Kinus Ideas

Mike Schatzberg
New Jersey Kinus Committee
Revised July 14, 2002
Email: schatz5  -AT- hicom -DOT- net 

This document is based on my thirteen years of experience with the New Jersey Kinusim. Other folks may have other ideas. None of them are wrong. Use your imagination. Adapt the idea to your surroundings. While this document is based on a Boy Scout Kinus, it can easily be adapted to any other group. In New Jersey, our Kinus grew so large, we broke the event into a Scout Kinus weekend and a Cub Kinus weekend. Schedules for both events are at the end of this document.

The New Jersey kinus is strictly kosher. All food meets the highest standards of all the attendees. We kasher the kitchen at the Scout camp. We are also Shabbat observant. This means that the formal activities of the kinus do not violate the rules of Shabbat. Individual atendees are free to function in as strict or liberal a fashion as their beliefs dictate. All of this is done so as to remove any barriers to attendence for those who are observant, while making less observant folks feel comfortable as well.

What is a Kinus? There can be many answers to this question. Basically a Scout Kinus is a gathering of Scouts, Scouters and possibly family and guests, usually as a campout. It may be a weekend event or even a week over a school vacation. There are many variations, but they all combine Scouting with Judaism. The New Jersey Kinus is traditionally a spring weekend event, while another Kinus is a winter December holiday week event.

Who goes to a Kinus? Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Explorers, Venture Scouts, Brownie Scouts, Girl Scouts, parents, siblings, guests. Just adhere to the rules for camping set out by the Boy Scouts of America and your local council. For example, Tiger Cubs and Cub Scouts require a parent to go camping, Cub Scout camping is only authorized during certain months and at council-owned facilities.

What is the purpose of a Kinus? To provide a setting in which Jewish Scouts gather to learn, play, study, meet, camp, hike, earn religious emblems, discuss, worship and generally have fun.

The eruv Constructing an eruv can add signifigantly to what can be done at your kinus. The Torah permits carrying within an enclosed "private" area on Shabbat and Yom Kippur. Such an area, enclosed and considered "private", may vary in size from a small home to an entire community. The Talmud specifies both the definitions of an enclosure and how to render an entire area a private domain. An eruv creates such a private area. It is a loop of string or wire that completely encloses an area. You are then permitted to do things that would ordinarily be prohibited on Shabbat such as carrying objects. If the eruv includes the housing area of the kinus as well as the dining and activity areas, many more activities are possible during Shabbat. It is suggested that you consult local Rabbinic authorities on the details of erecting an eruv.

Who runs a Kinus? The Kinus organizing committee. It is helpful to augment these folks with adults or older Scouts during the event. In fact being well trained Scouters, we should try to get as many Scouts as possible to work on staff.

Who is on the Kinus organizing committee? I’m glad you asked:

• Chairman - Schedules and runs planning meetings, recruits committee members, sees that assigned tasks are performed in a timely and correct fashion, delegates authority.

• Facilities - Proposes event locations. When location is approved by committee, secures location from site owner. Erects eruv and other facilities (tents, lighting, signs) as needed. Creates map of site, if needed.

• Program - Proposes activities for Kinus (educational, sports, campfire, hikes). When approved, secures staff to run programs. Provides schedule that is compatible with the rest of the event. Especially important are sessions for the Jewish Scouting Emblems program. Remember to make sure there are adequate "just for fun" activities along with more serious events. Programming should cover all attendees - Scouts, adults, younger siblings. Produces written program that is given to attendees when they arrive. We have run many popular merit badge courses adapting to the observance of Shabbat when required.

• Food - Proposes menu and budget for meals. When approved, secures staff to kasher facility, purchase food, prepare meals, set up dining room, serve meals and clean up dining facility. Ensures that food meets the requirements of the most observant attendees. We feed everyone in the camp’s central dining room. You may opt to do patrol cooking for some or all of your meals and simply supply each group with ingredients. This committee also staffs the dining room (steward) and kitchen. The dining room steward 'runs' the meal service, making announcements, calling waiters to the kitchen, ensuring the clean up after the meal - all very much like traditional summer camp. Waiters are chosen from each table and identified with a distinctive cap. We also have been very lucky to have the services of a professional caterer who supervises the volunteer staff that cooks in the week prior to each kinus, as well as during the weekend.

• Religious Services - Determines what religious services are required, secures staff to run services, determines locations at which to run services, secures sufficient prayer books and Torahs. We attempt to involve as many youth in the running of our services. Services should also cover the entire spread of observance. In our kinus we have an Orthodox service and a separate egalitarian service.

• Housing - Determines available housing at event site, assign registrants to housing working with the registration staff, ensures housing is left in clean condition at end of event. At our Scout event, we emphasize tenting, while our Cub event runs more to lean-tos and cabins.

• Registration - Registers participants as they arrive, collects fees not already paid, issues site maps, schedules, rules, and assigns adults to work on the event.

• Publicity - Provides press releases, distributes to appropriate outlets (Jewish newspapers, synagogues, JCC’s, Scout Councils), arranges visits to units and other gatherings to publicize Kinus, sends event information to National Jewish Scouting web site, creates application forms and distributes them to other committee members as well as mailing them out to previous attendees, Scout Council offices and Scout Roundtables.

• Finance - Establishes and maintains event bank account, reports financial status at committee meetings, accepts and deposits fees and (hopefully) donations, pays approved bills upon presentation of an invoice.

Kinus staff meetings – During the year, the Kinus committee meets to discuss what will be done, transfer information to new members, agrees on location and dates for the event and generally plans the Kinus just as we do any other Scout event. Key committee members present their plans to the entire committee for approval. After the event, the committee meets to analyze what went right and what went wrong. This information will be used to plan next year’s event.

Kinus Schedules The following are sample schedules for the Boy Scout and Cub Scout events. The New Jersey Kinus is held in the Spring, so you may want to adjust times depending on where you are located and what time of the year you hold your event.

Sample Boy Scout Kinus schedule

Sample Cub Scout Kinus Schedule

 Kinus Activities