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I started my Ramah Galim journey the first summer it opened, Kayitz 2016. I am beyond grateful for the gifts I have from Ramah Galim, in particular a forever-friendship with another camper-turned-staffer, Galit.
I grew up watching my sister and cousins go to overnight camp and develop strong friendships, and I wanted that. I had gone to a different camp the summer before, was super homesick and did not want to go to camp again. Little did I know that summer I would meet the person who would be my best friend for the next 10 years–and counting.
Growing up, I always wanted to go to a Jewish sleepaway camp. However, I was intimidated by the well-established camps nearby, worried that I wouldn’t know the traditions or fit in. So, when Ramah Galim opened in 2016, it felt like the perfect opportunity to finally attend camp and help to build a community from the ground up. That first summer, I barely knew anyone, but everyone else was in the same boat. We saw camp as a blank canvas, ready to be filled with traditions, culture, friendships, and community. There was an unspoken understanding that what we did that summer would lay the foundation for the camp’s future. Camp quickly became a home, a place where I felt truly comfortable and fully myself.
One of the many names of the festival of Sukkot is Z’man Simchateinu – “Time of our Joyousness”. On the holiday of Sukkot, we are given an explicit charge to be joyful. As the Torah says, וְשָׂמַחְתָּ֖ בְּחַגֶּ֑ךָ…וְהָיִ֖יתָ אַ֥ךְ שָׂמֵֽחַ – “You shall rejoice in your Festival…and you shall have nothing but joy.” (Deuteronomy 16:14,15). We are instructed to build temporary dwellings and find abundant joy in moving our lives into them for a defined period; eating, sleeping, working and spending time connecting with friends and family.
Deret Musselman, Director of Community Care and Inclusion at Ramah Galim, traveled to Israel last month as a staff member on the National Ramah Tikvah Birthright trip to Israel.
My journey with Ramah started 6 years ago with our Tikvah program. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined myself traveling to Israel with a group of adults with special needs. Reflecting on the last 10 days, there is no other way that I would have liked to experience Israel for the first time.
We are excited to announce that the Ramah Sports Academy will be included as a new speciality track option at Camp Ramah Galim in Northern California this summer. After five years of operations in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, Ramah Sports Academy (RSA) is moving west! Not only will this change give athletes access to our breathtaking campus on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, RSA campers will be part of a vibrant summer community – joining with over 180 Ramah campers each session for social, recreational, and religious programming outside of their sports majors.
With pride and excitement, we announce Camp Ramah in Northern California’s new Board of Directors.
Our volunteer leadership provides strategic direction and oversight for Ramah, ensuring that our Camp is able to serve families in Northern California and beyond and advance our mission to provide transformative Jewish summer experiences.
On the day I arrived at camp this summer, I heard something that stuck with me.
Rosh Edah Maya Wasserman shared, “I came back to Ramah Galim this summer because I realized after my experience here in 2021 that this place is where I become by best self.” I imagine that many of us who have spent significant time at a Jewish overnight summer camp can probably relate to these profound words. For me, they struck so poignantly in my final days as Director of Ramah Galim both as a meaningful reflection on the transformative community we have built for so many individuals, and because I remember feeling this same way after my first experience at Ramah many years ago.
This week’s Torah portion, Kedoshim, has historically offered us some of our most enriching Torah. In the same week that we seemingly revisit the 10 commandments, we also read of what many of us have come to understand as the “golden rule” – וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ – Love your fellow as yourself (Vayikra 19:18). In my many summers as a counselor, I would support my campers in making their own cabin brit or covenant, on our first night together. Without fail, the charge to treat others the way we want to be treated was on the list every single time.
Camp is only a few short weeks out of a long year. But that’s part of the beauty of it. Camp is a sacred oasis in time, and while we’re there, time actually feels almost nonexistent. It’s because we only get to be there for a few weeks of the year that camp is so special.
With just 100 days until camp, I find myself looking back upon my experience last summer more and more.