Letter from our Executive Director

Hi, I’m Frank. I’ve been the Executive Director of Camp Young Judaea Texas for 28 years, which either makes me deeply passionate about this place or deeply in need of a career counselor. Probably both.

Here’s what I know after nearly three decades: CYJ isn’t just a camp. It’s a place where something quietly extraordinary happens to kids — usually between the ropes course and Havdalah under the Texas stars, when nobody’s watching.

Since 1952, we’ve been building something that’s harder to define than it is to feel: a Jewish camp community where kids can actually be kids. No phones. No algorithms deciding what they should care about. Just kids figuring out who they are — as people, and as Jews. They leave with real friendships, hard-earned grit, and a Jewish identity that feels like theirs, not their parents’. They discover a genuine love for Israel — not from a textbook, but from living it together. They learn to recognize kindness in others and find it in themselves. Camp builds good people. That’s not marketing. That’s just what we’ve watched happen, over and over.

Our campers come from across the country and across the denominational spectrum — and all of them belong here. In three weeks, things happen. A shy kid becomes the one leading a song they didn’t know last Tuesday. A homesick 9-year-old discovers they’re braver than they thought.

This all unfolds under the watch of our staff — 120+ passionate, experienced, occasionally sleep-deprived young people who chose to spend their summer here because they were changed here too.

Thousands of alumni have called CYJ their Jewish home base — the place where their identity clicked, their confidence grew, and their people found them. We’ve saved you a spot. Come see what the fuss is about.

Frank “the Tank” Silberlicht
Executive Director