Please, please, can I go to camp?

While dropping the kids off for Jewish sleep-away camp, ever wish the roles were reversed? As adults we already have Sandals, Club Med, cruise ships, and health retreats, but ever wonder what it might be like to bed down, say for three weeks at an adult version of your local Camp Chai?

I know you still love campfires and s'mores.

For starters, the pool is enticing, and you wouldn't have to cook. You wouldn't have to work either. Though the accommodations are not four star (maybe a one with an asterisk for dusty), at night the crickets are all chirpy, and the stars blazing.

At the Southern California camp where my children attended (and where two of them now work), campers learned new steps for Israeli folk dance, chowed down on home grown corn on the cob, and rode trail bikes.

Also, the walk to shul was a short one.

Not your style of fantasy camp?

Perhaps for the adult Jewish summer camper, we need to look beyond the usual draws for undiscovered value.

Remember the day when you dropped your kid at camp? You met parents of different Jewish backgrounds, countries of origin, and language spoken at home.

Amidst the move-in bustle, you were even able to scope out different methods of child rearing.

There were the concierge parents; laying out the fitted sheets, fluffing the pillows, and plugging in the small fans.  

There were the Hollywood parents, the directors, telling their kids were to hang their clothes, stow their luggage, and what to stuff in their cubby.

There were also the Chat-ofskys (I'm related), who while letting their kids basically fend for themselves, spend the time chatting up the other parents for camp insider information.

Of course common to all parents is the "discussion" with the bunk counselor, letting them know in no uncertain terms that their child is special, allergic, or homesick (chose one...or more).

In those moments, real down-to-earth Jewish diversity is on display, and an opening for new friendships; I miss it.

In a Jewish community where denominational and socioeconomic barriers are seldom crossed, and where kids often pal around only with kids from their school or neighborhood, I found these summer encounters a way to encounter, and observe glimpses of other Jewish lives; ways of living, loving, caring and coping.

Upon returning home, that opening is closed. We socialize instead with Jewish friends who agree with us politically, dine at the same restaurants, and catch the same cable.

It's not that most of don't believe in the concept of Klal Yisrael (All of Israel), it's just that in our adult busyness we don't have much time for "klalling."

So where is my Camp Chai Adult where we can mix things up, share stories, and tell each other what we have done when everything wasn't all "kumbaya."

Build it, and they will camp.

We wouldn't need counselors (except maybe financial ones to help us figure out how to pay for all this). Here, the idea is to counsel each other, share our experiences, learn, and have a good laugh.

For food, maybe we head to the kitchen to share our cooking skills, and family recipes. As for dining, I want lots of family style meals where we can compare notes.

Ah, and what about the sleeping arrangements? Maybe bunks arranged like dorms at college, where you pick what is comfortable for you.

And what do we do with adults who whine, say they miss their children, and want to go home? We take their car keys and sit them down for a little counseling. Give them a beer and a group hug. It's that kind of camp.

Edmon J. Rodman has written about making his own matzah for JTA, Jewish love music for the Jerusalem Post, yiddisheh legerdemain for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, a Bernie Madoff Halloween mask for the Forward, and what really gets stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits for the Los Angeles Times. He has edited several Jewish population studies, and is one of the founders of the Movable Minyan, an over twenty-year-old chavura-size, independent congregation. He once designed a pop-up seder plate. In 2011 Rodman received a First Place Simon Rockower Award for "Excellence in Feature Writing" from the American Jewish Press Association.