With more than 8,800 Scouts and approximately 2,500 adult Scouters and staffers, the recent 2026 National Jamboree, produced by Scouting America (formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America), was one of the smallest on record but, in terms of its Jewish aspects, loomed larger than ever.
The nine-day series of events in July regularly takes place every three or four years at Scouting America’s permanent high adventure site—the Summit Bechtel Family Scout Reserve—a sprawling 14,000-acre site that spans the area between Glen Jean and Mount Hope in the rugged, mountainous West Virginia hills near New River Gorge National Park.
The Jamboree was home to several expansive ziplines, sites for kayaking, white water rafting, scuba, fishing and a variety of range and target activities that included archery, rifles, shotguns and pistols.
Dozens of merit badges were offered to the Scouts to enable them to advance in rank and were taught by Scouters and older members of the Order of the Arrow who were also on staff. The Scouts and Scouters were entertained by huge outdoor shows emphasizing the 250th anniversary of the United States with impressive fireworks and choreographed drone displays.
As in the Mah Tovu (“How goodly are your tents, O Jacob.”), the thousands of attendees all slept in tents confined to three main camps—Camps C and D for the Scout contingents from councils across the country and Camp E for the staff, which consisted of adult volunteers and Order of the Arrow contingents.
To emphasize Scouting America’s commitment to the various faith and belief groups that charter partner with it and sponsor packs, troops, crews, ships and posts for youth from ages 5 to 21, the Duty to God and Country exhibit area was created. It fell under the Crossroads activities listed under Program, which had organized and planned the series of events in earnest over the past two years with Zoom sessions and in-person gatherings.
Founded in 1926 and thus celebrating its centennial, the National Jewish Committee on Scouting elected to go big at this year’s Jamboree.
To celebrate its 100th year, the NJCOS expanded its footprint at the Duty to God and Country exhibit area with a huge booth that showcased Judaism and highlighted famous Jews. Buffeted by pictures of famous celebrities, historic Jewish Scouting pictures and explanations of Jewish holidays and traditional Jewish foods, the volunteer workers at the booth gave away hundreds of Jewish Scouting patches and buttons and promoted their religious emblems program.
In addition, a large contingent of shomer Shabbat observant Scouts and Scouters, some from Israel, arrived early in order to prepare to observe Tisha B’Av, which began on July 22, the first day all the other Scouts were set to arrive. Their encampment was part of a sub-camp in Camp C that erected an eruv and held daily worship services of Shacharit, Mincha and Maariv in their own synagogue tent led by the Scouts themselves. Other than the day of fasting for Tisha B’Av, the shomer Shabbat contingent ate kosher meals for the duration of the Jamboree.
The Friday night egalitarian Conservative service was also held in Camp C, not far away from the Shabbat-observant contingent in the camp pavilion. That service was officiated by Cantor Neil Schwartz, a former Cubmaster and Scoutmaster, who has enjoyed a long Scouting and professional career as both a cantor and a Jewish educator. The cantor, who has been trained twice at the Philmont Training Center in Cimarron, N.M., was the Scoutmaster when both of his sons, David and Adam, attained the rarefied rank of Eagle Scout.
On Shabbat morning, July 25, while the observant contingent conducted religious services in the Synagogue Tent in Camp C, the NJCOS sponsored an alternative, egalitarian Conservative-based morning worship service for Jewish Scouts and Scouters at the shared Duty to God Worship Tent.
The start of a journey
As a member of the NJCOS for nearly a quarter of its existence, I wanted to ensure we had a Torah scroll deemed kosher from which to read Parsha Va’Etnachan on that particular Shabbat morning.
Checking nearby Charleston, W.Va. congregations, I found an online number on the Congregation B’nai Jacob website. I cold-called Mark Slotnick, whose number was available online and, after making a cursory introduction, explained my intent to borrow a scroll. He contacted the synagogue’s religious leader, Rabbi Adam Berman, who called the president of his synagogue, an attorney named Michael Victorson. Victorson revealed to the rabbi that he was, in fact, a proud Eagle Scout who had attended the 1969 National Jamboree in Farragut State Park in Idaho. It was the first time the rabbi ever knew that Victorson had such a connection to Scouting.
The congregation’s president gladly offered a scroll to continue the cycle of religious practice at the 2026 National Jamboree that he had experienced himself as a youth, as in 1969.
When Berman called me back, I assured him I would have insurance coverage for the scroll and would arrange to house it safely on site at the Jamboree. Charleston is about an hour’s drive away from the summit.
On July 19, I arrived at the synagogue and was greeted by the young rabbi on the same date most of the Scouting staff was directed to arrive and check in.
The rabbi gave me a tour of the sanctuary and proudly displayed the many Torah scrolls housed there. He spoke later about why he chose the particular scroll that traveled to the Jamboree.
“I chose it because it was the smallest,” he said. “They’re all about the same size, but I figured it would be the easiest to schlep around at the Jamboree.” After a slight pause, he asked, “Do Boy Scouts use the term schlep?”
“Jewish ones do,” I assured him.
Unbeknown to me, Berman is the son of emeritus Rabbi Harold Berman, who was senior rabbi at Congregation Tifereth Israel in Columbus, Ohio, from 1979 to 2013. One of his early colleagues was the very same Cantor Neil Schwartz, who served as the congregation’s cantor when he was newly ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1980. Schwartz served as cantor there for two years before moving on to other posts in Reading, Pa., and Chattanooga, Tenn., as he also began his Scouting career.
Connecting generations
On July 25, I served as the gabbai during the Torah service while Schwartz served as the officiant, guiding us through the morning blessings, the Shacharit service, as well as the Torah service. As fortunate as we could be, one of the attendees was a Kohen or descendant of the House of Aaron.
After calling the Scouter up by his Hebrew name, the introductory parsha was read by Cantor Schwartz. That section of Va’Etnachan (“I pleaded”) deals with Moses unsuccessfully pleading with God to permit him to enter the Promised Land.
We advanced the Torah to the second aliyah, which was the section in Devarim (Deuteronomy) that pronounces the Ten Commandments. As it was explained, it is tradition that everyone stand during that portion of the reading, and a Levite member of the NJCOS was then called to the Torah. At the moment the cantor reached the Ten Commandments, I used three resonant poundings on the table to alert everyone to rise.
Once that section was finished and everyone was seated, we advanced the Torah scroll to the section that speaks of the Shema. For the third and final aliyah, I called Yisroel ben Yosef (the Hebrew name for Ricky Mason), the attorney who, in May, had ascended to the position of chairman of the board of Scouting America, one of the two top volunteers in the organization. He is only the third Jewish figure to occupy that position, which correlates to the older title of president of the Boy Scouts of America.
Two other Jewish presidents of the BSA preceded him. The first was Mortimer Schiff, who assumed the presidency in 1931, but tragically died within a month of his appointment. The second Jewish BSA president was Irving Feist, who served from 1968 to 1971.
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