“Israel is just as important to the Tikvah participants and their families on this Birthright trip as it is to all those Jews who view the Land of Israel and the State of Israel as their Jewish homeland,” said Herb Greenberg, who founded the Tikvah program with his wife, Barbara, in 1970.
Read MoreTo be a member of the Ramah kehilla (community in Hebrew) is a beautiful gift. We learn how to accept and love others for their weaknesses and not just their strengths....We learn how to ask for forgiveness and to forgive, to embrace our differences, to celebrate with immeasurable joy during the good times, and to comfort each other with endless sympathy during the hard times.
Read MoreA partnership between Ramah Tikvah, Amazing Israel and Birthright Israel brings young adults with disabilities to Israel
Read MoreOne 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.
Read More“Young American Jews and young Israelis form long and enduring relationships that extend well beyond the eight- to nine-week summer experience they share together,” Amy Skopp Cooper, director of Camp Ramah Nyack, north of New York City, and national associate director of Ramah, says.
Read MoreAmidst cheers, dancing, and singing, we just concluded the 2015 Mishlachat Training Seminar,which for the first time was held at the Givat Haviva Educational Institute, about halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. We are very grateful to our partners at The Jewish Agency who organize this four-day program and provide Ramah leadership with the unique opportunity to work with the 188 new Ramah shlichim joining us this summer. And unique it was: this was the first year that the training seminar began on Yom Ha’Shoah. Just minutes before the shlichim arrived, Ramah directors stood together and listened to the two-minute siren heard throughout Israel. As we marked Jewish time, it was not lost on us how interconnected memory and destiny are to one another. Minutes after the siren, the most idealistic young ambassadors of Israel joined us.
Read MoreShira spent her first summer as a member of our Israel delegation in 2006. Tall, energetic, and charismatic, Shira was the type of young woman who seemed to run instead of walk, always with a bounce in her step. She was and remains a passionate young educator, drama teacher, and baseball player.
Read MoreOn a recent ten-day Tikvah Ramah Israel trip, twelve participants with disabilities, ages 18-40, were treated to a once-in-a-lifetime visit to a 1,000-soldier army base. Admittedly, other tour groups visit army bases; our group spent three hours at the MAZI/Bar-Lev base near Kiryat Milachi, where soldiers – in full uniform – with Down Syndrome, autism, and other intellectual disabilities are “just soldiers.”
Read MoreThe ongoing war, misery, and anxiety in Israel and Gaza stand in sharp contrast to the incredible joy appropriately taking place at all of our camps.
Sandwiched between both these worlds are our 250 shlichim and our 250 participants on Ramah Seminar in Israel. Our shlichim are doing an incredible job continuing to plan programs, teach, and share their love for Israel with our campers, even as they closely monitor their families' safety under missile fire and the lists of the dead and wounded IDF soldiers who may be their friends, comrades, or relatives.
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