This year's Boy Scout Jamboree provided kosher meals for over 250 boy scouts partly because of an ad in KASHRUS Magazine.

Every four years the Boy Scouts of America hold a National Jamboree, where scouts from all over the United States and beyond come together for ten days of intensive scouting. The Jamboree is located on a 15,000 acre military compound near Fredericksburg, Virginia. At the Jamboree, the scouts live in tents and spend their time choosing from a wide range activities.

Forty thousand people attended the Jamboree this summer, held from July 23^rd to August 1^st. It is estimated that more than 1,000 were Jewish. Among those, 250 ordered kosher food. Of these, 120 were part of a special Shomer Shabbat Contingent, organized under the banner of Tzofim Datiim by Dr. Howard Speilman, a former yeshiva teacher in Sharon, MA. Speilman is known as an activist for promoting Torah in the scouting world.

The Shomer Shabbat Contingent was made up of Jewish Scouts from 18 different states, who wanted to be part of this group. Some of the boys are Shomer Shabbos and others made a commitment to the group to keep kosher and Shabbos for the duration of the Jamboree. This Contingent, 120 in all, not only wanted to eat kosher, they wanted to eat "very kosher." They wanted to keep Shabbos properly. And some wanted to abstain from meat during the Nine Days preceding Tisha B’Av.

Daniel Richardson, Director of the National Association of Jamboree Division, was responsible for feeding all 40,000 people at the Jamboree, including the two hundred and twenty who wanted to eat kosher. Despite the small numbers, Richardson wanted to make sure that every Jew wanting to eat kosher would be accommodated. It was important to him that even if there were only a single scout wanting kosher in the entire camp, that scout would get his kosher food, fresh and on time.

The food had to be brought in and distributed, and it had to be of a very high standard of kashrus, meaning cholov yisroel and pas yisroel. The Jamboree Committee, working closely with Scoutmaster Dr. Speilman and Jay Schnapp, Chairman Sub-Committee on 2001 Jamboree and Outgoing Chairman of the National Jewish Committee on Scouting, Mr. Jerrold Lockshin, began preparations well in advance to figure out the logistics of the acquisition and distribution of the kosher food.

Mike Poretsky, together with his wife Judy, took on the responsibilities of Jamboree Kosher Meals Managers. They became part of the team of nearly 6,000 adults who worked long hard hours at the Jamboree to see that it run smoothly. This team of adults is all volunteers. In fact, they pay to volunteer.

Months before the Jamboree, the Poretsky’s began their search for a kosher food supplier who would be willing to do the job. The supplier would be providing meals that are partially prepared so that the scouts can do some of the preparations themselves in the spirit of camping out. Then there had to be microwave meals for the staff dining rooms. A system had to be figured out to have bag lunches that could be given out at breakfast time, survive the hot Virginia sun until early afternoon and be fresh enough to pass the scrutiny of the Boy Scout health and safety officials.

Four hundred meals were needed for Shabbos, because by the time Shabbos came around, more and more scouts were expected to participate in the Shabbos meals at the Shul Tent of the Shomer Shabbat Contingent. That is, in addition to the 100 individual Shabbos meals for the Jewish Scouts who regularly ate kosher, but would not be at the Shul Tent. All Shabbos meals had to be packaged and labeled and delivered on time, in insulated containers.

As it turned out, finding a supplier capable and willing to undertake this task was not easy. The Poretskys were getting concerned. That is when Judy picked up KASHRUS Magazine and saw the ad for O’Fishel Kosher Caterers in Baltimore. By now it was Erev Pesach, a busy time for most caterers, but they placed the call.

"It sounded crazy," says Fishel Gross, "but we like a good challenge, so we took the job." Mr. Gross is used to catering to groups, each with their own special needs, but the boy scouts presented very unique challenges for a caterer and an ever-growing number of meals needed as the ten days went along. Everything had to be cholov yisroel and pas yisroel and there was a special menu offered for the Nine Days, for those who did not eat meat. On two of the nights during the Nine Days there were siyumim, so all the boys could eat meat.

Once the Jamboree got into full swing, another thirty Jews decided to take advantage of the kosher food option. Everyone eating kosher was well fed. Mr. Poretsky reported that during the 10 days of the Jamboree, the delivery vehicle bringing kosher food to scouts in 18 of the 20 sub-camps, traveled more than 1,400 miles.

Of all the religious denominations only the Shomer Shabbat Contingent needed a place to conduct daily services. A special circus tent was provided, because the usual army tents would not be large enough. A state-of-the-art eruv was erected around the Shul Tent and the area where the Contingent pitched their personal tents. A global positioning system with a satellite navigating device was used by the US Army to position the Shul Tent in the direction of Yerushalaim.

All week, Jewish awareness was increasing at the Jamboree. Hundreds of Jewish scouts and scoutmasters were putting on Tefillin, some for the first time since their bar mitzvah and some for the first time in their life.

Thursday morning at 7 a.m. in the Shul Tent of the Shomer Shabbat Contingent, scouts, scoutmasters and Boy Scout dignitaries congregated for the Bar Mitzvah ceremony of 15-year-old Michael Steen from San Diego, CA. Steen had put on tefillin for the first time two days before. When asked why he did not have a Bar Mitzvah at age 13, he answered, "When my parents called the synagogue a few months before I was 13, they were told that there was not enough time for me to prepare, so I went without." At the Jamboree he prepared from Tuesday to Thursday (and did quite well).

Shabbos was approaching. Shlomo, one of the rabbinic volunteers realized that the Shul Tent (40 by 60 feet) would not be big enough for the boys of the Shomer Shabbat Contingent plus the expected guests, the Jewish scouts he and the other two chaplains had been meeting all week. He managed to put up two extra tents. The smaller tents would house the traditional Shabbos services and the bigger Shul Tent would hold the beginner’s minyan.

There were two non-Jewish volunteers who hung around all Shabbos making themselves available to ensure that the Jews would celebrate their Shabbos the way Jews should.

On Shabbos morning many witnessed the bar mitzvah of a 54-year-old man, who said that his mother wanted him to have one (his mother married a non-Jew and their son grew up as a Methodist). During his aliyah he started to cry, and that led to everyone shedding a tear of joy for him.