An Amateur Film Reel from Camp Boiberik
Featured Artifact
An amateur film reel in YIVO’s collection has recently been digitized and made available for viewing for the first time in over 85 years. Titled Tsores in Boiberik oder Oi, Trouble (Problems in Boiberik, or Oh, Trouble), this film was produced in 1940 at Camp Boiberik, a secular Yiddish summer camp founded in 1919 by the Sholem Aleichem Folk Institute. The film features Boiberik’s longtime director, Leibush Lehrer, and a character named “Milly,” a mischievous camper who burns down the camp cabins to build a new Boiberik for the summer of 1941.
The two reels that comprise this film are among a collection of 85 amateur reels produced on behalf of the Camp Commission which capture various camp activities and rituals. These films would have been shown at the annual winter reunions held almost each year from 1934 to 1979.