A Milestone Summer in Ukraine

By Renee Ghert-Zand

It’s always exciting for the staff and campers at Camp Ramah Yachad Ukraine to come together every summer for 10 days of Jewish living and learning. They gather from all parts of the country, including embattled eastern areas, at Natalya Guest House in Volovets, about 30 kilometers from Mukachevo in the Carpathian Region in western Ukraine. For some, it’s the only Jewish community they experience all year.

This summer’s camp from July 27 to August 6 was extra special, as Yachad celebrated its 25th anniversary and The Schechter Institutes honored Yachad director Gila Katz, who has led the camp since its inception.

A cohort of seven teenagers from different Ramah camps in North America were on hand to mark the auspicious occasion, together with 130 Ukrainian campers ages 10-17, as well as Yachad’s Ukrainian and Israeli staff.

The North American teens, participants in the Ramah Ukraine Leadership Experience 2017, worked as junior counselors, bringing a taste of American Conservative Judaism to the Eastern European summer camp. They wanted to experience and contribute to Yachad based on positive reports they heard from friends who had participated in the inaugural Ramah Ukraine Leadership Experience in 2016.

“I have a friend who did it last year and he told me that the experience was really eye-opening and that it changes you so much,” said 16-year-old Eli Allison from Camp Ramah in the Berkshires.

Four of the teens chose to go to Ukraine to complement their participation in Ramah Israel Seminar. It wasn’t easy leaving Israel Seminar early, but they felt they were making the right decision.

“This was my first time in Israel, but I figure it’s more likely I’ll be back to Israel than to Ukraine, so I wanted to take this opportunity to go to Yachad,” said Sam Caplan, 17, from Camp Ramah in the Poconos.

Allison considered it not only a chance to learn and lead, but also to give back.

“I’ve had great counselors at Berkshires, and I believe everyone should have that. I wanted to be that great counselor for someone,” he said.

Katz, director of Midreshet Yerushalayim, The Schechter Institutes’ educational programs in Eastern Europe, would not have foreseen the addition of a delegation of North American teen counselors, along with accompanying staff from the National Ramah Commission, when she started Yachad in 1992.

“At the beginning we were 100% reliant on [Russian-speaking] Israeli staff. We didn’t have Ukrainian staff who could teach the children, let alone American Ramah counselors joining us,” Katz said.

According to Rabbi Reuven Stamov, the Masorti rabbi for the Ukrainian community, not only Ukrainian staff members, but also campers, have become increasingly more knowledgeable about Judaism.

“Today the camp is connected to the Masorti communities in Odessa, Chernivtsi and Kiev, as well as to the Midreshet Yerushalayim schools. Kids are going to synagogue regularly with their parents now, so they are more familiar with the tefillot (prayers) and other things we do at camp,” Stamov said.

Stamov, who was ordained at the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem, serves as Yachad’s rabbi, overseeing ritual activities and religious life at the camp. He met his wife at Yachad, and his children have come to the camp every summer since their birth. He’s amazed at how Katz has built up Yachad over the last quarter century.

“Gila is doing amazing work. She started out without any camping experience, and look at what she has accomplished. She is always thinking about how she can improve the camp every year,” Stamov said.

The camp’s educational theme this year was “I Am a Jew,” which was explored through informal educational activities, text study, and artistic expression.

Katz was thrilled that the children were tackling the subject in a way that Ukrainian Jewish campers in the earlier years could not.

“Kids used to be very closed in the immediate post-Soviet era. They were afraid of asking questions or showing they didn’t know something. Kids today are different because they are students and graduates of Jewish schools. They are not ashamed to be Jewish. They want to know more. They know how to ask questions and are open about having opinions and are ready to disagree with you,” Katz said.

Katz, who made aliyah from Chernivtsi in 1995, has seen no fewer than 1,000 Yachad campers follow her to Israel over the years. Regardless of whether they made aliyah or stayed in Eastern Europe, it’s been a joy for her to watch the campers grow into Jewish adulthood.

“It’s been such a gift to enjoy all the love and to see the kids start keeping Shabbat and kashrut and start discovering who they are as Jews. And I’ve learned so much about Judaism every year as I’ve prepared to give something new to the kids each time,” she said.