At a Shabbaton in Jerusalem last weekend, 150 Ramah staff and alumni gathered to celebrate the connections between the North Americans and Israelis who make up the Ramah community. Participants included Israelis who have served as shlichim at Ramah camps, and North Americans who have made aliyah or who are studying in Israel, and who have staffed the Ramah camps.
Read MoreThis year’s Bert B. Weinstein Institute for Staff Training was truly remarkable. Over 100 Ramah staff members–our largest winter gathering ever!–came together at Ramah California in Ojai from January 3-6. Seventy-five second- and third-year madrichim, representing all our overnight camps and Nyack, were joined by contingents of Ramah Service Corps interns, Daber Fellows, 11 staff from most of our special needs programs, and directors, assistant directors, and other senior leaders from our camps and from NRC.
Read MoreThe Ramah College Network assists Ramah alumni in their college decision-making by providing prospective students with access to a database of more than 800 Ramah alumni at over 150 colleges and universities. The Ramahniks included in the database are excited to make themselves available to speak about college to these prospective students. The Ramah College Network database is also a great tool for Ramahniks who are already on campus and are looking to connect with other Ramah alumni.
Read MoreWhen Shelley Cohen and Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi returned to their bus after their tour of Camp Ramah in New England, they knew they had to bring the issue of inclusion of people with disabilities to a much larger audience. They had just participated in a three-day bus tour for funders of summer camps for children with disabilities sponsored by the Foundation for Jewish Camp and the Jewish Funders Network. Shelley and Jennifer, two energetic, visionary women, who had only first met on that bus, immediately went to work. Astonishingly, in under three months, they managed to assemble nearly 150 people from every part of the Jewish disabilities world for a conference entitled, “Opening Abraham’s Tent: The Disability Inclusion Initiative,” which took place in Baltimore, Maryland following the recent Jewish Federations of North America‘s 2012 General Assembly.
Read MoreIn mid-November, I spent three wonderful days at the GA (Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly) in Baltimore, where I had the chance to see colleagues, meet with funders and supporters, and learn about exciting new ventures in the Jewish world. Throughout my three days at the GA, I was thrilled to see dozens of Ramah alumni representing virtually all areas of Jewish life in significant leadership positions, as well as many of our current summer staff members attending the GA as leaders with Hillel on their campuses.
Read MoreChancellor Arnold Eisen of The Jewish Theological Seminary has said many times that visiting Ramah camps each summer is one of his favorite parts of his job as chancellor, and that Ramah is “one of the finest accomplishments of JTS, of the Conservative Movement, and of American Judaism as a whole.”
Read MoreAlthough 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.
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