Blog

GUCIpalooza: the first in-person NFTY regional event since COVID-19 began. For the past two years, NFTY-Ohio Valley has organized virtual programming to try and keep NFTY thriving. With the loss of attendance and struggle to keep up in the face of a pandemic, it was...

On Tuesday, November 30 at 7 p.m. Eastern, join the GUCI family to celebrate the third night of Hanukkah. Featuring Dan Nichols (and yes, he will be taking requests! You can make requests when you register or during the event), we will light the Hanukkah candles,...

Dear Families, As Thanksgiving nears, we have so much to be thankful for at GUCI. After a summer away, our community was back together in Zionsville for a summer of in-person connections, friends new and old, and joyful Judaism. Today we are thankful that registration...

Prior to the start of the 2021 camp season, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) engaged a nationally-regarded, independent investigator to conduct a comprehensive and impartial investigation following several public reports of individuals in the Reform Jewish Movement...

Shabbat Shalom from Zionsville! It is hard to believe that this is the last Shabbat of August, and that it has been three weeks since we celebrated the final Shabbat of GUCI Summer 2021. Throughout the summer, we had more than 500 campers, staff and faculty join us at...

  At Goldman Union Camp Institute, we are incredibly blessed to have a fantastic Board of Advisors made up of alumni, camp parents and friends of camp. Our Board works to support the full-time team in alumni engagement, development and much much more. Every few...

Shabbat Shalom from GUCI! Throughout the first week of camp, campers and staff alike took tremendous care to keep each other safe. We did this by podding in cabin groups, wearing masks when with other cabins and social distancing from other pods. With these...

Allisa Horwitz has joined the GUCI team as the URJ Business and Operations Associate, Midwest Hub. In her role, she will be supporting our team and OSRUI, one of our sister URJ camps in Wisconsin. Read what she has to say below! I grew up in Skokie, IL at Temple Judea...

At GUCI, we are fortunate to have a huge roster of incredible alumni. One of which is Alan Goodis. You may remember hearing about him and how he worked with GUCI campers in 2019 to create an original song - In This Place (V’asu Li Mikdash). He has rolled out an...

The following sermon was delivered on Erev Rosh Hashanah by one of our faculty members, Rabbi Allison Vann who is a Rabbi at Suburban Temple-Kol Ami in Cleveland, Ohio. Here we are at the new year. How I wish I could proclaim, “it’s 5781!” and all our challenges and...

Growing up in Chandler, Arizona, I did not have a lot of other Jewish kids in my school and being Jewish was something that made me different. While I embraced this unique part of my identity, I often felt outside. I missed random days at the beginning of the school...

Anyone who has spent a summer (or even a meal) at GUCI know we have a lot of shtick. Not familiar with that term? According to Wikipedia (valid source right?), a shtick (Yiddish: שטיק‎) is a comic theme or gimmick. The word entered the English language from the...

Ohio is huge! And if you live in Ohio you know that no two parts of the state are the same. From the waters of Lake Erie in the north to the hills of West Virginia and Kentucky in the south, Ohio has every landscape in the Midwest.  This variety in landforms provides...

It's here!!!! Help support GUCI by purchasing exclusive 2020 GUCI merchandise! Choose from a t-shirt, tank top, mask or all three! Available for purchase now through September 1. To order - click here! $25 $20...