What is in a name?

One of my favorite parts of starting this new Ramah camp has been the opportunity to reconnect with so many people who I have encountered in my 12 summers of working at Ramah.  Some of the campers who were my students in swimming lessons back in the mid 1990s are now colleagues in the Rabbinate.  Others whom I worked with on the waterfront or on the “tripping” staff at Ramah in Canada are now lawyers, teachers and parents.  But somehow, whether people have not been at a Ramah in the past 10 years or whether they are continuing to work at Ramah through their early parenting years, most still feel a strong connection to their friends from Ramah and to many of the traditions they were a part of at camp.

It was after many discussions with former Ramahniks, that I decided to start an online survey to help name the new edot (age groups) in this new Ramah camp.  I created a basic survey with the names of all the edot at Ramah and put it out there into the world of cyber space.  A little known fact is that every Ramah camp has different edot orders, though many have the same names. Read more

It has been two weeks since I have written a blog post.  I have to admit, that when I was hiking last week with David, I had wanted to whip out a computer at many points and write some of my thoughts.  But of course, we were in the back country and even though we did camp near our car each night, we did not have electricity and certainly no computer.  In short the trip was amazing. Read more

Creating Institutional Memory:

I am on my way back to Denver after spending last week visiting two summer camps. One of the great parts of having this grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation is that I have the opportunity to learn from some of the best in the camping field. While I have spent many years working in camps (mostly Ramah camps), it is a totally different experience to walk into a new place with an eye towards learning from another camps successes and trying to avoid their short comings. Read more

We at Ramah Outdoors are gearing up for our first staff training session which begins on Sunday. I am heading o the Ranch this Friday with 3 other leaders for Shabbat before heading to the airport on Sunday to pick up all the participants. I thought I would post the letter I just wrote to the participants which gives a little insight into our last minute preparations.

Remember if you are in the area on August 9th, please join us on the Ranch for an open camp day!! Read more

As things heat up here I will be returning to more regular blog posts so long as I am near an internet connection which is not something I take for granted out here:

Greetings from Denver:

I finally had a chance this week to get out into the Rocky Mountains! On Sunday I left the city to drive two hours to the Arkansas river near Buena Vista. Lindsay and I camped along the water and in the morning hopped on a rafting trip run by Noahs Ark . It was an amazing day! Read more

I returned yesterday from another Foundation for Jewish Camp conference in NJ. I have to say, that these conferences are actually pretty interesting. For the most part, the sessions are useful and informative. For example, this past week we spent a day learning about recruiting and marketing. We also spent a day learning about presentation skills and practicing delivering our camp “pitch.” We worked most of the day with a guy who coaches people in the business world on how to hone their speaking styles. We also had sessions on exciting topics like data bases, internet access, and setting up a phone network. These are issues, that I do not usually think about in Rabbinical School, but clearly are important for me to learn in my job at Ramah Outdoors.

Although I am sure that the reader would love to hear more about the databases and the pros and cons of each, I thought that I would instead blog about a movie we saw called Jesus Camp. Jesus Camp is a truly petrifying documentary about the use of Camp and experiential education in the Christian Evangelical movement. If you have not seen this movie, I would say that it is a MUST SEE. It is not exactly the curl up with the pop-corn type of movie, but the questions it raises are important for any American to ask, and especially those who believe strongly in the power of summer camp. Read more

People are often surprised when I tell them that I never went to Jewish camp as a child. As a student at an Orthodox Day School and growing up in an observant family, my parents wanted me to get other experiences during the summers, and so I spent four summers in Boy Scout camp. For me, Boy Scout camp was a chance to do what I loved doing most—being in the outdoors and exploring nature. We use to spend most of our day at camp working on different Merit badges. A required one for all scouts was the Environmental science badge. The only requirement I remember from this badge was that I was required to go into the woods and sit alone for few hours. The goal was to be at one with nature, observing the sounds, feels and smells of nature. I have a distinct memory of walking away from my camp site one day—only a few hundred meters- and sitting there for the afternoon, listening smelling and observing. Nature came alive in a way I had not fully appreciated. I came alive in a way I had never experienced. Read more

Today is my first day back in NYC after a few days down in Atlantic City at the ACA Tri State (American Camping Association) conference. Tri-State is the biggest camping conference in the world and happens annually in March. Technically Tri State is meant for camp professionals in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, in reality, the 3000 professionals come from all over the country (and even the world) to take part in this conference. Yesterday I met one person who flew in from Israel for Tri-state. Read more

It is erev Shababt here in NYC and I somehow the blog post I have been meaning to write all week has not written itself. So here I am preparing for another relaxing Shabbat, and wanted to share some thoughts about I read last Shabbat.

I recently bought a copy of the book titled A Wild Faith by Rabbi Mike Comins. It is a guide to spiritual and Jewish practice in the wilderness. I would encourage every member of the Ramah Outdoor Adventure community to read this book, as it is a fantastic guide to many of the issues we will be teaching at camp. It also has over 30 practical lessons/ suggestions for integrating the Jewish ideas/ values into actual programming in a camp. Read more