Surprise Lake Camp is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

sleepaway camp ''Sleepaway Camp'' (released as ''Nightmare Vacation'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1983 American slasher film written and directed by Robert Hiltzik, who also served as executive producer. It is the first film in the ''Sleepaway Camp'' film se ...

located on over in

North Highlands, New York North Highlands (sometimes referred to as North Highland) is a hamlet in Putnam County, New York which consists of the northernmost portions of Philipstown in the Hudson Highlands. Like the adjacent village of Nelsonville, it shares a ZIP Code ...

(approximately north of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

). It is the oldest

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

summer camp in the United States.

History

Founded in 1901 by the Educational Alliance as a camp for Jewish boys from the tenements of Manhattan's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

around the lake that

Breakneck Brook Breakneck Brook, sometimes Breakneck Valley Brook, is a tributary of the Hudson River located entirely in the Putnam County town of Philipstown, New York, United States. It rises at Surprise Lake and flows southwest towards the Hudson from there ...

rises from, it incorporated as Surprise Lake Camp in 1902. In 1911 the

92nd Street Y 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a cultural and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the ...

joined in the operation of the camp, and in 1917 the camp became an independent agency within the newly formed

Federation of Jewish Philanthropies UJA-Federation of New York (United Jewish Appeal⁣ – ⁣ Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc.) is the largest local philanthropy in the world. Headquartered in New York City, the organization raises and allocates funds annuall ...

. The camp continues to operate as a summer camp for children from the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...

.Michael M. Lorge, Gary Phillip Zola, eds., ''A Place of Our Own: The Rise of Reform Jewish Camping'' (

University of Alabama Press The University of Alabama Press is a university press founded in 1945 and is the scholarly publishing arm of the University of Alabama. An editorial board composed of representatives from all doctoral degree granting public universities within ...

, 2006), , pp. 12ff
Excerpts available
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

. In 2005, the camp sold 200 acres and granted a

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or gover ...

over an additional 465 acres of camp property to the

Open Space Institute Open Space Institute (OSI) (not to be confused with the facilitator network of open conversation space) is a conservation organization that seeks to preserve scenic, natural and historic landscapes for public enjoyment, conserve habitats while s ...

, thus ensuring the preservation of these undeveloped lands adjacent to

Hudson Highlands State Park Hudson Highlands State Park is a non-contiguous state park in the U.S. state of New York, located on the east side of the Hudson River. The park runs from Peekskill in Westchester County, through Putnam County, to Beacon in Dutchess County, in ...

. The camp was the setting of a popular 2013

viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander H ...

on the topic of

feminine hygiene Feminine hygiene products are personal care products used during menstruation, vaginal discharge, and other bodily functions related to the vulva and vagina. Products that are used during menstruation may also be called menstrual hygiene product ...

entitled ''Camp Gyno''. In its early years of operation, the camp was subjected to

antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Ant ...

demonstrations of

cross burning In modern times, cross burning or cross lighting is a practice which is associated with the Ku Klux Klan. However, it was practiced long before the Klan's inception. Since the early 20th century, the Klan burned crosses on hillsides as a way to ...

by local members of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Cat ...

, but the camp developed a better relationship with the surrounding residents over time.Leslie Paris, ''Children's Nature: The Rise of the American Summer Camp'' (

NYU Press New York University Press (or NYU Press) is a university press that is part of New York University. History NYU Press was founded in 1916 by the then chancellor of NYU, Elmer Ellsworth Brown. Directors * Arthur Huntington Nason, 1916–19 ...

, 2008),, pp. 127, 186ff., & passim
Excerpts available
at

. For its campers who came from immigrant homes, many of them

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

-speaking, the camp emphasized

acculturation Acculturation is a process of social, psychological, and cultural change that stems from the balancing of two cultures while adapting to the prevailing culture of the society. Acculturation is a process in which an individual adopts, acquires and ...

to mainstream American styles of speech and appearance. Surprise Lake Camp is part of a large-scale archival project directed by

YIVO YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...

(the Institute for Jewish Research) with the goal of preserving the historical record of the Jews of New York City.Nina Bernstein
" A Bid to Save and Share Pieces of Jewish Heritage"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', November 7, 2006.

Former campers and staff

Among Surprise Lake's first campers was

Eddie Cantor Eddie Cantor (born Isidore Itzkowitz; January 31, 1892 – October 10, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author. Familiar to Broadway, radio, movie, and early television audiences ...

, who credited his youthful performances at Surprise Lake Camp (also depicted in the 1953

biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudr ...

'' The Eddie Cantor Story'') with giving him the encouragement to pursue show business. Upon achieving success as an entertainer, he became one of the camp's most ardent supporters. He was a member of the Surprise Lake Camp Board of Directors, and a theater at the camp was named for him. Other notable Surprise Lake campers have included

Neil Diamond Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has had ten No. 1 singles on the Hot 100 and Adul ...

(who has identified

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...

's visits to the camp as his earliest exposure to a musical role model), Jax,

Joseph Heller Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. His best-known work is the 1961 novel ''Catch-22'', a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for ...

Jerry Stiller Gerald Isaac Stiller (June 8, 1927 – May 11, 2020) was an American actor and comedian. He spent many years as part of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara with his wife, Anne Meara, to whom he was married for over 60 years until her death in 2015 ...

Gene Simmons Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; he, חיים ויץ, ; born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician. Also known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded with Paul ...

,Gene Simmons, ''Kiss and Make-Up'' (

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, 2002), , p. 48
Excerpts available
at

Larry King Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys, an Emmy and 10 Cable ACE Awards. Over his career, he hosted over 50,000 interviews. ...

Neil Simon Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received mo ...

, Cody Brotter, and

Walter Matthau Walter Matthau (; born Walter John Matthow; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and film director. He is best known for his film roles in '' A Face in the Crowd'' (1957), '' King Creole'' (1958) and as a coach of a ...

Notes

External links

* * *
Surprise Lake Camp
at Milstein Family Jewish Communal Archive Project {{Hudson River Jewish summer camps in New York (state) Youth organizations based in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Putnam County, New York