Gindling Hilltop Camp


Gindling Hilltop Camp is a Jewish summer sleep-away camp administered by Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Malibu, California in Little Sycamore Canyon between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean on a coastal ridge, 750 feet above sea level. The camp serves approximately 120 campers, ages 7-15, and has a staff of about 40. The residential director for Summer 2015 is Andrea Cohen. Gindling Hilltop has been described as "the prototype for the American Jewish youth camping movement".
Hilltop and its sister camp, Camp Hess Kramer, are run by Wilshire Boulevard Temple Camps, an organization associated with the Union for Reform Judaism. The director of WBTC supervises both camps, but Hilltop is run on a day-to-day basis by a residential director. The camp's staff is made up of, activity specialists, religious educators, supervisors, and health personnel.

History

Gindling Hilltop Camp was opened 1968 as a sister camp to Camp Hess Kramer because enrollment at Hess Kramer had become too high. The camp is named after Albert Gindling who worked on several of the Hess Kramer facilities.
Actors Zachary Gordon and Alden Ehrenreich are among the camp's alumni. The camp was destroyed on November 9, 2018 by the Woolsey Fire and they are now in the process of rebuilding the camp.