Exciting New Additions to our Staff for Kayitz 2010!

It's been a very exciting few weeks here in the Ramah office, as we have made enormous progress on assembling an amazing tzevet (staff) for camp this summer!  We are really thrilled by the group that is coming together, filled with terrific familiar faces and a number of wonderful new additions!

Rabbi Gelb and Davey Rosen had an extraordinarily productive week in Israel at the start of February in which they hired our mishlachat (our delegation of Israeli staff members) for 2010.  We have one of the largest hevrei mishlachat in North America, with almost 40 Israeli staff members coming to camp this summer.  In addition to beloved long-time returnees such as Hebrew teacher extraordinaire Yehuda Gubani and our incredibly talented nagarut (woodworking) artist Ran Eckshtein, we can't wait for everyone to meet the new members of our team. 

Here are just a few of the new members of our mishlachat: Tal Sharon, who will be running a fitness program at camp this summer, a new addition to our chugim.  Reut Yizhaki, fresh off of her stint teaching archery at Club Med, who will be running our archery program this summer.  Dotan Cohen, a talented musician and guitar instructor who will be joining our ever-growing shira team.  Tsafrir Grinberg, an amazing woodworking artist who will be working with Ran in nagarut.  Elia Michalevich, who was the physical fitness instructor in charge of the aquatic training of a top naval unit of the IDF, will be joining our tzevet agam (waterfront staff).

We also have a lot of exciting Americans who have recently joined our team!  Earlier this month I posted about the incredible new members of our tzevet shira for kayitz 2010.  Just a moment ago I mentioned Dotan Cohen, and we are very proud to announce that the final member of our shira staff this summer will be Gavri Yares.  Gavri is an extraordinarily talented musician with skills on a whole host of different instruments including the base, the violin, the viola, the cello, and a variety of brass instruments as well.  He's a member of the band "The Shuk" that performed at camp last summer during the second session!

On our tzevet hinuch (education staff), we are thrilled to welcome aboard the husband & wife team of Michael & Rabbi Jackie Satlow!  Michael is a professor of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies at Brown University, and Jackie is the director for the Center for Jewish Culture at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.  Both Michael and Jackie have an enormous wealth of experience in Jewish education, and we are very excited by the high-level offerings they'll be leading at camp this summer.

I could go on and on!  In the coming weeks, we'll continue to highlight our staff, new and returning, for kayitz 2010.  Even though it's snowing as I type this, camp is getting closer and our excitement is building…