After a whirlwind year of graduating from Mount Holyoke, volunteering for four months in Nepal, and traveling for a few months in India, I landed somewhere I never thought I would be – Jewish summer camp. I grew up going to day camp at the JCC in Northeast Philadelphia, but spending eight weeks in the woodlands of Ontario with some 500 Jewish was certainly foreign to me.
Read MoreThink of it as Ramah at your fingertips. That’s the idea behind the new mobile app called Ramah365. The app is a new tool used by fellows in the Ramah Service Corps, a group of talented Ramah staff alumni working as teachers and youth leaders in synagogues and schools across the U.S. and Canada.
Read MoreBecoming a rabbi isn't what it once was, but there is one reason why today, in 2014, it is still worth it.
Read MoreTwo new local grant initiatives have been announced focusing on assisting middle income families.
Read MoreA grant of $100,000 by an anonymous donor will now make it possible for students in Jewish day schools to apply for generous scholarship support for the upcoming 2014 camp season.
Read MoreWith cellphones, iPads and computers, children are constantly plugged in to technology. But when it comes time to attend an overnight summer camp, unplugging from technology is crucial.
Read MoreIn the late 1960s, when husband-and-wife team Barbara and Herb Greenberg first decided to create a Jewish overnight summer camp program for developmentally disabled children, it was hard to find a camp willing to host it.
Read MoreNostalgia about summer traditions notwithstanding, Jewish camps have changed dramatically from a generation ago.Camp’s value for Jewish education and identity-building is now a major focus of communal attention. Major Jewish foundations, federations and organizations are investing heavily in the sector.
Read MoreIt used to be that parents who wanted to expose their children to conversational Hebrew over the summer had to travel to Israel. Now a growing number of American Jewish day camps are offering Hebrew-immersion programs, where kids do the standard day camp activities — swimming, arts and crafts, music, zip-lining and field trips — but “hakol b’ivrit.”
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