Building on Success: 
Camp Ramah in Expansion Mode

At Camp Ramah, they are tackling a "positive" problem -- too much success. Camps like Ramah Ojai, just outside of Los Angeles, have long waiting lists and not enough bunks to meet demand. Other parts of the country, like the Rockies, are entirely bereft of the Conservative Jewish camp. The solution is expansion and Ramah has been renovating and enlarging existing campsites while creating new camps, such as Ramah Darom, in parts of the country where a void exists.

Ramah Ojai bought an adjacent piece of property and is running through the maze of zoning and permit processing necessary to build three additional bunks. In addition to this, the camp is looking to expand its dining and activity space, according to Julie Platt (LA/Bear Stearns), who is a member of the camp’s executive committee.. The camp is in the foothills of California, isolated from city lights. Recently the camp added an observatory so children can gaze upon the stars. "It is the most majestic setting in the middle of the night," Platt describes. "It’s just an incredibly beautiful living Judaism."

Besides expanding and renovating facilities, Ramah Ojai has redeveloped programs to suit the needs of today’s campers. High school students who do not wish to be counselors and cannot participate in an Israel program can enroll in "Meytiv". It’s set on a college campus in Northern California. Participants undertake "tikun olam" (social service) projects, go camping, and visit colleges in California. College students who cannot travel to Israel but are looking for an intensive one-on-one "chevruta" study environment, can sign up for "Lishma."

But while the camp facade might change over the years along with specific programming initiatives, Platt says the spirit of Ramah has remained the same since she the time she was a camper. "The Hebrew language is everywhere. Announcements are made in Hebrew. They have Hebrew classes. The older children put on a play in Hebrew so the language becomes commonplace. It just has a beautiful spirit about it."

That spirit made its way into the country's southern territory for the first time in 1997 when Ramah Darom opened its doors to 300 campers. Fast forward three years and the enrollment has shot up to over 800 campers. While it took decades to bypass major stumbling blocks, Ramah Darom has taken a dream that Southern Jewish leaders had in the 1950's and made it into a reality in the 1990's.

In a book honoring the movement's fiftieth anniversary, Dr. Sheldon Dorph, National Ramah Director, wrote about the challenges of creating an overnight camp from scratch. "This was the first new Ramah overnight camp to be founded in 30 years. As such, there were no protocols or precedents for how to proceed." Camp leaders started by asking community leaders what they hoped for in a new camp. Dr. Dorph writes that "surveys were sent out to all rabbis in the south asking them for basic data on their congregation, school population, campers at various camps, scholarships, Hillel and Jewish study departments, young adults who could be future staff and whether the congregation would/could use the facility for winter programming retreats. They were also asked to name any possible donors."

Rachel Nussbaum (Wexner Foundation Fellow) was there from the outset, while the feasibility studies were still being drawn up. She traveled to communities in South Carolina, her home state, and Georgia, meeting with focus groups to learn what type of camp and year-round facility would meet everyone's needs. Nussbaum knew first-hand that such a camp was lacking. She spent her childhood summers at Camp Judea and a JCC camp in Atlanta. While the Reform movement had several southern summer options, there were no Conservative movement sleep-away camps anywhere nearby. "As a kid, I actually remember watching a video from Ramah Palmer in Massachusetts. I was about ten years old and was terrified by the thought of getting on a plane and flying so far from home," Nussbaum recalls. Once Ramah Darom was established in 1997, Nussbaum became a counselor and then a "Rosh Edah" (Division Head). Nussbaum says Ramah Darom attracts a mix of campers from varied backgrounds. Some come with a strong day school education, others from afternoon Hebrew school and some from rural areas where Jews must travel far to reach a synagogue and where there are no Hebrew schools to speak of. "The goal is to integrate all those people and bring everyone up to speed and that's a real challenge."

Nussbaum says she has witnessed first-hand how campers are rising to that challenge. Last summer, her bunk was located on the far end of the camp so she had to walk past most of the girls' bunks to reach her own. She remembers spotting campers sitting outside during their free time and voluntarily teaching their peers Torah portions and cantilations they planned to recite on Shabbat. "It was incredible for me walking by bunk after bunk and hearing these sounds and seeing the kids paired up like that."

The camp is continuing to build facilities. Nussbaum says that one of the unique aspects of Ramah Darom is that it was built with the intention of being used as a year-round retreat center so the cabins are more permanent fixtures than what one would normally associate with camp. The greatest challenge Darom has faced is building to keep pace with the demand for space and use. The impact of the camp experience is key to strengthening Jewish identity in the South. Ramah Darom made the decision from the beginning to try to avoid wait-listing children.

According to Rabbi Loren Sykes, Ramah Darom's Executive Director, this was only possible as a result of the enormous efforts of a few visionary angels who committed to raising the funds necessary to build at such an accelerated pace.

Ramah in the Rockies is intended to fill a void in much the same way as its successful southern counterpart. According to Lisa Farber-Miller, the Rose Community Foundation awarded Ramah a $15,000 grant to conduct a feasibility study. Besides figuring out the needs of people living in that region of the country, Ramah in the Rockies will have to deal with the same issue as Ramah Darom because their existence takes away from the applicant pool for Ramah in California and New England respectively. In fact, before the National Ramah Commission ratified the plan to build Ramah Darom, it grappled with the question of how it would compensate New England for its losses because that camp was the prime choice for campers living in the south. Ramah in California stands to lose from the Rockies gain. But, according to the conclusion of "Forward from Fifty," demand for Ramah keeps growing stronger and has not been quenched by the opening of Ramah Darom or three new day camps. Last summer, more than 500 children had to be turned away, so there seems to be plenty of room to grow.

Reprinted with permission of The Leader: the newsletter of the Wexner Heritage Foundation -- The original article appeared in the Summer 2000 edition of The Leader (Vol. 2, No. 5) .