For Stephanie Goldberg, Camp Miriam is something worth keeping. That’s why this 39 year old has already put camp in her will.
Legacy gifts are not the kind of thing that young people generally make top of mind, but Stephanie is so passionate about the values camp gave her that she wants to ensure machaneh continues for a long, long time.

Stephanie, who spent eight years at Miriam as a camper and two as a madricha, believes Camp Miriam provides a safe place for people who may not have other safe spaces to be Jewish or to be themselves. For her, being exposed to Israeli culture at camp and attending MBI shaped the Jewish identity she’s carried into adulthood and made it more robust and multi-dimensional.
She also has a laundry list of other gifts camp brought to her life. 

“I felt unconditional acceptance there. I developed core friendships and values and I learned some really important messaging about body image, identity, sexuality and more.” She adds, “At Miriam we got to sit around and talk about policy and ethics and philosophy and all kinds of nerdy things – I knew right away I found my tribe.”

As an adult looking back, she says she is incredibly grateful that as a child she had the ability to ruminate on ideas like socialism, social justice and actualization and to explore complex ideas about what an inclusive society looks like. She believes children have the capacity to think about these kinds of big ideas, but are rarely given the opportunity unless they can find a special space like Miriam. “When I was a madricha, I watched little kids sit in a circle and debate kupa and tzedakah – why they are important and what the boundaries are. It was amazing.”

That’s why she wants to play a part in creating more experiences like that for future generations. “That whole shtick about your values in life extending to your legacy — that’s important. “I want my resources to go somewhere that matters, that’s why I added camp to my will. It was super easy to do and I feel great about my decision.”