Reflections on the Summer Shlichim Seminar at Kibbutz Shefayim

I’ve led Kabbalat Shabbat many times before, but this time is profoundly different. As I sing out the opening words to Yedid Nefesh, I hear only the voices of a handful of Ramah directors amid a sea of 250 people. I look around and see newly-minted Ramah Israeli staff members opening a Masorti siddur, hearing Carlebach melodies, and sitting next to co-daveners of the opposite gender, some for the very first time in their lives. By the second psalm, even though the words are still new, more and more people start to join in, humming and singing along. At one point, moved by the power of the music, shlichim start to get up and dance, forming concentric circles in the middle of our makom teffilah. This is the training seminar for summer shlichim, Israeli emissaries who come to Ramah camps each summer through the Jewish Agency, and I hold the heavy responsibility of being the first person to introduce them to Conservative Judaism in a real, tangible way – the way they’ll come to know and love Judaism at camp in just a few months.

Blog/Reflections, Israel and HebrewNRC WebmasterApril 7, 2016New England, Mishlachat

The Camp-Campus Connection: Seizing the Opportunity

The level of Jewish engagement and support for Israel on college campuses can be significantly strengthened by leveraging the incredibly positive Jewish experiences of the thousands of undergrads who spend their summers at Jewish camps. It is absolutely time for camp and campus leaders to work more closely together to harness this leadership potential to increase Jewish engagement and positive identification with Israel.

Alumni, Blog/ReflectionsNRC WebmasterNovember 3, 2015Reshet Ramah

Arriving in Poland, Again

just arrived in Poland for the fourth time, and each trip fills me with a range of divergent emotions.

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The first time was in 1982, on a brief stopover from Moscow as I returned from a two-week visit with Soviet Jewish refuseniks. Martial law had just been declared, the Solidarity anti-Communist movement led by Lech Walesa was gaining strength, and no one could predict the fall of the Soviet Union in just seven years. My three subsequent trips have all been with Ramah — initially with our teens on Seminar and now twice with a Reshet Ramah adult trip.

Blog/ReflectionsNRC WebmasterOctober 15, 2015Mitch Cohen

Jewish Summer Camp Strengthens Resumes and Character

Mikayla, a rising 11th grader, wasn’t planning to return to Camp Ramah in the Poconos this summer. She was heading into the challenging junior year of high school and already had college on her mind. She thought it was time to start building her resume, to do the typical things that we think impress college admissions officers, like interning at a company or research lab, or volunteering in a faraway country. Then she thought again.

Ramah in the News, Blog/ReflectionsNRC WebmasterSeptember 4, 2015National Ramah, Mitch Cohen

Reflections on Teaching at Ramah, Summer 2015

I spent time this summer teaching at Ramah Nyack and Ramah Wisconsin, and very much enjoyed being at both camps and teaching staff. Even more than the teaching, talking to college students one-on-one outside the formal shiurim was even better. Quite a few of them wanted to talk to me about one thing or another.

Blog/ReflectionsNRC WebmasterAugust 18, 2015JTS, Wisconsin, Nyack, Summer 2015

Harmony: Hava Nashira 2015

Harmony (noun): the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect. If I could describe my past week with one word, it would be harmony. It was not only the harmony of the musical notes that covered my skin with goose bumps and filled my heart with joy, but the harmony of the URJ (Union of Reform Judaism) and Ramah camps working as one.

Staff Leadership Training, Blog/ReflectionsNRC WebmasterJune 23, 2015California, Music, Summer 2015

The Incredible 2015 Ramah Mishlachat

Amidst cheers, dancing, and singing, we just concluded the 2015 Mishlachat Training Seminar,which for the first time was held at the Givat Haviva Educational Institute, about halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. We are very grateful to our partners at The Jewish Agency who organize this four-day program and provide Ramah leadership with the unique opportunity to work with the 188 new Ramah shlichim joining us this summer. And unique it was: this was the first year that the training seminar began on Yom Ha’Shoah. Just minutes before the shlichim arrived, Ramah directors stood together and listened to the two-minute siren heard throughout Israel. As we marked Jewish time, it was not lost on us how interconnected memory and destiny are to one another. Minutes after the siren, the most idealistic young ambassadors of Israel joined us.

And his name shall be Avishai…

Shira spent her first summer as a member of our Israel delegation in 2006. Tall, energetic, and charismatic, Shira was the type of young woman who seemed to run instead of walk, always with a bounce in her step. She was and remains a passionate young educator, drama teacher, and baseball player.

Israel and Hebrew, Blog/ReflectionsNRC WebmasterFebruary 20, 2015Amy Skopp Cooper, National Ramah, Nyack, Israel

Inclusion Comes from the Top – and the Bottom, and Middle

On a recent ten-day Tikvah Ramah Israel trip, twelve participants with disabilities, ages 18-40, were treated to a once-in-a-lifetime visit to a 1,000-soldier army base. Admittedly, other tour groups visit army bases; our group spent three hours at the MAZI/Bar-Lev base near Kiryat Milachi, where soldiers – in full uniform – with Down Syndrome, autism, and other intellectual disabilities are “just soldiers.”

Tikvah/Special Needs, Ramah in the News, Blog/ReflectionsNRC WebmasterFebruary 4, 2015Howard Blas, Tikvah, Israel, JDAIM