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Alan Friedman - Executive Director
Alan Friedman is thrilled to bring thirty-one years of successful camping experience to Camp Mountain Chai. His summer camping career began as a child, at the age of ten, when he first attended Camp Mah-Kee-Nac, a private boy's camp in Lenox, MA. Over the next eighteen years, Alan continued to spend his summers at Camp Mah-Kee-Nac, as a camper, CIT, group leader and program director. In 1993, he became its first full-time Assistant Director and in 1999 was promoted to Director. Alan began working as a consultant for CampGroup, the largest group-owner of private summer camps in United States, in 2005.
Alan grew up outside of Princeton, NJ. He attended Ithaca College where he earned a degree in Communications Management. In addition to camping, Alan has had a prosperous advertising career, selling television time in the New York City, Boston and Harrisburg markets. Moreover, he spent ten years working as Senior Youth Group advisor to four different Reform congregations in the northeast. He looks forward to sharing this Jewish education experience with us, as well.
Alan moved to San Diego from West Orange, NJ with his lovable four-year old Golden Retriever, Einstein. He is very excited to join the Camp Mountain Chai family and become part of the Jewish Community in the San Diego area.
Steve Gerard - Summer Camp Director
Steve Gerard, the newest member of the Camp Mountain Chai family, comes to us with an abundance of Jewish resident camping experience. Beginning at the age of nine, Steve attended Camp Charles Pearlstein in Prescott, Arizona. And for the next 20 years Steve pursued an impressive camp leadership progression; he became a CIT, counselor, L.T.P. Director (Leadership Training Program) and CIT Director. In 2003, after five summers as a Senior Administration Staff member at Camp Modin in Belgrade, Maine, Steve returned to Camp Pearlstein and became its full-time Assistant Director.
Born and raised in Tempe, Arizona, Steve earned a degree in Political Science from Arizona State University. And, feeding his creative side, he also studied and worked in the field of graphic design for several years. Steve consistently maintained his connection to the Jewish community through his active involvement in the reform movement's NFTY program (North American Federation of Temple Youth) both as a teen and later as a youth group advisor.
Steve sees his new role with Camp Mountain Chai as a wonderful opportunity to share his passion for residential camping in our setting where children can grow, learn and develop while cultivating a lifelong connection with their Jewish Identity.
David Zimmerman - Administrative Director
Jewish summer camping has been a part of David's life for as long as he can remember. He began as an 8 year old camper at Shwayder Camp outside Denver, Colorado. After 7 years as a camper David began to develop his professional skills with the completion of the highly competitive CIT program in 1991. Over the next 12 years David greatly expanded his skills repertoire by serving on staff in many specialty positions including Kitchen Manager, Wilderness Specialist, Ropes Course Director, CIT Coordinator and Assistant Director. Additionally he spent a summer at Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu as the Adventure Sports Specialist.
David was born in Los Angeles but primarily grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. David moved to Colorado for college and received an Associates degree in Outdoor Recreational Leadership from Colorado Mountain College. He later continued his education at Colorado State University, receiving a B.S. in Natural Resource, Recreation and Tourism Management.
David moved to San Diego in the fall of 2007 to join the Camp Mountain Chai team. David is excited to apply this great breadth of camping experience to his exciting new endeavor at Camp Mountain Chai.
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