Kishroniyah 2025

Camp Ramah in New England is thrilled to announce the return of Kishroniyah for all Tzad Bet (B-Side) hanichim (campers)! Kishroniyah comes from the Hebrew word Kisharon, or “talent.” We have invited specialists in a wide variety of fields to join us at camp to run intensive multi-day programs for our Tzad Bet campers. These programs will be high-level offerings, giving our hanichim a chance to engage in an intensive way with the option that best fits their personal interests and skills. In order to allow each hanich/ah (camper) to receive as much personal attention and instruction from their group’s specialist as possible, we will be keeping the group sizes small, averaging ten kids in each Kishroniyah group. As you scroll down, you will find descriptions of the incredible array of programs being offered this year.

A CAPPELLA WORKSHOP

Instructor: Amichai Margolis
Making music without instruments provides a fantastic way to express one’s love for communal singing. Our performance-oriented goals are to learn a small (3-5 songs) repertoire that can be performed in multi-part harmonies. As a culmination of the program, we will perform in front of all of Tzad Bet (B-Side) and record an album of our music that each participant can have to keep!

Amichai Margolis is currently the Musical Director of the Solomon Schechter Lower School of White Plains, NY. He is also the Musical Director of the The Orangetown Jewish Center. Amichai founded and directed the Jewish a cappella group Kol B’yachad at Brown University. He also arranged and sang with Pizmon from Columbia University & JTS. Ami is the Rosh Shira at Camp Ramah in Nyack, NY, and he was the Rosh Shira at Camp Ramah in New England from 1998-2005, where he broadened the musical repertoire of the camp as well as directed the staff a cappella group. He currently lives in Orangeburg, NY with his wife, Kari (whom he met at Camp Ramah) and their two children, and he owns and operates “Joyful Studios” on the side. Ami is the leader of the “Amichai Margolis Band,” and his debut album is called “Orah V’Simcha — Light and Joy.” His music can be heard at: http://tinyurl.com/Amichaim.

BASKETBALL CLINIC

Instructor: Dave Brown and the Basketball Stars of New York
Learn how to play from the pros during an intensive “Camp Within A Camp” Basketball Clinic run by coaches from the acclaimed Basketball Stars of New York program! With coaches who played at universities such as Harvard, Colgate, Seton Hall, UMASS, Drake, Princeton and others, you are sure to leave the program a more confident and capable player! The program will teach the fundamentals of the game, and the coaches will work individually with participants on any skills they would like to improve upon.

Dave Brown began his college playing career at Division 1’s Colgate University. After two years, he spent a few weeks in Mexico City playing for Team USA in the Maccabi Games where he earned a Gold Medal in the Open Division for Men’s Basketball. Following the Summer, he moved on to Division III powerhouse Connecticut College in the NESCAC’s. Upon graduation, David returned to the Maccabi’s, this time in Chile where he was part of a Silver Medal team effort. Shortly thereafter he began his coaching career at Collegiate High School followed by a jump to the college ranks at John Jay College and then Susquehanna University before joining the New Jersey Nets. His summers have been spent at Basketball Stars of NY Camps. Coach Brown is excited to bring the Basketball Stars of NY experience back to Camp Ramah!

CAMPING/CANOE TRIP (offered to MACHON & NIVONIM only)

In this exciting offering exclusively for Machon & Nivonim campers, participants will leave camp for a three-day, two-night outdoor adventure experience! Campers will prepare with our trip leaders from Earthworks and then spend Monday-Wednesday in Western MA, canoeing, sleeping in tents, and cooking over the fire. You won’t want to miss this amazing Etgar (adventure/challenge) experience!

CIRCUS WORKSHOP

Instructor: AJ Rubin

Have you ever wanted to walk on your hands or juggle like the court jesters of old?  Ever had the urge to defy gravity with clown physics? In this program series, you will learn the basics of what it means to be a Circus artist and get hands-on experience in a variety of circus arts including juggling, unicycling, & ground acrobatics! We will work independently and in groups with a wide array of professional circus props to practice new skills, improve existing skills, and work together to create your own circus show routine!

AJ Rubin (they/he) is a Boston based musician, circus artist, children’s performer, band leader, song writer, and multimedia tinkerer. AJ graduated from Berklee College of Music with a full scholarship in 2024 and has performed at globally renowned festivals and shared the stage with Jazzmeia Horn, Charmaine Neville, & Old Crow Medicine Show. As a musician and bandleader, AJ explores many genres, from Klezmer, early Jazz, Blues, and other multicultural folk musics, to early rock and roll, mo-town, funk, salsa, and more. By combining vintage vaudevillian charm with modern values, AJ strives to have every performance inspire joy, gratitude, and community conversation. A current fellow with the CJP Community Creative Fellowship, this year has been full of engaging community performances, intergenerational concerts and workshops, and a spectacular theater production with all original music in New York City with their group, The Rubin Brothers! The Rubin Brothers (real life brothers AJ and Colescott) have received multiple grants and fellowships to support their work in bringing accessible and engaging artistic experiences to intergenerational audiences around the world. They are committed to inspiring Joy, Gratitude, Curiosity, and Community Togetherness wherever they go.

LYRICAL/CONTEMPORARY DANCE (offered to MAGSHIMIM & BOGRIM only)

Instructor: Emma Weissfeld

Join this workshop for a chance to try out a new style of dance! Lyrical and contemporary dance styles combine components of ballet and jazz, and allow for the dancer to express emotion through movement. In this workshop, Emma will guide dancers through a warm-up, teach skills such as leaps and turns, and stage a short lyrical dance. 

Emma Weissfeld is so excited to be teaching dance Kishroniyah for the second time! Emma is a six-time former Rosh Edah, and she was a chanicha since she was in Kochavim! Outside of camp, Emma spent four years dancing on the Virginia Tech Dance Team, where she competed at NDA and UDA Nationals in jazz, hip hop, and pom. Since graduating from college, she’s enjoyed taking classes in Boston, New York, and Austin in lyrical, jazz, hip hop, and pom. Emma can’t wait to meet you all and start dancing!

FILMMAKING WORKSHOP

Instructor: Arnon Z. Shorr
Bring your creativity, bring your ideas and bring your excitement to this truly hands on approach to film making during Kishroniyah. From running the camera, to writing, producing, collaborating and editing, we will be creating a professional short film and telling awesome stories! Whether you’ve grown up with a passion for movies and film making or never picked up a camera in your life, this is your chance to walk through the door of this exciting new world and be part of something incredible.  Participants will get to create a short film completely from scratch; coming up with the idea, writing the script, creating a shot list, filming all the footage, and helping to assemble the complete edit!

Arnon Z. Shorr is a filmmaker, screenwriter and author known for crafting character-driven adventures that explore the extraordinary. He gained widespread attention with José and the Pirate Captain Toledano, a swashbuckling graphic novel about Jewish pirates in the 16th-century Caribbean, which expanded on his award-winning short film. Shorr’s creative work frequently delves into Jewish identity, blending action-packed narratives with deep reflections on heritage. His talents have earned him a 2024 Fellowship with the JWI Screenwriters Lab and a 2024-25 Fellowship with the PJ Library Sephardic Stories Initiative.

 JEWELRY WORKSHOP

Instructor: Sandra Ostroff
In this program, participants will have an opportunity to create their own jewelry with Sandra! The focus of this program will be on beading. This year we will feature the Ndebele and Peyote stitches. We will make bracelets and rings. The possibility of color combinations is endless and undoubtedly will produce many wonderful pieces!

Sandra Ostroff has always enjoyed crafts, starting with pot-holders on a frame when she was very young! She began knitting in high school and needlepointing when her children were young. Many years later she still enjoys knitting and needlepointing. Several years ago she discovered beading. Sandra was born and raised in the Seattle WA area. After graduating from the University of Washington, she taught elementary school. Since retiring, she has enjoyed pursuing her passions: beading, golf, yoga, and hiking. She is very excited to share her love of beading with our Kishroniyah participants!

LIFEGUARD CERTIFICATION (offered to NIVONIM only)

We are excited to offer to Nivonimers who are 16 years old the opportunity to participate in this lifeguard certification course as part of our Kishroniyah offerings!  This course will provides entry-level participants the knowledge and skills to prevent, recognize and respond to aquatic emergencies and to provide care for breathing and cardiac emergencies, injuries and sudden illnesses until EMS personnel take over. Prerequisites: Minimum age: 15 years. Swim 300 yards continuously. Tread water for 2 minutes using only the legs. Complete a timed event within 1 minute, 40 seconds. Starting in the water, swim 20 yards. Surface dive to a depth of 7 to 10 feet to retrieve a 10-pound object. Return to the surface and swim 20 yards on the back to return to the starting point. Exit the water without using a ladder or steps.

MAKE YOUR OWN MUSICAL WORKSHOP

Instructor: Landon Braverman

Make Your Own Musical is a theatrical program that gives kids the opportunity to be the creators and stars of their own new original musical! Throughout, participants will learn how to write their own lyrics, melodies, and scenes. This interactive experience culminates with a performance for fellow campers. Led by award-winning composer and Jewish songleader Landon Braverman, Make Your Own Musical is a unique and fun way for kids to explore their own Jewish narratives.

Landon Braverman is a highly experienced composer and educator in the Jewish world. He is the Tefillah Specialist and Family Service Leader at Kane Street Synagogue, and the Music Teacher at Hannah Senesh Community Day School. He was the Songleader for multiple summers at Sprout Brooklyn. He has worked in the music department of various Broadway shows. In his spare time, he is a Birthright Fellow and has staffed 4 trips to Israel. He loves sharing in the creation process with young people and helping them own their Jewish identity through music making.

MOSAICS WORKSHOP

Instructor: Cecilia Kremer

Help enrich our camp grounds by participating in the creation of a beautiful, long-lasting mosaic art project to be permanently displayed at Camp Ramah and be enjoyed for years to come! Come be part of this meaningful team-building activity and be amazed at what you and your Ramahnik friends are able to create. No mosaic experience necessary.  Talented artist Cecilia Kremer will work with our participants to create another breathtaking beautiful piece of installation artwork, that will be displayed in a public space at camp.

Cecilia Kremer is am Israeli American artist specializing in Jewish mosaics.  She teaches mosaic art year-round at her studio in Newton, MA, and she facilitates community projects throughout the country.  Her work can be found in private collections and numerous Jewish institutions, in the US and abroad.  Learn more about Cecilia, and see examples of her work, here.

OUTDOOR MURAL WORKSHOP

Instructor: Tova Speter
Do you love to paint? Would you like to help leave your mark on camp? The Ramahniks who sign up for this workshop will have an opportunity to design and create a colorful outdoor mural that will help beautify camp for years to come! Participants will experience the entire mural process from design conceptualization to priming to painting. This specialized arts workshop will engage you in creating collaborative community art as you explore and develop your artistic talents, skills, and interests. Note: no prior art experience is necessary to participate in this session, just come ready to create, have fun, and get messy!

Tova Speter is an artist, art therapist, art educator, and arts consultant based in Newton, MA. She specializes in working with adolescents, and has more than fifteen years of experience leading community mural projects in the greater Boston area and internationally in Argentina, China, Panama, and Israel. Find out more about Tova’s work (and see pics from past Ramah collaborations) at: www.tovaspeter.com. Tova also has a private practice offering art therapy and mental health counseling services; works as a consultant with congregations interested in exploring innovative ways to infuse more arts-based experiences into their programming; and is the founder and director of The MEM Project, a Boston-based venture that engages individuals through the artistic process as a means to explore Jewish identity and encourage connection with under-served communities through collaborative mural projects. Find out more about The MEM Project at www.thememproject.org.

PODCASTING WORKSHOP (offered to MACHON & NIVONIM only)

Instructor: Micah Hart

Podcasting has exploded as a form of entertainment over the past decade. One of the reasons it is so popular as an art form is because it is so versatile – there are so many different ways to do it. It’s one of the best ways to communicate with people on the planet, because you literally get to be inside people’s heads. In this Kishroniyah, you’ll get to learn what goes into making a podcast and actually produce your own!  Participants will learn all about how to create a podcast, from start to finish; they will learn how to set up and use the recording equipment, how to conduct interviews, how to record and edit audio files, and so much more!

Micah Hart is a lifelong fan of summer camp and the host of the “Who Knows One?” Jewish Geography game show, as well as the “Campfires and Color Wars” podcast –  a storytelling podcast about summer camp memories, created for those who left summer camp but it never left us. He loves talking about camp and is happy that he is able to incorporate that love into what he does for a living.

ROBOTICS WORKSHOP

Instructor: Phil Glick
Robots are in the news everyday. Companies and universities around the world are inventing and designing so many different robots to do so many things, including working in factories, searching for earthquake victims in collapsed buildings, performing surgery, cooking dinner and cleaning your carpets and gutters.  NEW FOR 2025: participants will use Sphero Bolt+ and RVR+ robots to explore how software can connect to sensors and motors to make things move.  In Robotics Kishroniyah, the chanichim/ot (campers) learn how to program and control the robots, to see what they can make them do as they challenge each other in obstacle courses and other competitions.

Phil Glick is an engineer at Stanley Black & Decker. Educated as a mechanical engineer and a manufacturing engineer, Phil has spent most of his 35-year career writing software for industrial robot systems to be used in factories around the world. His work can be found in automotive, electronics, medical and pharmaceutical, aerospace and food businesses. Phil’s projects are in locations throughout the US, and also in Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia. Among his cool projects are robots to paint the Stealth Bomber, robots to build cell phones and Bose music systems, robots to make cosmetics and package the cookies for ice cream sandwiches and robots to build parts for Ford and Chrysler cars. If you have ever had an injury that required stitches, there is a good chance that Phil programmed the robots and cameras to make the needle. As a parent of a Ramah graduate, he is excited to be part of the camp experience.

STEAMPUNKINETICS WORKSHOP (offered to MAGSHIMIM & BOGRIM only)

Instructor: Bruce Rosenbaum
Steampunk art and design is the fusion of history + art + technology, repurposing and infusing modern technology into period antiques and salvage objects – creating inspiring, authentic, relevant, functional, fantastical and personal one-of-kind objects and spaces. This year, artist Bruce Rosenbaum will lead the participants in creating a brand new type of project: a solar-powered vertical garden designed to fight climate change! This Steampunkinetics workshop will teach creative problem solving, collaboration, adaptive reuse and resilience through teamwork and hands-on making.

Bruce Rosenbaum has been dubbed the Steampunk Guru by the Wall Street Journal and Steampunk Evangelist by Wired Magazine. Bruce’s functional Steampunk artwork and design has been featured in the Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, Architectural Digest, CNN, NPR and featured on MTV, A&E, HGTV and Netflix. Bruce and his wife Melanie recently purchased an 1876 Victorian Church in Palmer MA to convert it into their home, gallery and workshop space. The Rosenbaum’s church conversion project – Steampunk Wonderland (episode 8) – is featured in the Netflix Original docuseries – Amazing Interiors. Currently, Bruce’s ‘Discover Steampunk’ Museum Exhibition is on a worldwide 5 year tour premiering at the Museum of Idaho.  Bruce’s company, ModVic, works with clients all across the world to take period, repurposed, personal and meaningful objects, and creatively infuse them with modern technology to transform the ordinary into incredible Steampunk functional art. The Steampunk art and design process celebrates history, while setting a path for a reimagined better future — telling the personal stories of individuals, organizations and places along the way. Learn more at www.modvic.com.

ULTIMATE FRISBEE CLINIC

Instructors: Rick & Alex Atkins
Hone your skills with our Ultimate Frisbee clinic! Ultimate Frisbee was started at Columbia High School in New Jersey in 1968 and is now played in countless schools, colleges and clubs around the country and the world. Even at the highest levels of the game, Ultimate is played without referees, instead relying on the honor of each player to abide by the rules (a concept known as The Spirit of the Game). Because of the free-flowing nature of the sport, Ultimate encourages all players to be involved in the action. Each player has the opportunity to be a thrower, receiver and defender in every game. During the sessions at Camp Ramah, players will be instructed in the rules, skills and strategies of the game. Each day will include scrimmages where the campers get a chance to practice what they have learned. For more information about the sport of Ultimate, go to the website of USAUltimate at www.usaultimate.org.

Rick Atkins has been playing Ultimate Frisbee since 1979 when he joined the team at the University of Pennsylvania. During his many years in the game, he has participated in numerous World and National championships, winning several titles over the years. His team placed second in the Masters division at the 2006 World Championships in Perth, Australia. He has been a captain in the Philadelphia co-ed summer league since its start in 1985 and has organized many leagues and tournaments in the Philadelphia area. Since its inception in 2005, Rick has been a lead instructor at the Philadelphia Ultimate Camp of Philadelphia, and he runs several youth Ultimate Frisbee camps in the Philadelphia area. In the spring of 2011, Rick started the first middle school Frisbee team in Philadelphia. Rick lives in Wayne, PA with his wife and two children.

The Ultimate Frisbee Clinic has been generously subsidized by the Guitelman family in memory of Josh, z”l.