Welcome Letter

Shalom Ramah Families, 

Whether you are new to camp or a veteran Ramahnik, thank you for registering for camp and joining our Ramah community. For those who do not know me, my name is Rabbi Ed Gelb, and on behalf of the entire Ramah family, I’d like to welcome you to camp. At Ramah, we want to work in partnership with you to help your children reach their potential and discover their passions. As we look towards next summer, I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you some of our key goals and to open the lines of communication. 

Camp Ramah is committed to camper care. What does this mean? The most important thing to us is that every child feels safe and comfortable at camp and is helped and guided in establishing and maintaining friendships. To do this, we keep careful watch on each child’s experience in real time. We know that if children are happy and making friends, they can take advantage of our program to learn skills in activities like sports, arts, and outdoor recreation, and to learn about and love being Jewish. 

Our camper care team is headed by our Director of Camper & Staff Care, Talya Kalender. If your child is brand new to camp, Talya will reach out (if she hasn’t already) to have a conversation about your child so we can prepare for their success. Talya and I want you to know that you can always contact either one of us directly if you have any concern or worries about your child’s experience. This is our primary job and our passion. Please do not hesitate – just pick up the phone or email us that you want to talk, and we will happily be in touch. 

During the summer, our entire leadership team is actively involved in camper life. This includes myself, Talya, our Co-Directors Michelle Sugarman and Josh Edelglass, and several other key senior summer staff-members.  Members of our leadership team meet every week with the staff of each edah (division), and we review every camper’s experience. Additionally, we personally run the staff training for our madrichim (counselors). We spend a great part of our day talking to the yoatzot (parent liaisons), rashei edot (division heads) and madrichim about how the campers are doing and working with them to make sure that things are going well. 

Camp Ramah is known to be an innovative Jewish experiential educational program. We want all our campers, no matter their background, to feel comfortable in living Judaism and learning skills they can use throughout life. We know that there are many entry points into Judaism that will speak differently to each child and will sometimes change throughout a camper’s lifetime. We try to provide opportunities in prayer, learning, the arts, community celebration, song and dance along with many other vehicles to spark interest, growth, and leadership opportunities. As your child hits the teen years, you will take comfort in knowing that your teen will have a peer group that loves doing Jewish things at camp, and will have role models in college aged counselors to look up to. 

Finally, over the course of the next few months, we’ll communicate with you regularly about important forms and other necessary pre-camp preparations. We utilize these forms to prepare for each and every child. If you need any help, please know that our staff is here to help you every step of the way. 

Again, thank you for being a part of the Ramah family and be in touch with any questions or concerns. 

 

Kol tuv,

 

Rabbi Ed Gelb, (he/him)

CEO, Ramah New England 

 

Talya Kalender (she/her)

Director of Camper & Staff Care, Camp Ramah New England 

 

Michelle Sugarman (she/her)

Co-Director, Camp Ramah New England

 

Joshua Edelglass (he/him)

Co-Director, Camp Ramah New England