If your child loves sports and wants to advance his or her skills in a supportive camp environment, you’ve found the perfect camp. During our one, two and four-week sessions, campers focus on developing athletic skills and improving as teammates in their sport of choice – Baseball, Basketball, Soccer, Tennis, Flag Football, Dance, Volleyball, or Running & Fitness.
Our focus is sports, yet balanced with all the fun of traditional Jewish camp activities. Each day includes skills and drills plus competitive game play, with a focus on improving as individuals and teammates.
As a compliment to our emphasis on skill development, our camp is guided by Jewish values and the meaningful way they integrate into the athletic and community experience. We believe the life skills learned through sports are as important as the sports skills themselves.
Josh Steinharter is the Director for the JCC Maccabi Sports Camp. Josh previously served as the Athletic Program Manager for Youth & Coach Development at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, a position he held since January 2006. [expand title="Read More"]
In this capacity, he oversaw the day-to-day operation of sports teams, classes and camps, serving nearly 2000 youth per year as well as managing up to 70 hourly coaches. His responsibilities included designing and leading staff training (JCCSF Coaching Academy), overseeing daily practices, providing feedback and guiding each coach’s development.
Starting in 2008, Josh served as the Delegation Head for Team San Francisco in the JCC Maccabi Games. In 2009, Josh led the local delegation as the JCCSF hosted the Games. He recruited over 250 local athletes and 55 volunteer coaches to participate in the Games. He led the delegation to Denver in 2010 and to the first ever JCC Maccabi Games in Israel in the summer of 2011.
Josh was the co-creator and manager for the JCCSF Fellowship in Sports Leadership, the most significant legacy program of the 2009 Games. The Fellowship engages aged-out Maccabi athletes in a nine-month leadership development program taught through the lens of coaching youth sports.
Josh was a proud member of JCC Association’s Merrin Teen Professional Fellowship. The Fellowship is an esteemed program designed to develop leadership skills, enhance the profile of JCC program leaders, enrich Jewish identity and help participants further define their career path.
Having spent 9 years at Goldman Union Camp Institute in Zionsville, Indiana as a camper and counselor, Josh is intimately aware of the impact camp has on the individual and the path it sets for a Jewish life. Previous to the JCCSF, Josh has worked in sales, marketing and customer service giving him a broad knowledge of the necessary ingredients to run a successful business.[/expand]
Eytan has been involved in Jewish camping since he was very young. Now, having most recently served as the Director of Camp BB-Riback in Calgray, Alberta, he is thrilled to be joining the JCC Maccabi Sports Camp Team. [expand title="Read More"]
Eytan grew up in Chicago, IL, and spent his summers at Camp Young Judaea Midwest in Waupaca, WI. He graduated from the University of Maryland where he studied philosophy and spent a year studying in Israel. After college Eytan studied non-profit management at Virginia Commonwealth University and completed a Master’s Degree in Camp Leadership from Touro University. Eytan is currently working on his doctorate in educational leadership at Creighton University.
Eytan is a graduate of JCC Association of North America’s Merrin Fellowship, the Jewish Federation of Greater Richmond’s Sisisky Global Engagement Fellowship, served on the Board of Directors of Rudlin Torah Academy, and the Board of Directors for the Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Calgary as the Chairperson of JNF Future.
Eytan has played competitive basketball, baseball, and ultimate Frisbee (having turned down a scholarship to play ultimate Frisbee at the University of Colorado to spend time in Israel) and is huge fan of all Chicago sports. Eytan loves playing his guitar, hiking with his dog Scrappy, and believes that Jewish learning is best done by the campfire. His favorite part of camp is the first day – watching everyone come together, excited and ready to do something incredible. [/expand]
"Hosting Shlichim during the summers remains a wonderful experience for our family. Each year we meet dynamic and fascinating young Israelis with whom we maintain contact long after the summer has gone. Our kids are the greatest beneficiaries of the experience, finding in the Shlichim individuals who they come to regard as older siblings. It is an event we look forward to every year with good reason and plan on continuing for years to come."
- Soberman Family, The Jack and Pat Kay Centre Camp, Prosserman JCC
Connecting with Israel
“Although it was so new, Israel brought upon me a familiar sense of belonging much like what I feel at Camp Chi every summer. The ability to be in a place where one feels so free and proud to be a Jew is a feeling that makes me so proud to be involved in my Jewish heritage.”
- Joshua Krawitz, 17, Camp Chi, JCC Chicago