Although I love playing basketball with campers and staff when I visit Ramah camps, I was less than thrilled to be guarding a 6’8″ new Israeli sports counselor at Ramah Canada during June staff training week. Needless to say, he scored at will. Little did I realize that a few weeks later I would be attending his bar mitzvah ceremony!
Read MoreAs we came to learn during our travels in Poland with Ramah Seminar, and as we discussed repeatedly with our teen participants (110 campers graduating from all the Ramah camps), key Holocaust sites have become magnets for tourism here. On the one hand, we want more people to bear witness to the horrible atrocities committed by the Nazis and their collaborators. On the other hand, we cringe at the mention of Auschwitz as one of many interesting tourist sites in this region.
Read MoreThis morning, we prayed at the Isaac shul in Krakow. RebIsaac was a poor peasant in 17th century Krakow. He yearned to have enough money to find an appropriate shidduch for his daughter. According to legend, he found a buried treasure and became a most generous community donor, building a beautiful synagogue in Krakow, since known as Reb Isaac’s shul. This magnificent shul thrived for hundreds of years, but was damaged and defaced during the Shoah, when all its congregants were murdered in nearby Auschwitz.
Read MoreI just returned from an exciting and inspiring trip to Israel with a delegation of Ramah directors and assistant directors. We spent five days at Kibbutz Shefayim, training the 250 shlichim who will be working at Ramah camps in North America this summer. During our time together, we talked about the core values of Ramah, the prominent role of Israel within our camps, and how shlichim can successfully integrate within our communities.
Read MoreLast night I saw the new Broadway show Ghost, together with my wife Cari and Steve and Marlene Goldstein. We thought it was wonderful.
The female star of the show, Caissie Levy, grew up in Hamilton, Ontario and was our camper at Ramah Canada in the 1990’s. Caissie credits her leading roles in her edah plays as having given her the desire and confidence to pursue a career in theater (read more).
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