I've Traveled West, But My Heart Is In The East
Amy Skopp Cooper, National Ramah Director
Reflections on Kayitz 2023 - as of Friday, July 28, 2023
During the past week, I've visited Camp Ramah in Canada, Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, and Camp Ramah in Northern California (Galim) / Ramah Sports Academy. (Read more about RSA below.)
All of our camps are now well into their second sessions; in fact, as I write this, several camps are preparing to conclude their seasons next week. As each camp actively plans for the end of the summer, there will be poignant closing ceremonies, a myriad of administrative tasks, and, perhaps most important, conversations with the 3,000 tzevet members who are our shining stars. During these conversations, staff reflect on their growth, the challenges they’ve encountered, and the resilience tools they’ve developed.
At each camp, I have had the opportunity to sit with tzevet, listen to their ideas, talk about their Ramah leadership trajectories, and highlight our year-round retreats, travel experiences, and opportunities to build Ramah community on their college campuses. Most important, I have been able to express profound gratitude: I am in awe of the young people who make Ramah happen.
As I write this, my heart is both aching and pulling me east; this has been one of the hardest weeks in the 75-year history of the State of Israel. At the same time, it has also produced passionate dialogue about Israel among participants on Ramah Seminar and at many of our camps.
I am so proud of these Israel discussions happening across our movement. I have always maintained that Ramah MUST be a safe space where young people can have important conversations—where they can agree to disagree, and where they can learn from each other. This week has empowered our young adults to engage, to find their voices, and to challenge each other’s assumptions. We have seen that civil discourse, which is so scarce these days, can happen in our camp communities. We hope that our older campers and staff members will be able to model this for others once they return home.
As for me, I'll be heading to Israel soon. This is my opportunity to speak with our Seminar participants (our future tzevet), launch our brand new Ramah Israel overnight camp, and visit our Jerusalem day camp. I know that these visits will provide opportunities to celebrate all that we have created; I pray that they also offer glimmers of shalom in our homeland.
Shabbat Shalom.
Ramah Sports Academy Thrives in Its New Home at Ramah Galim
Rabbi Mitch Cohen, Senior Advisor, National Ramah Commission
I was delighted last week to visit, together with Ramah Sports Academy (RSA) founder and former board president Gabe Nechamkin, the new version of RSA on the west coast and to see it thriving! We spent two days visiting the magnificent site of Camp Ramah in Northern California (Ramah Galim) at the Monterey Bay Academy, situated on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. RSA, first established in 2018 in Connecticut, has now joined the other three specialty tracks offered by Ramah Galim since its inception in 2016, including theater arts, adventure sports, and ocean exploration.
The beautiful gym was alive with the sounds of children and teens participating in an intense basketball clinic. Just outside on the soccer pitch, we saw dozens of RSA campers engaged in soccer games on the refurbished fields. While, like at most Ramah camps, one can hear campers and staff conversing in English and Hebrew (several RSA coaches and staff members are Israeli shlichim), we heard the voices of several Ukrainians! RSA is hosting seven Ukrainian campers this summer as part of a partnership between Ramah Galim and JCC Maccabi.
One of the Ukrainian campers told me that the opportunity to be here in the U.S. and advance his soccer skills “was truly the gift of a lifetime.” He and the others described life in war-torn Ukraine as being very difficult, with countless stories of displacement, injury, and the collapse of communal infrastructure.
Ramah Sports Academy is now poised to grow and develop even further for 2024. In the words of one parent who has sent her child to RSA since its first summer, “We are so happy that there is a Ramah sports camp option for our son, and that after several moves, RSA has found a home on this beautiful site. And having cool weather during these hot summers is an added advantage!”
Gabe and I left camp feeling great about RSA’s future, and look forward to seeing it continue to thrive as a part of the wonderful Ramah Galim community.