More than 150 rabbis and cantors spent time this summer at one of the Ramah camps, suggesting there’s increasing interest in Ramah’s secret sauce. One of those 150+ rabbis reports here on the summer he spent on staff at Ramah Berkshires.
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Visiting Camp Ramah New England right after reading the obituary for Berger in the Times, I could not help reflecting through the lens of his theory on the magic taking place before my eyes.
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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. 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.
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One of the more remarkable things we do as a Ramah movement is bring nearly 300 young Israelis to our camps each summer. I always knew that shlichim were a great part of camp, but until I first attended the Summer Shlichim Training Seminar in Israel, sponsored by the Jewish Agency, I didn’t realize just how impactful the mishlachat program is.
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Over 100 senior counselors, rashei edah, Tikvah staff and Service Corps Fellows gathered in Ojai, California to participate in the four-day Winter Training Leadership Training Conference, featuring several tracks for young Ramah leaders.
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When our staff and lay leaders set out to start a new Ramah summer camp along the shores of Monterey Bay, we knew that we would learn tremendous lessons along the way about Jewish camping and about our own ecosystem of campers, staff, and marine flora and fauna. As a process-oriented rabbi and educator, I welcomed this unfolding journey of learning and reflection for our inaugural summer at Camp Ramah in Northern California (Ramah Galim).
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10 Reasons Why This Is a Historic Development for Ramah
The camp season has arrived, and Ramah camps are either underway or about to begin another incredible summer of growth and fun. Over 11,000 campers and staff members, the most in our 70-year history, will participate. This year is truly historic, with the opening of Camp Ramah in Northern California, “Ramah Galim” (“Ramah of the Waves”), in Monterey Bay, south of San Francisco.
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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.
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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.
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