About Us

IT BEGAN WITH A DREAM…

Camp Mountain Chai was created when local families realized there weren’t enough spaces for Jewish kids at summer camps. Inspired by this need, Ed and Rae Samiljan, and Jack rallied the community with a dinner at Fairbanks Country Club, and soon discovered widespread support for Jewish camping.

With no office of their own, they spent years meeting around a dining room table, running studies, financial models, and fundraising tirelessly. Thanks to the generosity of the community, their vision became a reality. After years of searching, the current facility in Angelus Oaks was purchased in 2004 by the Jewish Community Camp and Retreat Center, Inc. and Camp Mountain Chai officially opened its doors to Jewish children in 2006. Since opening, Camp Mountain Chai has welcomed thousands of families, giving kids a joyful, meaningful way to connect with their Jewish identity. What began as an idea around a table is now a thriving camp that children love and parents treasure.

From the start, the vision was clear: camp is the best way to socialize kids and connect them to the Jewish community in a positive environment. Since opening, thousands of Jewish families have experienced Camp Mountain Chai. Families recall their children’s joy and eagerness to return year after year, making it a significant part of their Jewish upbringing. Community members agree that without Ed and Rae’s leadership and dedication, the camp never would have come to life. Today, Camp Mountain Chai is a thriving, successful summer camp that kids love and parents cherish.

Ed and Rae Samiljan

Ed was a pillar of the Jewish community and a founder and benefactor of Camp Mountain Chai. Ed, and his wife Rae, were motivated by a love of Jewish faith and tradition and a desire to ensure their continuity; Camp Mountain Chai was his way of investing in the future of the Jewish community.

Dear fellow members of the Jewish community,

As a child, there was never a question about where I fit in the overwhelmingly Jewish Community in which I lived. Everyone I knew went to the same community Hebrew School and celebrated Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. We went into the world with a distinctly Jewish orientation to religion, friendships, education and society. In general, you were what you were raised to be and we were more or less comfortable with it.

Watching my grandchildren and the grandchildren of my close friends, I see a lot of kids without that natural affinity for all “things Jewish”. They were not dunked into a completely Jewish world in the same way I was. Their choices are greater; their lifestyles are part of the American salad bowl.

I discovered Jewish camping when a young friend commented that she was unable to get space for her two kids at the popular Jewish camps in California. I learned that Jewish camping had a well-earned track record for promoting Jewish, life, values and culture. Kids were placed into an environment that was warm and friendly. They were exposed to Jewish “stuff” in a manner they readily accepted and absorbed. Where formal programs struggle for a child’s attention, camp’s informal approach succeeds through osmosis. It is welcomed and loved.

I watched two brothers, grandchildren of a personal friend, who entered camp with almost no religious experiences, help conduct a Friday night Shabbat Service. These kids loved the experience. They will never forget it. What I expect from Camp Mountain Chai is to replicate those life changing experiences with hundreds or thousands of children. I anticipate that many kids will discover how Jewish values and experiences are important enough for them to want to take them home. I will consider that success!

 

With deep gratitude,

 

Ed Samiljan

Proud father and grandfather

Jewish continuity activist