Reflections on Kayitz 2026 as of July 14, 2026

This week's post comes from the National Ramah Commission’s Assistant National Director, Dr. Daniel Olson, who recently traveled to Ramah Nyack, Ramah New England, and Ramah Seminar.

At Ramah, we often speak about the “bubble" of camp. Every summer, for up to eight weeks, campers slip away into our beautiful campsites and take a breath from the daily pressures of their regular lives. In such an environment, we unselfconsciously explore our identities, sing and dance with abandon, and feel a sense of security and belonging so often missing elsewhere. We use this special “bubble time" to prepare for the outside world, ready to make our broader community just a little bit better.

Every so often during the summer, the camp bubble becomes permeable. Guests enter, campers and staff exit, and we encounter more of the world. At each of my Ramah visits this past week, I experienced the beauty of our bubbles and also the potential that emerges when we go in and out of them.

Ramah Day Camp in Nyack expands its bubble in a big way at its annual Zimriyah (song festival). The campers, who rehearse melodies and choreography during the first weeks of camp, welcome their family members and friends to watch the enthusiastic performances. Thousands of people join together for a night of Jewish music and joy. One edah sang an upbeat setting of “B’Shem HaShem.” The words, from the bedtime Shema, describe being surrounded on all sides by angels and above by the Shechina (divine presence): a bubble of protection around each and every person.

My time at Camp Ramah New England showed me that the Ramah bubble extends in both time and space, far beyond kayitz (summer) 2026 and far beyond Palmer, Massachusetts. A group of deeply committed volunteer leaders, some of whom have remained devoted to Ramah for over 70 years, gathered for the National Ramah Commission’s annual board meeting. While we celebrated board members’ decades of history with Ramah, our conversations mostly focused on our future, and how we can ensure a strong movement for 2050 and beyond.

The chancellor of JTS, Rabbi Mike Uram, on his third day on the job, participated in this meeting as well, articulating his vision for JTS and emphasizing the importance of the Ramah–JTS partnership. He personalized this commitment by speaking with Nivonim, the rising 11th graders at Palmer. The campers opened up about what keeps them up at night, focusing heavily on the looming college admissions process. By offering grounding advice, Rabbi Uram demonstrated to all these campers how the Ramah bubble provides a setting for thinking about how to engage in the rest of life.

The climax of the Ramah overnight camper experience whisks our rising 12th graders outside of the camp bubble and immerses them in Israel, our Jewish homeland. It was a profound joy to witness the more than 240 Ramah Israel Seminar participants finding their place in a much bigger Jewish world: paying tribute to the fallen at Har Herzl, joining thousands of other Jewish teens traveling to Israel this summer at Sunday’s RootOne Big Tent event headlined by Noam Bettan (of Eurovision’s “Michelle” fame), and singing Kabbalat Shabbat at the Kotel.

I felt particularly gratified to see so many Ramah alumni, both North American and Israeli, serving as Seminar tzevet (staff) this summer. Nearly all of the North American Seminar tzevet members previously joined a Ramah college volunteer trip in 2024 or 2025, showing up to and for Israel in a tremendous time of need after October 7th. One such madrich (counselor), Elijah Fraiman, addressed the Big Tent event, describing how his Ramah upbringing at Berkshires and Seminar prepared him to lead his campus community as Hillel president.

On Friday night, as our time at the Kotel came to an end, the Seminar participants found themselves alongside all different kinds of Jews: other visitors from all over the world, haredim and chayalim, all sharing the space. It was a picture of Jewish life far beyond the Ramah bubble. But that comforting bubble feeling soon emerged in this space too as the Seminar participants, our oldest Ramah campers, spontaneously formed one large circle, and sang the very same words that I heard some of our youngest Ramah campers sing just two days earlier at Ramah Nyack: “B’Shem HaShem.”

Wherever our campers and alumni go, may they act with courage in the world, forever shielded by the warmth of the Ramah bubble and by the angels that surround us.

In and Out of the Ramah Bubble