110% Fun

International experience

Сampers from 30 countries come together every summer to enjoy our 12-day sessions. A lot of fun, many friendships and of course a camp t-shirt as a gift.

Sign up

Fun activities

In Szarvas Camp you’ll find a wide range of different activities where you can try out your sport, communication or creative skills. Some of our bike trips are leaving 5:30 in the morning!

Sign up

Building Jewish identity

Our approach to Judaism is open and pluralist. We accept all streams, styles and levels of Judaism. You can learn prayers, songs, visit the Synagogue or simply enjoy being Jewish.

Sign up

Professional education

By using informal methodology our trained staff is guiding our campers through the educational agenda and theme. We might also teach you how to write a newspaper or create your own music.

Sign up

The Szarvas Experience

The Szarvas Camp provides campers from many Jewish communities with the opportunity of a lifetime! At Szarvas Camp, campers will have the opportunity to meet and interact with a diverse group of peers from Jewish communities representing over 25 countries, learning together the many different ways Jews around the world live out their Judaism. Szarvas Camp is a place that nurtures exploration, leadership and Jewish identity building. It is at the forefront of what it means to engage and experience what global Jewish peoplehood is all about.

Slide to the right ⇨

What is Szarvas?

The JDC–Lauder Szarvas camp started in the summer of 1990 with a goal to help reinvigorate Jewish Identity among young Jews in Hungary and in the larger region of Eastern/ Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union after the fall of Communism. Hungary has the largest Jewish population in the region and is the most central geographically which made it the perfect place to open the camp. Over the last 30 years, Camp Szarvas has transformed the landscape of Eastern and Central Europe. Many of the young leaders across the region developed their strong Jewish identity and passion for Jewish communal leadership at Camp Szarvas.

One of the core goals of the program is to establish a framework that allows every participant, no matter their Jewish background, to feel comfortable expressing who they are. The vision of the the camp is to make the Judaism it represents accepting and open for all. We help campers to live out their own Jewish identity and we enable and encourage them to find their own place in the framework of the Jewish community.

Szarvas is a place that nurtures exploration, leadership and Jewish identity building.

Please meet: American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)

As the organizer of the camp, with the help and support of North American Federations, JDC covers the difference between the full fee and the participation fees of Central and Eastern European participants!

Learn more

Sessions

Session1 Cover
1

Session

25 Jun–07 Jul / 25 Июн–07 Июл, 2023

International session with at least 8 countries! Campers older than 14 can also join the international group (places are limited)!

Session2 Cover
2

Session

09–21 Jul / 09–21 Июл, 2023

International session with at least 8 countries! Campers older than 14 can also join the international group (places are limited)!

Session3 Cover
3

Session

23 Jul–04 Aug / 23 Июл–04 Авг, 2023

International session with at least 8 countries! Campers older than 14 can also join the international group (places are limited)!

Session4 Cover
4

Session

06–18 Aug / 06–18 Авг, 2023

International session with at least 8 countries! Campers older than 14 can also join the international group (places are limited)!

Sign up

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN MORE EVENTS?

Check out our other programs!!

Esemeny Pic1

Family Camp

A few Szarvas graduates and their friends, who were looking to keep alive for themselves and their families the great Szarvas spirt and experience that they had at camp, created the Manóra Association. They organize this outstanding family camp where a lot of our former campers and madrichim come back here with their own children as participants. Children in this camp are between the ages of 0 and 6 years. For more information, please contact: György Forgács at campjichak@manora.hu.

Esemeny Pic2

Machol Hungaria

This “Szarvas-inspired”, international Israeli folk dance camp, each year creates its uniquely special atmosphere through the presence of a few hundred dancers from more than ten countries. Dance classes are led by professional, Israeli dance teachers and there are both beginners and advanced courses. For more information, visit the website: www.machol.eu or write to the e-mail address: info@macholhungaria.com (Forgács György).

Esemeny Pic3

Holocaust-survivors’ Summer Vacation

The Joint (JDC) Hungary and the MAZS Foundation supports more than 3.500 people out of about 7.000 Holocaust survivors who are still living in Hungary. MAZS aims to provide services in order to give them the opportunity to live their lives with dignity, including staying in their own homes for as long as possible. They are also offered various social, cultural and leisure opportunities where they can be together with others who can understand what they have experienced and, in this framework, they have the opportunity to relax at Szarvas in one of a number of short sessions at the end of the summer.

Esemeny Pic4

Camp for kids and adults with developmental disabilities

Szarvas Camp is committed to diversity and opens its doors to people of all abilities. During the summer, we host a camp for developmentally disabled (DD) kids and adults, offering them a fun and memorable experience. There is an array of activities run by experienced staff and experts in special education. As of now, our participants are members of the special needs’ unit of the BZSH-MAZSIHISZ operated Israel Sela Residential Home as well as for the participants of the “teen club” of the Csupaszív Foudation, who live at home with their families.

Written about us

My favorite part of Szarvas was communicating with teens from other countries. Our Jewish roots are the instrument that helps us eliminate the language barrier.

Ozheni, Ukraine

This is an institution that produces awesomeness

Alex, USA

I’ve met my husband there when I was a camper, and today our kids are going there as campers. Szarvas is big part of my and our family’s story!

Anna, Hungary

Your Szarvas. My Szarvas. OUR Szarvas.

We count on your support!

If you have the opportunity, please help the work of Szarvas Camp.

Learn more