National Ramah Commission Sponsors Trip to Argentina's Jewish Community and "Ramah Camps"

by Rabbi Mitchell Cohen, National Ramah Director, January 2006

I was privileged to be able to join this group for three days, including Shabbat in Buenos Aires.  I was very impressed with the Seminario Rabbinico Latinamericano, the "JTS" of Argentina, where many students train to be rabbis, cantors and Jewish educators.  We saw the terrible economic struggle of many Jews and many synagogues, after the financial devastation in Argentina earlier this decade.  We sang and danced during Kabbalat Shabbat services and over Shabbat dinner, at Congregation Pardes, with Rabbi Baruch Plavnik and a number of youth leaders about to depart for their summer camp experience.  We also enjoyed an uplifting Shabbat morning service at a much larger congregation, Amichai, as Rabbi Dario Feiguin gave us a tour of this beautiful facility, and explained to us many of the unique aspects of Argentinean Jewry.

Just being with this group of North American youth leaders was inspiring.  Many hours were spent sharing programs and stories from camp to camp, and discussing the impact of this trip on all of us as individuals, and upon each Ramah camp.  Rabbi Paul Resnick, Director of Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, participated in this experience, and commented that "it is wonderful to see our youth leaders expand their minds as educators and gain so much insight from visiting a foreign community with a strong Conservative Jewish presence.