Then and Now…Three Generations at Machaneh Ramah a discussion with Aliza Haas

Being a third-generation Ramah family is especially meaningful because my kids have an opportunity to experience camp, make lifelong friends and be part of a unique community of people who are passionate about Israel and being Jewish. After hearing stories about camp from my dad a.k.a. Saba Gerry, my sisters myself, and my son Nadav have been able to see the camp through his eyes and create memories of our own of the 01069. As a child who grew up in camp from the age of 3, and now a parent of a camper myself, I am especially grateful that I get to watch my son grow both physically, emotionally and spiritually at Camp Ramah. I  hope that one day my son’s children will continue the Ramah tradition in our family as 4th generation Ramahniks.

I was a camper in Palmer from 1980-89 fast forward a decade later I arrived at the University of Wisconsin in Madison during my freshman year, there was a girl on my floor in our dorm named Laurie who had been in my edah (division). Back in the days without the internet or facebook, we both had no idea that we were going to the same college.  We also had not kept in touch since being at camp together.  Laurie did not come to camp Nivonim summer but she did go on Ramah seminar where she became friends with a girl named Amy from Ramah in Wisconsin who also ended up going to the University of Wisconsin.  So us three Ramah girls lived on the same floor freshman year and became a close friends, and we ended up living together all of our college years.  Amy convinced me one summer to work at Ramah in Wisconsin instead of Palmer.  That was the summer that I met Ilani, one of the mishlachat members who lived in Jerusalem. A year later when I made aliyah, Ilani introduced me to my husband Kobi who I have been married to for 20 years!

A picture of my son and I in camp kayitz 2019

This picture was taken of me in 1982 on the Tzad Aleph baseketball courts. The second picture is of me with my mom Helen Kobell, and my siblings Rona, Deena and Daniel August 1984.

Here I am in my Nivonim kayitz 1989 and the other picture is me on staff kayitz 1990

These were old postcards that I have kept from when the camp used to be camp Rena.

My husband and I!