Wedding Tonight

I know it's hard to believe, but Mogo's wedding is tonight. Can't wait1
I plan on visiting Camp tomorrow, so I'll update you on construction, and all the new facilities.

Why woul I want to make a Rabbi joke?

Two priests and a rabbi were discussing what portion of the weekly collection they kept for themselves.
The first priest explained that he drew a circle on the ground, stepped a few paces back and pitched the money towards the circle. What landed in the circle he kept and what landed outside the circle God kept.
The second priest claimed that his method was almost the same, except that what landed outside the circle went to the priest and the money that landed inside the circle God kept.

The rabbi said, “I’ve got you both beat. I throw ALL the money into the air, and what God wants, God takes!”

Mazal Tov!

Camp Nageela would like to wish a cheek pinching
MAZAL TOV
to long time Nageela counselor and short time Nageela head waiter
SHUA SINGER
on the birth of a baby boy!

40 Days!

When G-d gave us the Torah, Moshe (Moses) spent 40 days in Heaven.
Now is our 40 day countdown to CNB08!

Wii acknowledge...

This past Sunday's JEPLI BBQ was a smashing success. We all enjoyed musical accompaniment by JEFnAZI, as well as Yehuda hogging the Mic and me standing in a shopping cart.

Congrats to Sam Lipke, the winner of the NINTENDO Wii.

AND DOES THIS PICTURE SURPRISE ANYONE?

HOW ABOUT THIS ONE?

As Promised, the new Nageela recruiting video, produced by the talented Mordechai Shenker (who still is the only person in Nageela besides his father who's been there longer than I have) is now on youTUBE. Send your friends, send your pets, send your in'laws... well, maybe skip the in-laws, but check it out!

Update

this is what the logo is looking like at this point in time. Nobody has done a very good job convincing me otherwise, so I'm leaning towards Amp.
Lots of you guys have come up with great logo ideas, though, so thanks for those, and if I get a chance I'll try to make them all into logos that I'll post.

Whoaaaaaaaaaaah!

One of my favorite potential T-shirt designs of all time is this AMP ENERGY logo. I decided last year not to use it because I was under the impression that is was not kosher.

I checked today, and according to the Star- K, AMP is kosher, so here it is!

Not enough results

With only 5 days left to vote, I really haven'y gotten enough response to make a decision. To choose one T-shirt design because 5 people like it just doesn't wash (ouch).
Get some more of your friends to answer the call... this is your choice, well at least partially. I'm taking this vote into strong consideration, so if we have a solid favorite that has a really good chance of being on your shirt.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

If you won't come to the Mountain

One of the least know, yet most important Jewish holidays begins tonight. Know what it is?

If you're scratching your head right now, then you probably need a new bottle of Head n Shoulders. Aside from that, you need to check out these articles about SHAVUOT.

http://www.aish.com/shavuotthemes/shavuotthemesdefault/Shavuot_Family_Parsha.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavuot

Shavuos, or Shavuot is one of my personal favorites, and not just because my wife made cheese cake in a chocolate pie crust. It celebrates our graduation (yo, Jeff, can I get some pomp and circumstance?) from the U 0f Sinai (known as JUST- Jewish University at Sinai- Torah). It's when G-d gave us all the instructions and tools we need to be good people and productive people. In honor of that, some of us stay up all night (just like color war) and sleep all day (like a waiter).

I plan on learning Torah all night long tonight. Crack open a Jewish book and learn a bit yourself. The credits count towards your graduation.

T-Shirt Vote

I've got a terrible dilemma. No, no, it has nothing to do with pickles. It has to do with this year's t-shirt design. I started with no decent ideas (you might argue after seeing the designs that I still don't have any decent ideas, but I beg to differ), and lots of pressure to come up with one that would do justice to the Nageela reputation of great T-shirt designs.

So here we have 5 options (and of course if you have a better, new idea, I'm happy to hear it). Please VOTE IN THE POLL SPACE to your right, and leave comments in the comment section below.

Please vote. The future of our children depends on it!

Public Opinion

I had an idea for the new Nageela t-shirt, and I need your opinion of whether or not it is a good one. Here it is

It is, of course, based on the drink FRUITOPIA, with its distinctive label. Please give me feedback, thanks.

I want to be buried

There are some interesting people out there, and you'd think that the guy who created the 'pringles can' might have been a creative soul.

He was buried in a Pringles Can.

Ughh.

Check out the full article, here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2065818/Designer-of-Pringles-buried-in-crisp-tube.html

Tribute

This post is a tribute to Sam Lipke.
We love you Sam.
Don't say I never mention you.

Congratulationanos

Congrats to Michael, Jeremy and Matthew Wechsler on winning the New generation iPod nano at last night's Say KNOW auction @ the color war shabbaton. It came preloaded with "Blowin' in the wind."

New Basketball Court

BREAKING NEWS!


Rabbi Shenker informed me today that construction has been completed on a
NEW BASKETBALL COURT!

As soon as I have some pictures, I'll post them.
In the meanwhile, just to give you an idea of about where it is, take a look and you'll see there's a large area between the 1st base line of the baseball field, and Rt. 42. Part of that area is taken by the paintball field, nowthere will is a basketball court there as well.
Also coming is a new volleyball court, up in the woods behind the existing V-ball court, and hopefully a new baseball field- and if we're lucky- a gym? Could it be? Start the rumors... you never know.

Ohavia's Wedding

Just came home from Ohavia's wedding. It was awesome! We all had lots of JEP candy and chap-a-Nosh food.
Well, not really, but Yehuda still did hog the Mic, except when Shaya was able to pry it away from him.

exercise is good for you.

Anyone who's ever filled up the JEP van knows how true this is. In other news, Rabbi Shenker has announced that Brim will be biking to Wal-Mart daiy .

New recruiting video

I'm sure the aspiration of every Nageela camper and staff member is to help all of your friends come to Nageela. Unfortunately, we've been hampered by a general dearth of quality recuiting videos- the Nageela boys videos have been great, but how can we recruit girls with a boys video?

I think it would go something like this:

YOU: "See that trip to Hershey Park? Looks cool, doesn't it?"

GIRL: "Yeah, but how come I don't see any girls in the video?"

YOU: "Those are really girls, they just look like boys."

GIRL: "You mean that one in the red cheerleader's dress?"

YOU: "No, that really is a boy. A staff member."

GIRL: "And you like this camp because..."

or like this

GIRL: "How am I supposed to know anything about Nageela for Girls, if all these videos are full of boys?"

YOU: "Look beyond the boys. Imagine the same activities with girls."

GIRL: "OK, but I'm having trouble with the badadadadum part."



But now, Mordechai Shenker has produced a brand new recruiting video- all the best moments of the boys camp and the girls camp- put together. It will be published soon, and you can order them for your friends by calling or emailing the Nageela office.

Here's a rough sample of what the CD cover should look like.

Mazal Tov!

I will always trust the poll!
I will always trust the poll!

Camp Nageela would like to wish a big, juicy
Mazal Tov
to our very own infirmary man, muffin man, balloon man, cake man,
Yaakov Simanowitz
on getting engaged

wooooohooooo!
We can't wait for the wedding!

You can post your wishes here

Vegas Tonight

Have no fear, I still plan on being in Camp Nageela this summer, but I'm flying out to Las Vegas tonight to look at some houses.

I'll keep y'all posted.

Mazal Tov

For those of you old timers who remember him, Scott Sheps, an old Nageela camper, is engaged to Shira Lankin. You can wish him Mazal Tov on OnlySimchas.com

Priceless Animation

Always original, always talented, Jeffrey Weisz (yes, THE Jeff Weisz, idol of millions) has created a short flash animation about Camp Nageela. Defenitely worth your valuable time (wink, wink)to check it out.
Here's the link. http://www.mohawkondisplay.com/priceless.html

Countdown

85 days
23 Hours
18 Minutes

that's it.
Hang in there.

Poll Position

Notice the poll on the right side of the page.
Go to it.
Vote on it.

But that's only half the fun. Comment on this post, to explain your vote.
Are you voting on Shloimie Reich because of his captivating smile, on on Azi Steiner because you want him to leave camp already?

Let's have some fun!

Camp Nageela would like to wish a huge
MAZAL TOV
to longtime counselor
YOSAIF COHEN
on getting engaged!

Mazal Tov!

Camp Nageela would like to wish a huge
MAZAL TOV
to longtime Nageela counselor
Moishe Goldberger (MOGO)
on getting engaged!

you can post your mazal tov wishes here.

GLORY DAYS

Here it is, the big announcement!

Camp Nageela is totally pumped to welcome back
RABBI STAUM
as part of our Head Staff this summer.

Rabbi served as Head Counselor of Camp Nageela during the summer of '05, and currently lives in St. Louis. We can't wait for the greatest summer in Nageela history!

Rabbi Staum is also famous as being one of the original Judgecredibles.

Bringing back the glory days!

At the top of Slide Mountain (the highest mountain in the catskills, standing a gigantic 36 feet above Steinman's head)- left to right: Forrest Grossman, Harlan Grossman, Dani Locker, Daniel Weisz, Rabbi Staum, Artem Yashayev, Emmanuel Medevoy).

You can also check out this video from Nageela '05 (watch the end by the credits for a Rabbi Staum outtake)

Q: Why can't you keep a clock in jail?

A: Because time is always running out.


OUCH!!!

Welcome Back to me

Israel was incredible, but now I'm back home, so back to work on making Nageela 08 even better than Nageela 08 has ever been (hey, no wisecracks, I know Nageela 08 hasn't been yet, I'm not as stupid as I look).

I'll leave you with another few pics from my Israel trip

Although that family picture is actually at the Kotel (Western Wall), the picture of just Tova at the wall does look a bit strange, doesn't it?

DOESN'T TOVA LOOK A LITTLE TOO BIG FOR THE WALL?

It's actually a model at a tourist attraction called mini Israel, where they have models of all the famous places in Israel. It even has little people shuckling as they pray.

Cute.

I wonder if they sing Aleinu in English.

the sefardi

A funny Purim video starring Meir Vinter, Aryeh Steinman, Aaron Stein and Yoni Polatoff.

For a little background to help you understand, sefardic (Jews from the Middle East, Spain, North Africa and some parts of New Jersey) and ashkenazic Jews (Jews from Europe and Pennsylvania) have some different customs, one of the more famous differences is that Sepharadim eat things like rice on Passover, while Ashkenazim do not. Another important peice of background to note is that Stein really didn't want to dress like a woman again. They forced him. No, really. I mean it.

Israel Update- Tuesday

A lot going on, and I'm so tired it feels like I'm a whole day or two into camp. So I'll cut it short. I had the privelege today to be at the Western Wall (Kotel) for the Birchas Kohanim (blessing of the kohanim), when thousands of people come to get blessed by literally thousands of kohanim at the wall.
Don't ask about the bus ride back (holding on to the back of the bus with one hand and holding on to Tova with the other (only slight exaggeration).
Then we went to the ancient ruin of Mesada. Really amazing place with a sad story attached to it.n If you have any interest, you can read about it here.

Exciting News!

Things are heating up in the Nageela office.

Look for an exciting announcement in the upcoming weeks.

Hi from Israel

I'm writing this post from my parents' apartment. No, not their home in New Jersey, their apartment in Jerusalem, Israel. It's awesome to be here, and I hope you all get to experience Passover in Israel. Today I had the privelege of visiting Hebron and praying at the site where the founders of our Nation are buried. The two security checkpoints didn't really bother me, after going through metal detectors 14 times on my way to Israel at the Rome Airport (that's a whole nuthu' story, for a different time. They have to be pretty careful about security there- in fact the bus we went in had bulletproof windows (although I think we were in more danger from the driver than from terrorists).
Tomorrow we plan on visiting Ir David, the place where King David lived and was buried. I hope to keep all two of you updated.

Cool video

Great special effects in this video about Passover.
http://www.tsofar.com/zofar/mashtap/show.asp?id=13333

Thanks to BB for showing this to me.