We’re five days into our first Winter Break Family Camp at Ramah Darom, with one full day still to go, and I can already say with complete certainty: this will not be our last escape to this special place.
Usually, Aaron and I spend school breaks lamenting about how exhausting they can be and counting down the days till classes begin again.
But for the first time, something remarkable has happened. Our girls have had no screens. There have been no schedules to juggle. We breathed fresh air, walked 15K+ steps a day, and shed our collective mental load. There has been no cleaning, no cooking, no planning.
Our days have flowed with incredible rhythm. Activities wonderfully diverse—art, hiking, learning, building, playing—and thoughtfully structured. Mornings spent together as a whole family, and then, like magic, kids whisked away by counselors to do their own thing, leaving the adults space to breathe, connect, and recharge. Like a Disney Cruise, but better programming.
There is also something uncanny and deeply Jewish about the social fabric of camp: one degree of separation from just about every one of the approximately 100 families participating. I ran into fellow Rutgers alumni, camp alumni, former classmates of close friends, old friends, and made new ones. Of course I did.
What’s been especially powerful is that this retreat experience doesn’t stop with the kids.
Adults who never experienced Jewish camp are here alongside lifelong camp alums. All in one place: multiple Jewish backgrounds, one shared week.
Three generations of our family shared this experience. My mom and stepdad fully embraced camp life: making art, playing with their grandchildren, meeting other grandparents, and settling into daily Mah Jong games.
And then there was my husband, who built a lean-to in the woods during a survival skills class—and later took me on a hike to show it to me, proudly tucked away next to a waterfall. He then said those 3 words I longed to hear: “I [really] like camp.”
Jewish summer camp was my first love. Watching my family and friends fall in love with it—watching them claim it as theirs—is something else entirely.
I am pinching myself that this place exists just a 5-hour drive away. We are so fortunate.
Ramah Darom is not “just” a summer camp. These year-round programs are a community to love and experience all their own—something for every age and every stage. And now, for us, someplace we know we’ll return to again and again.
*research from Foundation for Jewish Camp: https://lnkd.in/eAZ_WyW4