The Best, All-Inclusive Day Camps—Right in Your Backyard! NKDC offers campers a summer of adventure and non-stop fun with many exciting options, including Hebrew immersion for native Hebrew speakers. Our camps features a beautiful 21+ acre campus with 3 pools, a sprinkler park, sports facilities, a low ropes course with zip line, indoor rainy-day facilities and more. Your camper will enjoy the outdoors, learn new skills, make new friends and explore their personal interests. With dynamic, age-appropriate programming that includes sports, swimming, art, drama, music, Judaic programming, special events and more, your camper will experience an incredible summer to remember. Camper ages 3-Kindergarten are led by head counselors who are certified educators. Our day camps are all-inclusive, providing lunch, snacks, and towel service, making it easy on parents as well. Campers also have access to transportation and extended care services. JCC membership is required. Not a member? Ask about our $750 camp families summer membership.
Youth and Camping Engagement Diretor | Aaron Atlas
Aaron Atlas, Youth and Camping Engagement Director, holds a Bachelor of Arts from Purdue University and a Master of Social Work from Indiana University, and he completed coursework for the Child Development Associate Credential. Before coming to the Kaplen JCC on the palisades he worked at the Indianapolis JCC for over two decades. Throughout his career at the Indianapolis JCC, he oversaw a large after-school care program, family programming, children’s overnights and enrichment classes, toddler playgroups, parent and staff training programs, and agency-wide events, as well as both traditional day camp and specialty camps for preschool through eighth grade for 13 weeks over the summer. Additionally, he spent three years as Associate Director, Early Childhood Education.
Assistant Camp Director | Melissa Peters
Melissa has been a member of the Neil Klatskin Day Camp team since 1998. She began her service as the Transportation Coordinator and is now the Assistant Director. Melissa has been a part of the JCC family in many other capacities as well. She served as the Assistant Children’s Services Director, Children’s Services Director, Assistant Games Director for the 2003 JCC Maccabi Games and the 2004 Delegation Head for the Kaplen Team Palisades.
"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