Blog
post
Spice Up Your Seder
March 25, 2021
Say goodbye to your chametz, and hello to a Matzalicious Pesach! The Camp Ramah Darom Alumni Association wants to Spice Up Your Seder! Enjoy this Passover Guide, created and compiled by alumni and families from 25 years of Ramah Darom. You’ll find shopping tips and recipes, memories, teachings and suggestions to beautify your festive table […]
post
Shabbat Hagadol Dvar Torah
March 25, 2021
We are coming upon Shabbat Hagadol, which is always the Shabbat right before Pesach. Hagadol can either be translated as “the big” or as “the great.” As in, gadol vs. katan, just like we’d teach our chanichim (campers) – large and small. Or as in, referencing “the gedolim,” the great rabbinic scholars of Judaism. We […]
post
Dvar Torah Vayikra
March 19, 2021
With stomachs full of buttered and jammed biscuits, Sollelim me and her friends walked back to lower roads, hiking up to tzrif (bunk) 20 to begrudgingly participate in nikayon (cabin clean up) after breakfast. Her bunkmates shuffled in, carefully examining the nikayon chart to see which jobs were delegated to which person on that day. […]
post
Parshat Vayakhel Dvar Torah
March 11, 2021
Let’s take a walk around Ramah Darom together. We start at the Margam (Lakefront Pavilion), pass by the medura (firepit), loop through the Beit Knesset (Sanctuary) and head upstairs to the Chadar Ochel (Dining Hall) before exiting and making our way to the Beit Am (Covered Basketball Court) and up the hill to the MarHar […]
post
Purim Dvar Torah
February 25, 2021
On June 13, 2017, fifteen-year-old me arrived at Camp about to begin my Gesher summer, the summer I had been waiting for my whole life. I stepped off the bus to be greeted by friends and counselors. Not even a minute after stepping foot on Camp grounds, I began to cry. Geoff Menkowitz approached me […]
post
Meet Anna
January 28, 2021
I cannot wait for Kayitz (Summer) 2021 to begin! I feel fortunate to be able to work behind the scenes ensuring that this kayitz is an absolute blast for our chanichim (campers), and I am honored to be part of the team making the magic of Ramah Darom happen! What I love more than anything […]
post
Parshat Bo Dvar Torah
January 21, 2021
בֹּ֖א אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֑ה כִּֽי־אֲנִ֞י הִכְבַּ֤דְתִּי אֶת־לִבּוֹ֙ G-d tells Moshe to go to Pharaoh because G-d has hardened Pharoah’s heart, and he wants Moshe to give Pharaoh a warning that there will be more signs of trouble ahead. Over and over again, the Torah tells us that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and with no word superfluous in the Torah, it begs […]
post
Welcome to Our 25th Year!
January 4, 2021
Welcome to 2021 and the beginning of a year-long celebration marking Ramah Darom‘s 25th. Twenty-five?? I know, I know…we don’t look a day over eighteen. The Ramah Darom story is one of vision, determination, commitment and a lot of heart. So many people have played a key role in getting us to this milestone year, […]
post
The REAL Story of the Dreidel
December 16, 2020
Depending on whether your dreidel was made in Israel or outside of Israel, it will carry one of two series of letters: Nun Gimel Hay Shin OR Nun Gimel Hay Pay, standing for: Nes Gadol Hayah Sham (A Great Miracle Happened There) OR Nes Gadol Hayah Po (A Great Miracle Happened Here). And so the […]
post
Practicing Gratitude
November 24, 2020
We have a Thanksgiving tradition in our house that started when my now “tweenage” daughters were very young. We have a big (stuffed animal) Gratitude Turkey. His feathers are pieces of card stock paper, and starting in early November we write things you are grateful for on them. By Thanksgiving Day, Doc McStuffings (yes, that’s […]