Frequently Asked Questions
All campers and staff must be up to date on their immunizations and submit immunization records before the start of camp.
Moshava Ba’ir is located on the beautiful Ida Crown Jewish Academy campus at 8233 Central Park Ave, Skokie, IL 60076. Just a short distance from Glencoe, Highland Park, West Rogers Park, Lincolnwood and more!
Moshava Ba’ir is for children entering kindergarten through entering 6th grade. Our program is carefully and thoughtfully developed to be age and developmentally appropriate for these ages across the board, from swim and sports, to chinuch, specialties and arts.
Campers at Moshava Ba’ir enjoy a rich and well-rounded experience. Each day will include daily instructional & free swim, sports (basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, football, tennis, archery, climbing wall), specialties (music, dance, arts & crafts, drama, cooking, baking, gardening, nature, animals, fitness and more), and our unique experiential education program.
All campers enjoy a full camp experience, and our tailored scheduling allows for more sports-weighted schedules for bunks that enjoy sports and specialty-weighted schedules for others. We also offer chugim (electives) for our older campers in which they can choose their own interests!
We offer both free swim and Red Cross swim instruction on a daily basis. Our swim program has low swim-instructor to students ratios and many WSI certified swim instructors. Free swim and swim instruction will take place in the four 41’ by 21’ aboveground heated pools we install on the Frisch campus for the summer. The pools have wooden decks alongside them to create a ground level at the water’s surface. They are centrally located on the campus and private. We use “tot docks” to create a shallower standing area for our smallest campers. The campers have a blast at the pool!
Our bunks range in size for younger campers from 11-14 campers each, with at least 2 counselors per bunk. Our older campers have bunks of approximately 15 campers each. Each grade is a separate Edah (division) of approx 8 bunks, with its own experienced and capable Rosh Edah (Division Head). Our Rosh Moshava (Head Counselor) and Sganei Rosh Moshava (Assistant Head Counselors) oversees the Roshei Edah. This camp structure allows each child to feel at home and cared for, while enjoying the excitement of being part of a big program!
Our bunks are separate gender, with the exception of campers entering kindergarten, which is co–ed. In our younger divisions we maintain a 1:5/6 ratio of campers to counselors and a 1:6/7 campers to counselors in our older divisions, following or exceeding ACA standards.
Our bunks are separate gender, with the exception of campers entering kindergarten, which is co–ed. In our younger divisions we maintain a 1:5/6 ratio of campers to counselors and a 1:6/7 campers to counselors in our older divisions, following or exceeding ACA standards.
We understand that the experience your child will have at camp will be largely impacted by their wonderful counselors. We take pride in the maturity and responsibility of our staff, and our youngest counselors are rising high school seniors. In our youngest division, Eidah Aleph (campers entering K), each bunk has 1 Morah work along side 2 rising HS Sophomores.
We run a week of intensive counselor training in advance of the summer, highlighted by a shabbat at Moshava IO, as well as regular follow up workshops that offer professional development to our staff over the course of the summer. In addition to the supervision our division heads and Rosh Moshava offer, our camp psychologist mentors and offers guidance to our counselors.
We believe that Moshava Ba’ir offers the oldest, strongest, best trained, and best supported madrichim of any day camp out there!
We run a week of intensive counselor training in advance of the summer, highlighted by a shabbat at Moshava IO, as well as regular follow up workshops that offer professional development to our staff over the course of the summer. In addition to the supervision our division heads and Rosh Moshava offer, our camp psychologist mentors and offers guidance to our counselors.
We believe that Moshava Ba’ir offers the oldest, strongest, best trained, and best supported madrichim of any day camp out there!
Each week our older divisions take one major trip, and we will also have one exciting event on campus. Examples of trips include amusement parks, berry-picking, boating and rock climbing. On campus events include carnivals with blow ups, petting zoos, and concerts. One highlight of the summer for our older campers (entering 4th – 6th grade) is the opportunity to go on an overnight to Camp Moshava Wild Rose, Wild Rose, WI.*
*Our overnight to Moshava Wild Rose is dependent on bunk space in Moshava Wild Rose and therefore may not happen in certain summers.
Moshava Ba’ir offers an excellent sports program that includes baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, football, hockey, volleyball, gaga, dodgeball, fencing, archery, and rock climbing.
Every effort is made to ensure that sports activities are age and developmentally appropriate, and are structured to incorporate instruction, play, and competition. Our huge air conditioned gym means full sports even on rainy days!
As a Bnei Akiva camp, we love the sun, outdoors, and nature. Our beautiful campus features a baseball diamond, soccer and football fields, tennis, volleyball and tetherball courts, climbing wall, track and field, garden and archery range. We are also uniquely well prepared for inclement weather, and our campers enjoy a full program of activities even on the occasional rainy or very hot day. The Frisch school campus offers an enormous air conditioned gym including basketball courts, indoor hockey, soccer, and dodgeball.
We also enjoy a beautiful auditorium/ performance space, art studio, music room, dance studio, drama space, cooking, and baking rooms, and bunk rooms that serve as home bases (with swim changing tents) for all of our bunks.
We also enjoy a beautiful auditorium/ performance space, art studio, music room, dance studio, drama space, cooking, and baking rooms, and bunk rooms that serve as home bases (with swim changing tents) for all of our bunks.
Moshava Ba’ir is a nut–sensitive camp. The food that we serve contains no trace of peanuts or tree–nuts, and our policy is that any food sent along with your children to camp contain no nuts or trace of nuts. If food that contains nuts is brought by a child into camp, we will replace it with a nut–free equivalent. Allergy questions regarding our hot lunch program should be directed to Five Star Caterers [email protected] who provides our lunch.
At Moshava Ba’ir, we believe deeply in the unique Bnei Akiva culture of camping as a learning and growing experience. One important manifestation of this is the camp “Noseh” or educational program. Throughout the summer, our endlessly creative staff employ art, music, dance, and theater to re–create and re–experience powerful moments and places of our history.
We have a daily “chinuch” activity that campers love, facilitated by an exciting and dynamic staff of young educators. In past summers, we enjoyed a camp-wide scavenger hunt for Shaul’s donkeys, we learned to make slings to fight Goliath with David, we met a real harpist and wrote our own Tehillim, we experienced a full-on archaeological dig, and we built a room-size Bet Hamikdash out of Lego with David Hamelech!
Our number one priority at Moshava Ba’ir is always the safety and security of your children. The Frisch campus is in a secluded, suburban area. We control access to the grounds at all times. We are staffed by full time security guards (armed). In addition to the experienced camp professionals running the program and the many staff with CPR and First Aid training, we employ a full time nurse as camp health director for the summer.
Yes! Moshava Ba’ir is looking to hire excellent staff for multiple positions, including senior positions, counselors, specialty staff, and lifeguards. Please find the staff page to learn more or apply here.
Our application process is first–come, first–served. Once an age group is full, applicants are placed on a waiting list. In the event that space becomes available, spots in the program are allocated on a first come, first–served basis. When multiple applicants are in the same position on the waiting list, spots are allocated by lottery. In all cases, we will not cash an applicant’s deposit check if we cannot offer the applicant a place in the program.
