The Secret Origins of “No Smoking”!

The origins of camp’s end of session tradition, “No Smoking”, where each edah premiers their new edah t-shirt design and sings songs with inside jokes from their month together, are up for debate, but here is what we have pieced together:

The tradition began at either Ramah Wisconsin or Ramah Poconos in the 1950s as part of their end of session banquet. It came to be known as “No Smoking” either because: 1) There was a “No Smoking” sign above the exit sign of the door in Ramah Wisconsin Chadar Ohel where the banquet was emcee’d, or 2) It was due to a confusion between the Hebrew phrases for “No Sleeping” and “No Smoking” as campers were asked not to fall asleep at the end of the banquet which ran quite late, or 3) Staff who smoked in the 1950’s used to want to smoke after Havdalah and the chorus was an attempt by the campers and Hanhallah (management) at the time to get them to wait to do so until after the campers had gone to bed.

As it was traditionally sung on Saturday night, this third theory (which is, of course, not an issue today), leads the pack.

Regarding the melody, some have said it is based off of the 1950’s doo-wop song “Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)” sung by The Crewcuts, specifically that the “Shavua Tov” refrain was a riff on the chorus.  As this is difficult to recognize when playing the song, it may be that the “nusach” of “No Smoking” evolved as it was imported across camps, although this is likely lost to history.

Regarding when it came spread across the various Ramah camps, Ramah Wisconsin’s history with it goes back to the 1950s, and we have spoken to former staff members who remember it during that time at Ramah Poconos as well. Those same staff from Ramah Poconos claim to have brought it to Ramah Canada in the 1960s, and other former staff remember it at Ramah Berkshires as early as 1966.

Regarding when it came to Ramah New England, we have spoken to former staff who do not recall it existing here in the 1960s but do have fond memories of it existing as early as 1976.  What we can safely say is at some point between its importation from Ramah Wisconsin and Ramah Poconos to Ramah Canada and Ramah Berkshires, it came to Ramah New England no later than 1976.

Our running theory, which is not verified, is that it came to Ramah New England in the early 1970s after the camp was closed for one summer and re-opened the following summer with many staff who had worked at other Ramah camps importing traditions from those camps.

Like July 4th, the last day of each session and our emergency announcements, it is has seeped into the Ramah vernacular as one of the few exceptions to our “No English” in public performances and announcements rule!

Thanks to interviews/correspondence with Rabbis Archie Ruberg, Michael Panitz, Craig Scheff and Bruce Bromberg-Seltzer, Dr. Reuven Rohn and others for their keen memories and to everyone who has taken an interest here for their enthusiasm!