For many former campers, summer camp is not just a place to ride horses, race canoes and tie-dye T-shirts. It’s a place to meet people who become their family.
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When I received an email from Camp Ramah in California about attending the Songleader Boot Camp National Conference (SLBC) as a member of the 2016 Cohort, I answered back immediately with an ecstatic “YES!” I didn’t really know what to expect going into SLBC, only that I would get to sing and learn some pretty cool Jewish music. I had no idea that I would gain leadership skills, expand my musical repertoire, learn from incredible teachers, rabbis, and musicians, make new friends, and find a deep connection to music through Judaism and camp.
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Dozens of articles online and in print publications proudly and enthusiastically note that February is Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month (JDAIM). JDAIM, marked by agencies and organizations throughout the Jewish world, is described as “a unified effort among Jewish organizations worldwide to raise awareness and foster inclusion of people with disabilities and their families in Jewish communities worldwide.”
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Ramah Day Camp of Greater Washington is growing. In its second full season at the Wellspring Conference Center in Germantown, the Conservative-affiliated summer camp is enrolling more campers, extending its operating length and providing more programming.
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To celebrate Limmud’s 35th year, eJewishPhilanthropy will be offering a look into Jewish communities around the world, through the eyes of Limmud volunteers. Limmud, the global grassroots Jewish learning movement which was founded in the United Kingdom in 1980 is today in 80 communities and 40 countries.
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Since the first Ramah Tikvah program opened in 1970, the Ramah Camping Movement has continued to be a pioneer in the inclusion of Jewish campers with disabilities. Tikvah programs now operate in all Ramah camps across North America, offering the inspirational Ramah experience to Jewish children, teens, and young adults with learning, developmental, cognitive, and social disabilities.
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The 2016 National Ramah Winter Leadership Training Conference, held from January 4-7, was a tremendous success. This year’s gathering took place at Camp Ramah in California in Ojai under a mix of sun and much-needed rain. The four-day conference featured several tracks, including the Weinstein Institute for Counselor Training for second-year madrichim, as well as training for counselors of campers with disabilities (Tikvah), veteran staff (“vatikim”), division heads (rashei edah), and Ramah Service Corps Fellows. The 105 attendees at this year’s conference also included camp directors, assistant directors, and programming staff. Eleven Ramah camps were represented, including our newest camp, Ramah in Northern California. Kayla Levy, one of Ramah NorCal’s first staff members, shared that the inspiring week “embodied the innovation and ruach of camp that makes Ramah more than a two-month experience.”
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There’s a small buzzing slice of Israeli culture right in the heart of Rockland County. Up the winding country roads of Nyack, on a sprawling green estate, it’s 8:30 AM, and Israeli music is blasting. Hundreds of children in colorful T-shirts, shorts and sandals are running towards the central field to dance to Tel Aviv’s latest hits. Welcome to Sha’ar, Camp Ramah’s Areivim Hebrew at Camp program: seven weeks designed to instill Hebrew language fluency in young children through full language immersion. Here, roughly half of the campers are from day school, half are from public school, and some are from charter schools. Their knowledge of Hebrew is varied: some come from Israeli homes, while others don’t know a word of Hebrew when they first enter camp.
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NEW YORK, NY (January 13, 2016) – The National Ramah Commission has received a new grant from The AVI CHAI Foundation to deepen the connection between Ramah camps and Conservative congregations. This grant will support a pilot initiative between the newest Ramah regional overnight camp, Camp Ramah in Northern California (Ramah NorCal), and a select number of synagogues in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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