Mitzvah Projects

About American Friends of Jordan River Village:

Jordan River Village is a free, year-round, fully-accessible, medically-safe, overnight camp in Israel for all children living with serious and chronic illnesses and special needs, regardless of background, religion, ethnicity, or physical limitations. Our campers, children ages 9-18, who are Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouins, and others, live with a variety of life-limiting conditions like Type 1 Diabetes, Cerebral Palsy, Hemophilia, Epilepsy, Crohn’s Disease, various special needs, and many others. Some of these conditions leave our campers with significant physical disabilities and others cannot even be seen.

Modeled after Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, and a full member of his global SeriousFun Children’s Network, the Village is unique. The Village is open year-round and includes disease-specific 5 days-long sessions, family weekends, and special school sessions. There is no other camp like it in Israel or the entire Middle East.

Since our opening in 2011, we’ve hosted more than 8,500 seriously ill campers and 800 families.

The Village encourages campers to have fun and make friend by providing once-in-a-lifetime activities like: flying down the only fully-accessible zip-line in Israel, swimming in the only indoor hydrotherapy pool in Northern Israel, performing on a professional theater stage, participating in music, photography, and art workshops, riding horses, and so much more. All of these activities are provided with the full support of our health center, which has been designated by Israel as a hospital—able to treat a wide variety of ailments and provide emergency care and ongoing medical treatment as needed.