Presenting Sollelim and Rosh Aidah, Rebecca Landis!

Rebecca Landis is this year's Rosh Sollelim. Rebecca is from Highland Park, Illinois and was a camper at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin from 1996-2001, attended the Ramah Israel Seminar in 2002, and was a counselor from 2003-2005. She recently graduated from Brandeis University and plans to move to New York in the fall. Rebecca is excited this year to return in a new position with new ideas and excitement.

Rebecca: The summer is off to a great start! The campers have been eager to try new things and have bonded through their activities thus far. I have great memories as a camper all the way from Halutzim to my three years as a counselor (two on Tzevet Sollelim!) and I want to apply these experiences to create a great summer for my campers. As a camper, I loved drama and the aidah play. I think it is so cool to work together to accomplish something great and present it to the camp. Sollelim's play this summer is Annie and the campers are already working hard as an aidah to bring this musical to life.

I am excited to be a Sollelim Rosh Aidah because I think that the campers are at a very cool age. The campers come from different backgrounds and are at different stages - mentally, physically, spiritually - and it is unique that they get to share these differences, and similarities, with each other. The campers are in a transitional phase, where sometimes they are silly and funny and other times they enjoy serious and deep conversations. This atmosphere creates for interesting and enriching peulot (activities) that the campers, and staff, can benefit from.

Sollelim's theme this summer is friendship and aidah unity, and this theme has been and will be carried out across several programs this summer. Along with my staff, I am working to bridge the two sessions of Halutzim from last summer to create a single and strong aidah community. Soon we will do a tefilah and text art project to decorate our Makom Tefilah (place of prayer) to focus on friendship within the Tanakh. We are also going to be doing Peulat Banim and Banot (boys and girls programming).