About Ramah

Camp Ramah in Wisconsin | Established 1947

National Ramah Commission

The National Ramah Commission is the convening, catalyzing, and coordinating body of the Ramah Camping Movement, supporting our camps and Israel programs; providing opportunities for leadership development, offering year-round alumni engagement; and strengthening connections with Am Yisrael and Medinat Yisrael. The National Ramah Commission operates under the educational and religious supervision of The Jewish Theological Seminary.

NRC Professionals | NRC Officers

Ramah Camping Movement

The mission of the Ramah Camping Movement, the camping arm of Conservative Judaism, is to create and sustain excellent summer camps and Israel programs that inspire commitment to Jewish life, and develop the next generation of Jewish leaders. At Ramah, thousands of children, teens, and young adults come together each summer in communities that nurture social, educational, physical, and spiritual growth, creating lifelong friendships, a love for Israel, and a strong Jewish identity.

Since the establishment of the first Ramah camp in 1947, the Ramah Camping Movement has become, by all accounts, an extraordinarily successful Jewish educational endeavor, emphasizing the teaching and daily use of Hebrew language, the fostering of religious and spiritual development, and the strengthening of Jewish and Zionist identity through extensive Israel programming.

Ramah has also had a powerful impact on leadership development in the Jewish world. In numbers far exceeding what one might expect from a camping movement, Ramah alumni populate the highest reaches of North American Jewish communal life, from Jewish foundations and Federations to advocacy, social service, and educational institutions that serve the Jewish community and galvanize public support for Israel. Since the first Ramah Tikvah program opened in 1970, Tikvah programs have provided the inspirational Ramah experience to Jewish children, teens, and young adults with intellectual, developmental, and learning disabilities. Ramah is also celebrated as a place where young Jews make lifelong Jewish friends, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Jewish marriages can be credited to the Ramah summer camp experience.

Each year, more than 11,000 campers and university-aged staff members populate our ten residential camps, seven day camps, and Israel programs. An additional 300 young Israeli adults join the Ramah camp communities annually, and help to inculcate in the campers a love of Hebrew language together with a familiarity with and connection to Israel.

Ramah: 70 Years of Transformative Jewish Experiences
Impact Report 2024

Ramah Israel
Seminar | Tichon Ramah Yerushalayim (TRY) | Ramah Israel Institute
Jerusalem Day Camp | Camp Ramah in Israel | Yuval Yisrael

Tikvah Programs for Children, Teens, and Young Adults with Disabilities
Overnight Camps | Day Camps | Vocational Training
Virtual & Alumni Programming | Family Camps

Dates of Establishment of Ramah Camps

1947 | Camp Ramah in Wisconsin
1948 | Camp Ramah in Maine (closed 1949; replaced by Poconos in 1950)
1950 | Camp Ramah in the Poconos
1953 | Camp Ramah in New England (originally located in CT; moved to Palmer, MA in 1965)
1955 | Camp Ramah in California (“Ojai”)
1959 | Mador National Counselor Training Program (1959-1980)
1960 | Camp Ramah in Canada
1961 | Camp Ramah in the Berkshires (originally located at site of Ramah Nyack, moved to current location in 1964)
1961 | American Seminar at Nyack (1961-1971)
1962 | Ramah Programs in Israel (Ramah Israel Seminar)
1966 | Ramah Day Camp in Nyack
1967 | Camp Ramah in Glen Spey (closed in 1971, campers went to Berkshires and New England in 1972)
1982 | Tichon Ramah Yerushalayim (TRY)
1993 | Jerusalem Day Camp
1996 | Ramah Day Camp, Philadelphia
1997 | Ramah Darom
1998 | Ramah Day Camp of Central New Jersey (1998-2003)
1999 | Ramah Day Camp in Chicagoland
2010 | Ramah in the Rockies
2015 | Ramah Day Camp Greater DC
2016 | Camp Ramah in Northern California (“Ramah Galim”)
2018 | Ramah Sports Academy (in 2023, became a program of Ramah Galim)
2023 | Ramah Day Camp Greater Boston
2023 | Camp Ramah in Israel
2024 | Ramah Day Camp LA