These Jewish Celebrities Went to Jewish Summer Camp

Whether you went to camp or have heard one too many stories about it, it’s undeniable that Jewish summer camp is a touchstone of the modern Jewish experience. Summer camp is a place where Jewish cultural and religious identity blossoms, lifelong relationships are forged and, well, kids can just be kids. But that experience is not exclusive to us, plebeians! Many notable Jewish celebrities have also attended Jewish summer camp.

In honor of summertime and Hey Alma’s Camp Week 2024, here are a handful of Jewish celebrities who went to Jewish summer camp.

Ben Platt

Before Ben Platt was a Broadway star and recording artist, he was a camper at Camp Ramah in California. According to Ben, Camp Ramah was “the first place that I was allowed to decide for myself what kind of Jew I would be.” So obviously, it had a huge impact on his life.

Some highlights of his time at Camp Ramah include winning color war with the Adom (Red) team and performing musicals like “Guys & Dolls” in Hebrew. It seems that all of his siblings, including the equally talented Jonah Platt and Henry Platt, also attended Camp Ramah.

Ethan Slater

On the other side of the country, Broadway actor Ethan Slater attended Camp Ramah in New England! Ethan had an upbringing that was fairly involved in the Conservative Jewish community. His family was a part of the congregation Ohr Kodesh, where he later became a bar mitzvah. He also attended Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School through middle school and took classes at Shoresh Hebrew High through his synagogue while at a secular high school. Even so, he initially only went to Camp Ramah because his father was the camp doctor.

“I went there originally as a staff brat, but stayed on until I was 16,” he explained.

Bryan Greenberg

Like Bob Dylan before him, “One Tree Hill” and Hallmark Hanukkah movie “Round and Round” star Bryan Greenberg attended Herzl Camp in Wisconsin. He was a camper there between 1989 and 1993.

Seth Rogen

Jewish summer camp isn’t just an American experience. Canadian Jews like Seth Rogen also spent their childhood summers surrounded by Jewish culture and the great outdoors. In the case of the “Knocked Up” actor, he went to Camp Miriam in Canada, which is affiliated with Habonim Dror, a Labor Zionist youth movement.

“I loved summer camp. It was very developmental for me. Every evolution in my adult behavior came from my peers at summer camp,” Rogen said in an Interview Magazine conversation with Nick Kroll.

He joked, “Yes, I went to a radically left-wing Jewish summer camp. It was so left-wing Jewish that I think also there were not only Jewish people there because that would be against their very liberal values.”

Doug Emhoff

Here’s hoping this sentence ages well: Doug Emhoff, husband of VP Kamala Harris, could very well be the first first spouse to have attended Jewish summer camp.

When he was a teen, Emhoff attended Cedar Lake Camp in the Poconos. At age 13, he was voted “most athletic” in his age division, which, as writer and Hey Alma contributor Sophie Vershbow astutely noted on Twitter, “Being voted ‘most athletic’ at Jewish summer camp says very little about Doug’s athletic skills and everything about his ability to pull chicks in 8th grade.”

The Second Gentleman returned to the camp in 2023 to talk to the current campers about Jewish life and antisemitism.

Ralph Lauren

While Old Jewish Men (OJM) is here to remind you that iconic Jewish fashion designer Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Lifshitz, we’re here to remind you that he went to Jewish summer camp. More specifically, he spent time at Camp Massad in the Poconos.

Plus, some honorable mentions…

Adam Sandler

Apparently, there’s a mystery as to whether or not the Sandman attended Jewish summer camp at the URJ’s Camp Eisner in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Adam, if you’re reading this, confirm or deny!!

Nick Kroll

Camp Wildwood, where comedian Nick Kroll and Jewish “Big Mouth” co-creator Andrew Goldberg spent their summers, isn’t an explicitly Jewish summer camp. In the Interview Magazine conversation with Seth Rogen, Kroll said the camp was “J-E-W dash I-S-H.” “It was 90 percent Jews, but it wasn’t a Jewish camp,” he explained.

Beanie Feldstein

Like Nick Kroll, Beanie Feldstein did not attend a Jewish summer camp. She spent her summers at the renowned theater camp Stagedoor Manor. Still, summer camp is an important part of Beanie’s life.

“I grew up going to summer camp for ten years, and my parents and both sets of my grandparents met at summer camp, so camp is a lineage of love through the generations of my family,” Beanie told Vogue when they covered her summer camp-themed wedding to Bonnie-Chance Roberts. While we could be wrong, it feels likely that Beanie’s grandparents met at Jewish summer camps.

Welcome to Hey Alma’s 2024 Camp Week! We’re celebrating the unique experience that is Jewish summer camp. Check back in all week long for personal essays, pop culture moments and great memes that encapsulate Jewish summer camp.