Ethan Schwartz Blog - What is Camp Ramah?: Part 4

Spend time at Ramah-really listen to the people there-and you will find that the only thing strange about it is that it is strangely normal. It is the summer home of a population of campers who are coming to know themselves but are not individually exempt from the rules that govern other American adolescents. There are conversations about sports and movies; there are moments of immaturity and less-than-tasteful jokes; there are problems that have to be resolved. It is a profoundly human place, much of whose meaning is contained in hysterical laughter on the Kikar grass and midnight whispers between bunk beds-in moments that seem to be outside of the context that people imagine as opposing the normalcy. Which context is that? The Jewish one.

Yet if Ramah is both a life-changing camp and a Jewish camp, does it stand to reason that being Jewish has something to do with its effect? Yes-because Ramah is a wholly Jewish camp, not a camp with a segregated Jewish context within it. Its impact on the individuals who return from it every summer is made possible by the fact that it does not hold being Jewish as accessory to itself as a camp. Ramahniks will never be content to call their camp normal, even though this is often how they rush to its defense. Normalcy may entail healthiness, but it presupposes commonness. Camp Ramah's devotion to individual growth makes it normal; its incorporation of Judaism as an inextricable part of this devotion makes it extraordinarily special.

Ramah consciously applies its commitment to growth to the religion that defines it, taking an experiential approach to education in ritualistic Judaism. Campers participate in services that are designed to be both comfortable and slightly unfamiliar: each aidah's prayer regimen is specifically tailored to be appropriate and engaging for their age. The only generalization that can be made about campers' ritual activity is that they all begin each morning by davening together with their entire aidah. Every summer, campers will find that the service has developed along with them so that they may continually learn practice through practice. By binding learning and doing into a single action, Ramah encourages campers to assume a perpetual state of challenging and stretching themselves in the context of prayer.
Wander into a service for the youngest aidah, Garinim, and you will discover a truncated prayer list that helps focus these younger campers on the service's core-on the words that will be recited by any Jewish congregation, anywhere in the world. Further, almost all of this abridged service is recited aloud so that campers can learn the prayers by singing along with their friends. Although even campers of this age are beginning to take leadership roles in the service-it is a goal of Ramah to help each camper undertake (and thereby learn) at least one ritual responsibility-the presence of counselors is still very much felt. Staff members undertake various parts of the service to provide assistance and, more importantly, to exemplify a lifelong commitment to Judaism. There can be no way of quantifying the impact when a young camper sees his counselor-with whom just the day before he was having a catch and laughing-leading a prayer or called to the Torah.

Should you walk just a few feet to where the oldest aidah, Nivonim, is davening that morning, you would be greeted by a strikingly different scene. These campers follow a complete regimen that incorporates all of the prayers that they learned intermittently over their previous summers. Having years before reached the age of Bar/Bat Mitzvah, the tallitot and tefillin that cling to the boys (and many of the girls in this egalitarian community) are representative of the completeness with which the campers have taken upon themselves the responsibilities of the service. At this age, davening is entirely camper-led; counselors sprinkle themselves throughout the seats and participate in a service conducted entirely by the young men and women for whom they are responsible. And, in a testament to the way campers have internalized and brought personal meaning to davening, those in their final summer will be treated almost daily to a public reflection on prayer or Torah by one of their friends. The Nivonimer's fellow campers powerfully demonstrate an appreciation for Jewish ritual life in much the same way that his counselors did when he was in Garinim.