Interview with Lois and Allan Mecklenberger, April 28, 2009, Highland Park, Illinois

Partial Transcript: Andy Muchin interviews Lois and Allan Mecklenberger in Highland Park, Illinois on April 28, 2009.

Partial Transcript: Lois is the granddaughter of Rabbi Bernard. Her grandfather is relevant because he founded and ran a summer camp near Minocqua called Kawaga. He also ran services in Wausau, Wisconsin.

Partial Transcript: Members of the tribe would come to the camp and teach the campers how to make totem poles, hold pow-wows, and use their words.

Partial Transcript: The idea of the camp came from Kennebunkport in Maine. The rabbis went to Forest Hills House and fished. They drove to Minocqua, and loved it. They put money down on Sunday Lake in Minocqua, but then found another place on a peninsula. They bought the land in 1915. They ended up building the camp there, starting with the mess hall. The camp opened in 1916. The camp was on lake Kawagasaga.

Partial Transcript: Rabbi Bernard was in Montgomery for awhile, but had to leave six or seven years after starting Camp Kawaga to run it. Before Montgomery, he had a congregation in Philadelphia.

Partial Transcript: Bernard's family came from the border of Austria and Hungary. He loved children and worked on playgrounds in New York City. He worked at Camp Triplake in Maine, and loved it. A lot of rabbis started camps because they had the summers off. He started looking for land to start a camp in Maine, but fell in love with Minocqua. Camp Kawaga is and was a Jewish camp, but not defined as one. Not all of the counselors were Jewish, but a lot of the campers were. He ran an abridged version of a Jewish service on Sundays from the reform prayer book. The entire camp participated.

Partial Transcript: He met Indians in Lac de Flambeau. There was Indian culture intertwined in the camp life. Camp Kawaga was next to a reservation. Allan was a camper and then a counselor from 1955-1964. The camp was divided into four tribes. Chippewa, Sioux, Mohawk, and Oneida. He was a Sioux, and ended as an Oneida. Bernard felt a kinship with the Native Americans. Native American culture was a big part of life in northern Wisconsin. There was an emphasis on nature, the outdoors, and wildlife. The Native Americans were revered in the camp area. The camp director would wear an authentic headdress and other garb. The counselors wore elaborate beaded vests. The kids wore headbands with feathers at the Native American ceremonies at camp.

Partial Transcript: Lois' father's name was Lou. He was there when the camp opened, he was born in 1904. He was a camper, counselor, assistant director, and then he took over for Lois' grandfather in 1941. In 1968 he sold the camp. The camp was in the family for 53 years. Lois still goes all of the time, and her grandchildren go to the camp. There is a girls camp called Agawak (Kawaga spelled backwards) in Minocqua. Lois's grandfather helped her grandmother's sister and a partner start Agawak. Lois was a camper there. Both Kawaga and Agawak are still going strong. Campers come from all over the country.

Partial Transcript: Most of the campers at Kawaga were Jewish. Bernard (also known as Doc E), recruited campers from down south by talking to the families that he was a rabbi for. He always targeted Jewish boys to attend the camp.

Partial Transcript: Lois' grandparents lived in a little house on the water at the camp. It was there when they bought the camp. Their boys lived in tents. Three years after that a house called bideweee was sold to Lois' grandparents. After that, they bought more log homesteads for the caretaker to live.

Partial Transcript: A railroad line goes to the camp, and it is only two miles from Minocqua to the camp. The kids took the train from Minocqua to the camp. The train was called the Hiyawatha. The camp had its own train station called Kawaga. Once everyone took the train in to Kawaga, there was a 10 minute group walk to the camp.

Partial Transcript: After 1921, Doc E solicited year round and the camp became his full time job. He wanted boys to come from all around the country. He had around 130 boys at the camp every summer. He could have filled the camp with just boys from Chicago, but had quotas for each city so boys from all over the country could partake in the Camp Kawaga experience.

Partial Transcript: Lois' father ran the camp just like her grandfather. Even to this day, Camp Kawaga is run with the same traditions. Lois' father improved the camp greatly. The camp was Lois' grandfather's and father's full time occupation. Former campers, four brothers own the camp now. They are from Cincinatti. The Zollo family is also very involved in the camp. Every Sunday the girls from Agawak went to Kawaga for service. There was also another Jewish girls camp across the lake called Camp Pinemere.

Partial Transcript: Doc E believed that boys should be able to leave the congestion of the city for the summer, and get closer to nature while building friendships with other boys from around the country. The values of the camp revolved around building skills, working as a team, healthy competition, and creating relationships. There was a Jewish influence, as well as a Native American influence.

Partial Transcript: In Doc E's time, the food was the best of any camp. There was outstanding food in his time. They had fish on Fridays, steak on Saturdays, and chicken and mashed potatoes on Sunday. The dinner (main meal) was around one pm. Supper was in the evening. The food was not kosher, but there was no pork or shellfish.

Partial Transcript: Doc E convinced the railroad to build a station. The stop was two miles from Minocqua. There was also a Camp Strongheart that had a train station.

Partial Transcript: Rabbi Hirschberg founded Camp Horseshoe near Hayward. Camp Nebagamon was started by a former camper at Camp Kawaga. Nebagamon similar to Kawaga.

Partial Transcript: Picture of Doc E from the 1940's. Brochure of Camp Kawaga from the 20's.

Partial Transcript: Doc E lived in Hyde Park, Chicago. During WW2, he would take over rabbi's congregations if they were serving in the war. Lois would drive her grandfather from Camp to Wausau to lead services at the Wausau synagogue. He would read books in Greek at 4am, and visit the only Jewish family in Minocqua. Jerry Woolpy is a Jewish man who lives in Minocqua and he would go from church to church and explain Judaism. He used to be a professor.

Partial Transcript: Sidney was a wealthy man from Chicago who created an experimental farm outside of Minocqua where they raised cattle, The farm was started around 1915, and he built up an estate there. The estate was called Rockwood and it was located on Florsheim road. It was bought by Arthur Rudlof who used it to make a summer home.

Partial Transcript: Lois did not experience anti-Semitism in Minocqua but she read about it in the papers when she was at college at UW Madison. She was in college from 1946-1950. She knew all of the people that the papers talked about. Resort Owners in Minocqua did not allow Jews at their resorts.

Partial Transcript: Brochure from Camp Kawaga. One Kawaga camper was on the cover of Time Magazine. Nelson Glueck was a rabbi at the Hebrew Union College. He was an archaeologist and discovered King Solomon's Mines. Glueck was a counselor at Kawaga.

Partial Transcript: They were Sunday services. Lois does not remember very much of the services, other than there were a lot of people there. The temple in Wausau veered between reform and conservative.

Partial Transcript: After Doc E sold the camp he had a home he lived in during the summer between the camp and the town. Doc E was a leader in the Minocqua community. He sold the camp in 1941 to his son, but still gave the sermons. Doc E was 79 when he passed away.

Partial Transcript: Doc E lived in Hyde Park some of the year, and Minocqua in the summers. Lou took over the camp for his father. He bought the camp from Doc E. Mrs. E, Doc E's wife supervised construction of the camp away from her husband and kids. Irma Bock (Mrs. E) was born in New York, graduated from college, and was a suffragette.

Partial Transcript: Doc E helped found the ZBT fraternity. They would sing the Zeta Beta Tau song at the camp, and many of the campers would join the fraternity.

Partial Transcript: Lois sings the Camp Kawaga Songs.

Partial Transcript: Camp Kawaga had competitions with Camp Timberlane, Menominee, Nebagamon, and Strongheart. They had socials with Jewish girls camps like Camp Pinemere, Agawak, Chippewa, and Nakomis. Some relationships started between the boys and girls at Agawak and Kawaga. The counselors at the two camps would walk the three miles in the woods between the camps to meet at night. The sports competitions were in tennis, swimming, and baseball. They also competed with girls camps in archery and rifle shooting. Today, the camps do a lot more.

Partial Transcript: Doc E never had an investor in the camp. It was his, and his son Lou's full time occupation. Doc E was a happy, wonderful man. He had a goatee and he shaved it once, but the boys hated it so he grew it back.

Partial Transcript: After selling the camp, Lou worked for the American Camping Association in Chicago. He was an active officer and promoted camping activities. Lou sold all of the property he owned in Minocqua. Every year Lois goes to Minocqua two to three times a summer to see the camp.