Ramah, the Conservative movement's summer camp, will test the waters in the Greater Washington area with a weeklong day camp in August.
Read MoreThe first time I remember talking to Oscar about his younger brother Saul’s special needs, he couldn’t have been more than 5 years old. Definitely still in preschool. There was something–though I can’t remember exactly what–that Oscar thought Saul would like and he said, “Saul is going to do this!” and started flapping his hands and bouncing up and down. I lost it. I couldn’t believe my sweet little boy was making fun of his younger brother who has Fragile X, which is a genetic syndrome and the cause of intellectual disabilities that can include learning problems, autism, anxiety, sensory, and behavioral issues.
Read MoreChildren and youth in the U.S. have already internalized inclusion. They live it every day at school, on the playground, at youth groups. To them, inclusion is the norm. This is mainly because the national culture in the U.S. has surpassed the American Jewish community in its embrace of inclusion.
Read MoreAfter 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 MoreOur family spent last weekend at Camp Ramah in New England’s first-ever Tikvah Family Shabbaton. Tikvah is Ramah’s special needs program. It is unique among Jewish camps. Within the Tikvah program at Ramah, children with all types of disabilities are welcomed and supported. The Tikvah program is the main reason we selected Ramah for S’s first camp experience this summer.
Read MoreI was beaming with Ramah pride as I learned from and shared with camp professionals during the Foundation for Jewish Camp Leaders Assembly last week.
I was inspired by the many voices around the table, I was moved by the wide variety of camps that were represented, and I was encouraged by the number of people talking about inclusion.
Everyone wanted to think together about how to increase the opportunities for inclusion of children with disabilities at their camps.
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 More“Kerem” is a cohort of young Ramah professionals in their 20s, all of whom are working at NRC or at our camp offices all around North America. Almost all of the positions filled by these outstanding camp leaders didn’t exist just a few years ago, so the existence of this cohort is a sign of the growth of many of our camp operations and National Ramah initiatives. The group is dedicated to professional development, Jewish nurturing, and social networking.
Read MoreBecoming a rabbi isn't what it once was, but there is one reason why today, in 2014, it is still worth it.
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