Shechunah Shel Ramah Meet Rabbi Andy Shapiro Katz Outdoor Cooking

Meet Rabbi Andy Shapiro Katz tzevet (staff) member of outdoor cooking. Andy can be found standing over an open fire cooking a delicious chili, baking bread in the brick oven, or literally roasting something over an open fire. Andy has been on tzevet (staff) at Machaneh Ramah for three summers and says that his favorite part of his job is getting to hang out and talk with chanichim (campers) while doing something they like – cooking, or at least eating. The part that Andy loves about being at Machaneh Ramah is having the chance to spend so much time doing and teaching things that are his hobbies. Andy was encouraged by his colleague at the Conservative Yeshiva Josh Kulp to join the tzevet at Machaneh Ramah. While Andy did not attend Ramah as a camper his four children are now Happy Campers at Machaneh Ramah!

When Andy is not at camp, he is the Director of Engagement for the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Rabbi Andy Shapiro Katz travels widely in North America to teach and build relationships with institutional partners. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Rabbi Katz lives in Beer Sheva with his wife and four children, where they co-founded the intentional pluralistic religious community, Kehilat Be’erot. Prior to making aliyah, he taught Talmud and Jewish History at the Weber School in Atlanta and the Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco, where he was also the Assistant Head of School. Rabbi Katz is an alumnus of the Conservative Yeshiva and the Pardes Kollel, receiving S’micha (rabbinic ordination) in 2004 from Rabbis Daniel Landes. He holds a B.A. in American Studies and M.A. in Educational Administration from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Ben Gurion University of the Negev. On the side (and where you work in Jewish education in Israel, one needs something on the side), he teaches pizza-making and cooking science, caters small events, and hosts a periodic pop-up restaurant.