Educational Excellence
Camp Ramah in Wisconsin: 60 Years of Educational Excellence written by Dr. Simcha Leibovich with Carl Schrag is a study of the principles and characteristics that guide the educational approach that has evolved and developed at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin. The following is an excerpt from this study. To read the entire study in either English or Hebrew, please click on the link below.
The impact of the Ramah experience lasts long after campers leave their teens years. Indeed, Camp Ramah makes a lifelong mark on those who are a part of it. The spirit of Ramah manifests itself in countless ways in the Jewish identity and community involvement of tens of thousands of Ramahniks.
Ramah graduates have played, and continue to play, key roles in some of the most innovative and welcome developments in the Conservative Movement over the past several decades. Among them: havurot, self-directed egalitarian minyanim and congregations, the impressive growth of Solomon Schecter schools, the increased involvement in Israel study and travel programs, and more.
Perhaps the most outstanding measure of Ramah's success can be found in the significant number of former campers who have devoted their careers to advancing the welfare of the Jewish people as rabbis, teachers, professors and Jewish community professionals, as well as those who have assumed significant voluntary leadership postions in the American Jewish community. The former Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Dr. Ismar Schorsch, noted this phenomenon in his remarks 20 years ago, at a celebration of Ramah's 40th anniversary. "I am firmly convinced that in terms of social import, in terms of lives affected, Ramah is the most important venture ever undertaken by the Seminary," he said.
