The story
Big Idea was founded in 2007 and under the name "eCamp" as a division of Oranim Educational Initiatives Ltd. (Known today as Israel Way Educational Tourism), by Dotan Tamir and Oranim's president Shlomo (Momo) Lifshitz.
The vision was to create a place for Jewish kids and teenagers from Israel and around the world where they can connect and strengthen their Jewish identity while gaining skills in the field of hi-tech.
eCamp's first session took place In summer 2008, with part of the campers coming from cities on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip. Those campers were sponsored by Jewish organizations in the United States such as the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Federation of the Metropolitan of Detroit.
In the summer of 2009, the number of participants in the camp increased, and also included a group of teens from the Jewish Agency Partnership 2000 project, from Netivot, Israel and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania partner cities in the Jewish Agency Partnership 2000 project.
Every year since the first, eCamp saw a growth in the number of participants and variety of countries of origin.
After the summer of 2013, the name switched to "Big Idea", as a division of "Big Idea Educational Projects Ltd." (founded by Dotan Tamir and Erez Roll). Since then the camp kept growing and established other programs such as the Cyber Camp, You Camp, One World and a summer day-camp named Funzone.
From Wikipedia’s article on Big Idea (summer camp), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3