "red-baiting
Red-baiting
Red-baiting is the act of accusing, denouncing, attacking or persecuting an individual or group as communist, socialist, or anarchist, or sympathetic toward communism, socialism, or anarchism. The word "red" in "red-baiting" is derived from the red flag signifying radical left-wing politics. In the...
" for his support of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, civil rights and labour unions. Robeson is best known for his performances in the musical, Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
and Shakespeare's Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
.
American folk singer Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, best known for the 'protest song' I Ain't A March'n Anymore visited Camp Naivelt and held an impromptu performance.
See also
- United Jewish People's Order
- Morris Winchevsky SchoolMorris Winchevsky SchoolThe Morris Winchevsky School is a supplemental Jewish school in Toronto, Canada. The focus of the curriculum is on strengthening ties to Jewish culture and heritage within a secular humanist framework. Key focuses are Tikkun Olam and social justice...
- Toronto Jewish Folk ChoirToronto Jewish Folk ChoirThe Toronto Jewish Folk Choir is Canada's oldest Jewish choral group. It consists of approximately 30 singers and is conducted by Alexander Veprinsky. Its repertoire, sung in four-part harmony, encompasses a wide range of secular Jewish music, classical works on Jewish themes and songs of many...
External links
- Camp Naivelt
- Camp Naivelt celebrates 75 years, Canadian Jewish News, July 20, 2000.