RILI Overview

The Legacy Heritage Fund Limited awarded the National Ramah Commission a three-year grant to advance Israel education at Ramah camps through the Ramah Israel Leadership Initiative (RILI). A key element of this RILI grant has been to enhance and increase the Israel-based educational resources at Ramah.

Curricular Units

National Ramah has hired several part-time curriculum writers who have written eight new curricular units. Any of these units can form the basis for formal curricular units as well as informal programming for peulot erev, y’mei meyuchad, etc.

Each unit includes several formalized sichot/peulot (referred to as “core sessions”), sample Divrei T'fillah/Torah, suggested vocabulary lists, and additional programming resources. The units all contain primary source material (Israeli graffiti art, short stories, Israeli raps/songs, newspaper articles, historical documents, etc.) so that campers can interact and engage in a “first-hand” encounter with Israeli society. The materials are designed so that the materials can be used in a variety of ways by the camps. We have worked hard to ensure that the materials are appropriate for use by seasoned educators, as well as by young counselors with minimal teaching experience. Each of the RILI units has been designed to be experiential, interactive, and informal, in order to facilitate dialogue between campers and inspire critical thought and reflection related to their values and attitudes.

Click here for links to RILI curricular units.

Spring 2011 Conference

NRC is pleased to host a three-hour conference and training session on Israel education in camp and other informal educational settings specifically geared for staff at Ramah, other Jewish camps, and others in the field of experiential education. 

The Ramah Israel Leadership Initiative Conference: “Israel Education in the Experiential Setting” will take place on Sunday, April 3, 2011, from 10:00 a.m. -2:00 p.m. at Congregation Shaare Zedek (212 West 93rd Street, New York, NY).  The conference is complimentary and open to all interested educators. 

RSVP to Shoshana Holzberg-Pill at (212) 678-8881.

Click here for conference details.

Staff and Resource Development

In addition to the curriculum components of RILI, the grant has provided funds for the hiring and training of additional staff members, both Israeli and North American, to focus on Israel education over the summer in each of the camps. Working in partnership, these Israeli and North American staff members have truly been able to share many aspects of Israeli society and have brought a new energy and excitement to Israel education. Funding from the RILI grant has also helped to modernize and revitalize the National Ramah Program Bank, concentrating on programs for Israel education. A key goal of the grant has been to share successful programming among Ramah camps and the RILI staff members have contributed greatly to this resource.

Over the three years of the RILI grant, the curriculum has been used all across North America (6,500 campers system-wide) and it has been met with high regard. The training sessions and focus groups that were conducted allowed the materials to be seen and reviewed by many sets of eyes prior to their implementation. This intense review process not only enhanced the materials, but also created a sense of buy-in once the materials arrived in camp. It is this crucial element of the RILI process that moved these materials from great books sitting on a dusty shelf, to enthralling materials that were used all over the camps.

If you have any questions, please contact Ami Hersh in the National Ramah office at (212) 678-8881.

The National Ramah Commission thanks the Legacy Heritage Fund Limited for its generous support of this program, providing our camps with an exceptional opportunity to enrich and enhance the knowledge and connections of campers and staff to Israel and its people.