About Ramah

Who We are

Ramah is the camping arm of the Conservative Judaism movement. With seven overnight camps, three day camps, and Ramah programs in Israel and Argentina, Ramah impacts more than 9,000 chalutzim and madrichim every summer. A summer at Ramah is spent immersed in Jewish living  highlighted by dynamic and innovative programming. Traditional camp and outdoor activities, including swimming, sports, dance and art, are enhanced by Ramah’s dedication to excellence in informal Jewish education. Combining a love for camping with meaningful Jewish experiences, Ramah instills in its chalutzim and madrichim a love of Judaism, the Jewish people, Israel, and the outdoors. The Ramah movement is guided by seven core values:

1. Self-esteem of every individual
2. Character development
3. Jewish learning
4. Jewish identity and community
5. Jewish observance
6. Zionism
7. Hebrew

Camp Ramah offers sleep-away camps that typically offer four or eight weeks options, day camps, an Israel summer tour program for American teenagers, a day camp in Jerusalem for American and Israeli children, and a variety of high school programs in Israel.

History of the Ramah Camps

During the 1940s, The Jewish Theological Seminary established several programs to reconnect Jewish youth with the synagogue and cultivate American-born Jewish leadership. One of these programs was Camp Ramah, a program conceived by Moshe Davis and Sylvia Ettenberg of the JTS Teachers’ Institute.

The first Ramah camp opened in Wisconsin in 1947. Over the next 25 years, a network of resident camps was established. Today, in addition to the Conover, Wisconsin site, there are Ramah camps in Lake Como, Pennsylvania (Camp Ramah in the Poconos, founded in 1950); Palmer, Massachusetts (Camp Ramah in New England opened at East Hampton, Connecticut in 1953 and moved to the Palmer site in 1965); Ojai, California (Camp Ramah in California, founded in 1956); Utterson, Ontario (Camp Ramah in Canada, founded in 1960); and Wingdale, New York (Camp Ramah in Berkshires, opened in Nyack, New York, in 1961 and moved to the Wingdale site in 1965). In 1997, Ramah opened its latest overnight camp in Clayton, Georgia (Ramah Darom). In addition to these overnight camps, Ramah operates day camps in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Nyack, New York.

Today, Ramah camps are attended by more than 8,000 youngsters, ranging in age from 7-16, with a staff of 1,500 counselors, co-counselors, specialists, and teachers. In addition to typical summer camp activities, Ramah camps offer a unique educational program focusing on Judaism, Zionism and Hebrew-language instruction on different levels. Every camp has a corps of “shlichim” or emissaries from Israel, and staff (known as the “mishlachat”).