Camp Ramah in New England Celebrates Its 50 Year Anniversary

Camp Ramah in New England celebrated its 50 year anniversary at a yovel on May 25, 2003.  Rabbi Sheldon Dorph, National Ramah Director, delivered the following remarks at this joyous celebration:

In Honor of Our Ramah New England Directors and Presidents

Remarks by Dr. Sheldon Dorph

(jh:d hkan) rautn vhfnu,u 'vc ohehzjnk thv ohhj .g

“Torah is a living tree for those who hold onto it, and those who trust in torah are praiseworthy.”
Proverbs 3:18

Why does Mishle compare Torah to a living tree?

Indeed, the wooden rollers of the Torah are called ohhj hmg- living trees.

A couple of possibilities:

A tree grows out of the earth, sustained and nourished by her elements; yet a tree grows towards the heavens, towards its maker
And so Torah takes the stuff of everyday life and seeks to elevate life to the realm of the spirit

A tree is a living, breathing organism – it grows, develops, ages – it is strong, yet fragile, expendable
And so Torah for us is a living text.  We sustain her by study, by growing in our understanding of her meaning
Torah is everlasting, but she must be reacquired, cared for by each generation, each individual. 

sbkdbht uhbc vnr hkvbnu hthab sucfk ohmg ,arj ohgyub hbt ouhv

Today we dedicate a grove of young trees in honor of our camp directors and presidents, who have served Ramah in New England, in Connecticut, in Glen Spey and in Palmer.  There may be no better symbolic way to honor leadership than to plant trees.

For it is leadership which breathes life and oxygen into the environment of an institution.

Fine leaders help an institution stay rooted in reality; even as it aspires to the spiritual, to reach toward heaven.

Fine leaders seed the future; they may inspire next generations to hold fast to Torah.

This is the story of the work of Ramah New England, as it reaches its Yovel – 50 years 1953-2003.

It is the story of each one of our Ramah camps, from Wisconsin founded in 1947 to Darom in 1997. Fifty years later, one Yovel.

I have had the personal privilege as National Ramah director to work with the last five presidents of Ramah New England:  Sandy and Adina Mendelsohn, Saul Shapiro, Elizabeth Pressman and now Jerry Silverman.

Ramah New England has been blessed with dedicated, hard-working volunteer leadership who embody the mission of Ramah, “to create educating communities which…raise up generations of volunteer and professional leaders for the Conservative Movement and larger Jewish Communities.”

There is no greater testament to the power of Ramah’s mission than to mention the work being done by some of this camp’s past directors.

·           Dr. Ray Artz – made aliyah – without Ray, New England would not have formed so powerful a vision;

·           Dr. David Zissenwine – professor of education at Tel Aviv University;

·           Dr. Joe Freedman – Director of our own Ramah Programs in Israel – we have 190 kids going on Seminar this year;

·           Dr. Robert Abramson – Director of the Department of Education for United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism;

·           Deborah Hirshman – founder, builder and director of the West Side JCC in Manhattan;

·           Rabbi Jerry Abrams – founding director of Nyack and Berkshires Ramah camps;

·           Dr. Gil Graff – Head of the Bureau of Jewish Education of LA;

·           Carolyn Keller – past chair of the Boston Federation’s Continuity Commission. Carolyn is now founding a new day school in Boston; and

·           Don Adelman – Past National Director of the American Zionist Youth Foundation, and director of three Ramah camps (Glen Spey, Canada and Palmer).

I would be remiss not to name three of this camp’s alumni who are now themselves Ramah directors:

·           Rabbi David Soloff – Ramah Wisconsin

·           Amy Skopp Cooper – Ramah Nyack

·           And our own Billy Mencow – director, Camp Ramah in New England

As we dedicate this grove of ohhj hmg, living trees in honor of our directors and presidents, let us remember the Talmudic story of the old man found planting a carob tree which would bear fruit only 70 years hence.

We plant now to honor the past, but really to assure the future for coming generations of Ramahniks, our children, our grandchildren – Forward From 50.