In a January 2024 Facebook post, Shane O’Koon Shaps, a parent of a then-Blue Star Camps counselor-in-training wrote, “There’s just been so much ugliness in the world these days but when the video about Blue Star Camps hit my feed today, I stopped what I was doing and sobbed. Camp is safe. Camp is home. Camp is life.”

The video shows children whitewater rafting, playing sports and bonding around campfires. Last month, Blue Star’s future became imperiled. Its owners declared bankruptcy and are facing a criminal probe.

Blue Star Camps, located in western North Carolina, is one of 22 overnight camps and eight-day camps across the Northeast and Southeast owned or co-owned by New York-based real estate owners Michael and David Shabsels. Many of the camps are Jewish, including Camp Lavi in Pennsylvania and the SHMA Camps in New York, or largely cater to Jews. In early June, the brothers declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey, both personally and under their umbrella group, Simad Holdings. 

They owe over $344 million to creditors and are accused of double pledging assets after they defaulted on roughly $200 million in bond payments to Israeli investors. Over $34 million of the bond also went missing, having been transferred to the brothers’ other companies, and they have said they cannot pay it back. 

Since then, the camps owned by the brothers — along with their staffs and the families that send their children to them — have been thrown into a state of uncertainty, with the summer season largely opening as normal even as the long-term futures of the camps remain unclear. 

On Tuesday, the realty industry publication The Real Deal reported that Camp Achim in the Catskills is the first camp to directly feel the repercussions, with Simad Holdings striking a deal to sell the camp to its current acting manager for $7 million, although the agreement has not yet been finalized. 

The sale will be the first of many. On Friday, more than 60 of the brothers’ properties, including their Jewish camps, will go up for sale as part of an aggressive restructuring under Kroll Restructuring Administration LLC. Already, there are over 70 potential buyers. 

The court set a bid deadline of July 17, an auction on July 28, a sale objection deadline of July 31 and a sale hearing on Aug. 4. The fallout from the sales could impact 20,500 campers.

Unlike the majority of Jewish camps in America, the Simad Holdings camps were not directly affiliated with any Jewish denomination or the Jewish Community Center movement. They were for-profit, with the average cost to attend a Shabsels brothers’ camps running $8,000-$10,000 per season, but this could change as interest has been shown by both for-profit and nonprofit buyers.

Throwing a wrench into the situation is that some of the camps have non-debtor co-owners who could have rights of first refusal.

On Wednesday, a representative from Camp Achim told eJewishPhilanthropy that they have no information about the sale, and representatives of the brothers and Kroll Restructuring Administration LLC have not returned emails or calls.

Each of the camps that could be affected is running as planned this summer as the bankruptcy court approved interim financing, but parents are in the dark about the future of the camps. So are staff.

“I know very little,” Nava Silton, a parent of three children who attend Camp Mesorah, a Shabsels brothers Orthodox Jewish overnight camp in Guilford, N.Y., told eJP. Her husband has worked as a doctor at the camp for three years. As of yesterday, her husband had neither heard of the Shabsels brothers or knew the details about the bankruptcy or the possible sale. The camp was already in the midst of leadership change. Before the bankruptcy, new camp directors had taken the helm.  

“We want to reassure everyone that Camp Mesorah remains open and fully operational,” Rabbi Yahel Tsaidi and his wife, Emunah, the new directors, said in an email sent to families on June 7, days after Simad Holdings declared bankruptcy, which was obtained by eJP. “Our programs, staffing, facilities improvements, and day-to-day operations continue as planned. Camp Mesorah is operating under new management and is supported by financial partners who are fully committed to Mesorah’s success.”

Silton, a former camp director at Camp Givah in East Berne, N.Y., said the email reassured families. “It was kind of like, ‘Guys, we know this is the thing. We know you’re hearing about it. We want to reassure you, we have great new leaders. We have everything that you had before. So don’t worry, we’ll handle this. You don’t have to. That’s all parents really want to know.”

She has faith everything will work itself out. “To be perfectly honest, I am not really concerned with the finances of the camp,” Silton said. “I know that there are so many creative individuals who will not let the camp falter. I’m fully confident that they will figure out what finances they need to ensure success.”

As a psychologist and professor, Silton just wants her kids and other children to continue to be inspired and filled with ruach, spirit.

“Camp affords children an unbelievable socio-emotional opportunity, an opportunity to really connect deeply with their Jewish roots and their Jewish culture, to join every morning and daven together and meet friends and have new experiences with a real wholesome Jewish fabric to it,” she said. “Especially in a sleepaway camp, they’re learning how to stay organized. They’re learning a number of independent life skills. They’re learning how to forge relationships with others, how to deal with losing or with a number of socio-emotional areas that are really critical for child development.”

It doesn’t matter to her whether the camp becomes a nonprofit or stays for-profit, Silton said. “That is less concerning to me than it not existing.”