…and bonfires and hiking and mountain bikes and climbing, you get the point, right?

Are you ready for electrifying concerts, bonfires, swimming, alpine tower, s’mores, horseback riding, Israeli folk-dancing, mountain biking, tie-dyeing, drum circles, volley ball, nature hikes, sustainable gardening, challah baking, pickle making, gaga, Shabbat, gourmet food, yoga, pilates, inspiring conversations and great people all in a ridiculously beautiful outdoor setting?

Well, grab your sleeping bags, bathing suit, and dancing shoes for our second annual, completely off the charts, music and camping festival.

Jewlicious is bringing it all back to where the real fun began – summer camp. We are adding some of the best music and musical settings you will find anywhere, including our Main Outdoor Stage, the Acoustic stage, The Barn, and more. Artists to be announced soon!

We have many kinds of accommodations to fit every-one’s needs, and gourmet healthy meals and snacks are included day and night. Need some extra comfort? Sleep in a air conditioned cottage. Want to relive summer camp? Bring you sleeping bag and stay in the camp bunks. Enjoy camping out sleeping under the stars? Bring your tent, and enjoy the most affordable way to be at Camp Jewlicious – four days and three nights for only $99.

Our venue is nestled in the mountains just 30 minutes north of Los Angeles on thousands of acres of mostly untouched land. The scenery alone makes Camp Jewlicious a magical experience.

Camp Jewlicious is also a opportunity to get away from it all. There are million places to hike, dream and meditate. We offer yoga and pilates classes, and Torah and spirituality workshops, to nurture our bodies and souls.

Come in a huge group, come by yourself, or bring a close friend to Camp Jewlicious – it’s a romantic setting rented out for movies, weddings, and retreats year round.

And everyone is still talking about last summer’s romantic moonlight hike ending at the otherworldly House Of The Book, where musicians jammed through the night.

Hurry up and buy your tickets, and make sure there is a place for you at Camp Jewlicious. Tickets are now on sale starting at only $99 for our this our 2nd Annual Camp Jewlicious Music and Camping Festival at the scenic and historic Brandeis Bardin Campus.

WHEN: Aug. 18-21, 2011
WHERE: Brandeis Bardin Campus, Simi Valley, CA
WHO: Jewish college students and young adults
COST: $99 and up, scholarships available!
TIX: http://CampJewlicious2011.eventbee.com

More Info, Volunteer and Scholarship Applications: CampJewlicious.com

Made Possible by Major Sponsorship From The Jewish Community Foundation Los Angeles and the Valley Alliance Of The Jewish Federation Of Great Los Angeles, Israel Leadership Council, Adam and Gila Milstein, Stanley and Joyce Black

Sponsor and partner list in formation- MASA Israel, Birthright NEXT LA, Jews For Judaism, Beach Hillel, SoCal JSS, San Diego Jewish Federation, Jewish Free Loan Association, Nefesh B’ Nefesh, American Jewish University, Jimena: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa

For sponsorship opportunities, more information contact: camp@jewlicious.com, 310-277-5544

Back By Popular Demand – Camp Jewlicious is pleased to announce that Marcus J. Freed of London will be on staff at Camp Jewlicious, performing and teaching.

Marcus is a performer, writer, yogi and Brit. He regularly writes and broadcasts for BBC national radio, and devised Bibliyoga™ as a technique for embodying Jewish spiritual wisdom. As an actor, Marcus appeared in Pacino’s Merchant of Venice and has toured over 15 countries with his plays Solomon: King, Poet & Lover, Elijah: First Action Hero and The Madness of King Saul. He trained at Yeshivat HaMivtar (Brovender’s), Tripsichore Yoga (teacher training certification with the internationally-renowned Edward Clark), Webber Douglas Drama Academy and the Universities of Birmingham (B.A.) and London (M.A.). He is thrilled to be teaching Yoga and performing at Camp Jewlicious.

ABOUT SOLOMON: KING, POET AND LOVER (A play about one man and 700 wives.)
SOLOMON is a raucous rollercoaster of a play, and written by Marcus J Freed & Dr Raphael Zarum in 1999. Who was the man that wrote Biblical wisdom, created beautiful poetry, built the Temple and had a personal harem? Marcus plays the King, his 700 wives, 300 concubines, and the court accountant. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin called it “smart, utterly original and deeply insightful”. Performed in over 15 countries, SOLOMON is unmissable.

“Marcus, amongst his many talents, is a playwright and dramatist
and actor-manager and all the rest of it…So, Marcus, I say: Use your
many, many wonderful talents to bring a Jewish presence to the
arts. I will even give you ‘Certified under Chief Rabbinate
supervision!’”
Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks

Meet Ken Liberman – Professor, Surfer, Yogi, Scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. What is a guy like that going to do at this year’s Jewlicious Festival (beside maybe a bit of crowd surfing)?

To find out, Jewlicious got in touch with Ken to ask about his interests and new book called “Yoga for Surfers,” and how that all ties into Reggae performances and Jews.

Thanks Ken for taking the time to answer some questions for us while surfing in Baja! (We’re not jealous at all). We want to know what brings you to the festival this year?

As a university professor, I enjoy bringing what insights I can to young people. Having grown up in Los Angeles (I graduated BHHS in 1966), I really identify with the young Jewish students that I have met who hang around my former student Yonah. In fact, I can say that I have always wanted to teach more Jewish students than I had the opportunity to teach at the University of Oregon. I love the dialectics that unfolds when I encounter curious students who are intellectually prepared.

Growing up as a Jewish adolescent in L.A. in the early ’60s, I had the mistaken idea that surfing was only for Protestants. I don’t know what gave me that idea, but it was totally wrong, but I did not discover that until I went to graduate school at UCSD in 1970.

Surfing is less of a spiritual resource than being in the wilderness, but it also has its strengths. I have taken on a lifelong task of introducing Jews to experiencing the wilderness. I have taken out more than a thousand people on long backpacking trips, many to the desert wilderness of San Diego and northern Baja, and I hope to offer some trips in future years to the Hillel at CSU Long Beach. The experience of the European ghetto still lingers in southern California Jewish life in the form of a degree of alienation to the natural world. As an urban Los Angeles Jew, I can tell you for sure that the full spiritual resources of the wild earth can be a resource even for a Jew.

It is interesting how you have integrated yoga to make your passion of surfing a more fulfilling experience. What is it that yoga can add to all our lives? And will you guide us a bit at this year’s Jewlicious Festival?

Of course, I would be happy to lead a session of yoga asana practice at Jewlicious, but more important is to convey how very broad yoga is. It has a vital ethical component, and it consists of a daily pursuit of a contentment that we bear within ourselves, that is already there, and which does not require that to run out to the malls to find.

There is the importance of understanding the immune system, the role that hormones play in our physical and mental health, the importance of stress-reduction, correct diet, and especially correct breathing. And then there are the more mundane benefits of better health, attractiveness, longevity, and the possibility of surfing like a fiend even in your seventies.

It is said that medicine is for sick people, and yoga is for healthy people. You choose to stay healthy in order not to become sick, and naturally this is mental as well as physical. The think about “asana” and “hatha yoga” is that people who are unable to calm the mind in the midst of modern stresses and 250 channels can use their body to calm the mind – and along with it the heart and the endocrine system.

I was really struck by the line in your book “We surf because we want our nerves to sing!” Can you tell us briefly how you discovered surfing and what it is about it that makes your body sing?

The line you cite, “We surf because we want our nerves to sing!” captures the source of the joy of surfing. It is mostly about nerves. Consider … why do kids spend so many hours trying to skate their skateboards on iron handrails? Because they are linking up their body’s nervous system with their brain and will. When the body falls into synch, as it were, it becomes the dance we humans were made for. The activity (surfing, skateboarding, basketball, polo-stick bouncing) is less important that the feeling of nervous integration. Well, that is what yoga is aimed at – it is much more about nerves than ligaments.

Aside from surfing, you also have a lot of knowledge on Buddhism and speak on Buddhist yoga traditions. Why do Jews tend to be so attracted to Buddhist practice and what does it offer? And are these components that cannot be found in Judaism?

There is surely no shortage of Jews in either Buddhism or yoga.

What does Buddhism offer to Judaism? I think every ethical teaching I came to appreciate in Buddhism I found only afterwards was in Judaism all along, only I was never able to get past the words to the operative meaning.

Learning spiritual practices in a fresh perspective causes you to look more carefully, but once you gain the lessons you will find them in spades in the Talmud, the Hagaddahs, and other Jewish sources. That is why I think my Buddhism has not at all undermined the quality of my Jewish practice.

Thank you, Ken. We definitely look forward to meeting you at this year’s Festival. Between you and the musicians and presenters, I’m sure nobody will leave with calm nerves.

An award-winning freelance journalist, Lisa works as a stringer for the New York Times and contributes to the San Francisco Chronicle, Forward, Jerusalem Post, and many other publications. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe (Summer ’08), a celebration of Jewish pride with love, enthusiasm and irreverence.

Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe