Peulah - Building Our Camp Community - The Founding of the State of Israel
Brief
Whether you’re the first or the tenth member of your family to come to Camp Ramah, you surely have some ideas about this place and the experiences it offers. Like any place or any thing, you like some aspects and might be less enthusiastic about some others. Now you have a chance to fashion a Jewish community the way you think it should be.
Equipment
Appendix XVI (1 copy per chanich/a)
Art Supplies (for the Flag Making)
Activity length: 90 minutes
Age Groups
Elementary, Middle School
Topics
Zionism
Shabbat Appropriate
Download for Printing
Program
This peulat erev activity should optimally be scheduled either during or after the 7 core sessions included in this unit have occurred.
It can begin with all of the edah’s madrichim who were chanichim when they were the age of today’s chanichim coming to the front of the space and conducting a very special game of Two Truths and a Lie – Camp Ramah Edition.
Each of the madrichim should tell two truths and a lie about their first summer at camp, and the chanichim cheer to show which one they believe to be the lie.
Note: The madrichim should prepare in advance for this part of the program. Each madrich/a’s truths and lie should relate to the community building aspects of the camp experience for young chanichim. For example, one madrich/a may say, “In my first year at Camp Ramah, I loved camp so much that I promised myself I’d be a madrich/a here, I had so much fun that I never even sent one letter home, and I loved the kids in my cabin so much that I stayed up until 2 am every night talking with them.”
Another might say, “When I first came to camp I absolutely hated being here because I missed my parents and my friends who lived down the block, my mother had forgotten to pack any underwear for me, and I had a terrible allergic reaction to camp food on the first night so my counselor had to spend the night with me at the marp.”
After this game is complete, the Rosh Edah speaks to the chanichim and tells them (this is a suggestion about the message and how to convey it, but the Rosh Edah should speak freely and from the heart):
“All of you have been learning about the creation of the State of Israel in your core sessions. Some of you know more about Israel, some of you know less. Some of you have been there, some of you haven’t. Some of you have relatives who live there, while others of you have no family connections to the country. But all of you learned something new when your teachers introduced you to maps, psukim, poems, declarations, and more. All of you had some of your own ideas about creating a Jewish state and what it should be about.”
“Tonight we’re going to ask you to create something very much like a Jewish state. We’re going to ask you to think about the Jewish community that we have here at Machaneh Ramah.”
“As you are learning, Ramah is an incredible place. We build our own Jewish community each summer, and the relationships you’ve started to make will extend through the year when you’re at home and in school, and we hope they will extend well into adulthood. Each summer, lots of adults who were chanichim here 10, 20, and more years ago visit camp. They all love to come here because of the amazing memories they have from this place. I’ve been coming here for __ years, and it’s such an important part of my life.”
“But none of this happens on its own, and nobody can or should build the community for you. As chanichim, it’s your job – no, it’s your privilege – to work together to create a Jewish community of your own here. You’ll always interact with other edot, but your own little community – the people in this room right now – will be a key focus of your lives as long as you keep coming to Ramah or thinking about Ramah.”
“You’ve been learning about the creation of Israel. You saw that nothing was easy, but you understand why it was so incredibly important. Building a camp community isn’t easy either, but it’s key to making the most of your time at camp. Just as you discussed your ideas about creating an ideal Jewish state in text class, now we’re going to think together about what our Edah’s Jewish community should be all about. Tonight we want to begin to create the blueprint that we will follow for as long as we are together at Ramah. It’s going to include how we pray, how we speak, how we treat each other, how we relate to the rest of camp, how we approach Israel, and more. And finally, we’re going to create flags for our edah that show something about who we are and how we relate to Israel.”
Chanichim are divided into small groups, each with one or more madrich/a to guide their discussion.
Handouts are distributed that contain guiding questions (see sample in Appendix XVI, but the tzevet should tailor it to meet the edah’s personality), and the groups spend about 15 minutes creating their own vision for the unique Jewish community that is their edah.
Groups should receive poster board or rectangles of cloth for creating flags, and chanichim are invited to work on flags that express their camp community’ connection to Israel.
After the groups have created their flags and developed ideas about creating an edah community, everybody reassembles and the madrichim and Rosh Edah give each group the chance to present their ideas and their flags. By facilitating a group discussion, the staff should help guide the chanichim to create a blueprint for their community.
As the final part of the evening activity, all of the flags will be hung and chanichim will circulate among them. A sheet of paper can be placed next to each flag and chanichim can “vote” for the one they feel best represents their edah. After votes are counted, an edah flag is chosen and it is then hung for the rest of the summer in a place of honor.
The Founding of the State of Israel
Appendix XVI
“Imagining Our Jewish Camp Community”
Whether you’re the first or the tenth member of your family to come to Camp Ramah, you surely have some ideas about this place and the experiences it offers. Like any place or any thing, you like some aspects and might be less enthusiastic about some others. Now you have a chance to fashion a Jewish community the way you think it should be. Take a few minutes to answer the questions below and then share your responses with the entire edah as we talk about what we want our Jewish community to be.
How is free time different at camp than it is at home?
What’s the most popular sport in our edah?
How much Hebrew can we speak at camp?
What can we do to make tefillot uniquely ours?
How can we show our love of Israel at camp?
What can out edah do – this year and in future years – to make our mark on ourselves and on Camp Ramah?
What makes our edah Jewish?
What Jewish values do we want to stress this summer?
How can we contribute to the bigger Ramah community?
Next Sessions
