Camp Kennebec: The History

“A compelling and interesting story about a time and place that changed the lives of many, and remains in their hearts and minds to this day.”
--Linda Waxman Finkle, Albany JCC Marketing Director

Camp Kennebec, an overnight summer camp for boys ages 9-16, was established in 1906 in North Belgrade, Maine, by three Philadelphians, Louis Fleisher, Charles Edwin Fox, and Milton Katzenberg. In July 1907, the first campers arrived at Camp Kennebec, located on Salmon Lake. Campers hailed from east coast and mid-west cities, including Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Cleveland, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Chicago.

Although Camp Kennebec wasn’t presented as a Jewish religious camp, the majority of the campers, staff, and founders were Jewish. Members of the camp faculty, referred to as “Uncles,” were university-educated men. Campers slept in army tents and engaged in a variety of competitive athletics including swimming, sailing, canoeing, baseball, basketball, riflery, archery, tennis, and inter-camp Maroon & Grey color war. In addition, there were intra-camp rivalries with other Jewish camps in Maine (Androscoggin, Takajo, Powhatan, Cobbossee, Winnebago). Alongside sports, dramatic and humor theatrical productions by the oldest “First Section” campers were a mainstay. Senior camp faculty-led, lengthy wilderness trips were at the camp’s foundation, exploring the wilds of Tumbledown Mountain, Mount Kathadin, Moose River, and the Allagash River in Maine.

Camp Kennebec is considered to be the pioneering institution in terms of creating the multi-generational Jewish tradition of summer camps in Maine.