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Dear CMC Families & Friends,
Think about the moment your child came home from camp. The friendships they made, the traditions they carried, the pride they felt, the way they seemed just a little more themselves. That is the legacy of Camp Mountain Chai — and it belongs to every camper and family who has been part of this extraordinary community over the past 21 years.
It is with that pride and deep gratitude that we want to share an important update about what comes next for your family and for Jewish overnight camp in San Diego.
After a thoughtful, two-year process undertaken with the support of community partners, the CMC Board has made the difficult but hopeful decision to wind down CMC as an independent organization and pursue the sale of its current property. Sustaining a small, independent Jewish overnight camp has become increasingly challenging. Rising costs, compounded by wildfires, COVID, snow, and other unexpected events in recent years, placed more financial pressure on our model than fundraising alone could absorb. Like so many camps in the Jewish community, we were committed to ensuring that no child was turned away from camp for financial reasons — a value we honored fully and are proud of, and one that added to the weight of an already stretched budget. We did not arrive at this decision lightly, and we approached it with one question at the center: how do we ensure that the Jewish overnight camp experience your children love continues to thrive in San Diego?
The answer is one we are genuinely excited to share.
The Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center is developing the next chapter of Jewish overnight camping for our community at a new location. The intention is clear: to carry forward the very best of Camp Mountain Chai — the friendships, the traditions, the ruach, the sense of belonging, and the deep connections to Jewish community that your children have experienced and that have made camp so meaningful to your family.
Most excitingly, a familiar and beloved member of the CMC community will be continuing to lead and support your children into this new chapter. We are thrilled that Beth Caplan (B. Cap) will join the Lawrence Family JCC professional team as Director of Residential Camp. After 16 years at CMC, Beth knows what makes a summer feel like CMC. She knows the traditions your children look forward to, the culture that makes camp feel like a second home, and what campers carry with them long after the summer ends. Her leadership gives us tremendous confidence that when your child arrives at their new summer home, it will feel familiar, joyful, and deeply rooted in everything that made CMC special. Three members of the CMC Board have also joined the Lawrence Family JCC Board of Directors, providing another important bridge between CMC's history and the future your children will step into.
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