Executive Summary

Champaign Urbana Temple Youth (CUTY) works to connect Jewish teenagers from the East Central Illinois area, and is part of Sinai Temple. CUTY works to create educational, religious, community, and social programs. CUTY also provides opportunities to learn leadership skills, as it is led by a youth board which holds yearly elections. CUTY also travels to regional North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) events. Teenagers involved in a Jewish youth group often develop a strong sense of Jewish identity and a connection with their community.  

But only so many CUTY events can take place during the busy school year, and in the summer the kids and staff travel. Studies from the Pew Research Center in DC show that the strongest contributor to a sense of Jewish identity and connection is Jewish summer camp, which perfectly fills the time between school years.

Union for Reform Judaism summer camps aim to:

• Enrich the lives of Jewish youth lives by strengthening their sense of identity
• Give a broad Jewish education and illustrate Reform values
• Cultivate lifelong friendships and teach leaderships skills

The goals of URJ summer camps are essentially the same as those of CUTY. Most URJ summer camps are sleepaway, and can last between two weeks to two months. Thus they are expensive, on average $3,000 for a one month session.

In light of these costs, Champaign Urbana Temple Youth requests the Robert & Toni Bader Charitable Foundation to consider a grant of $15,000 to fund scholarships for the youth of Sinai Temple that will enrich their lives and strengthen their Jewish identity.