Dreaming Again!

Find Netivot Shalom on: From Rabbi Creditor Dreaming Again! 18 Menachem Av, 5771 August 17, 2011 Dear Chevreh,    Where to begin?  When last I wrote to the CNS community, it was Erev Tisha Be'Av.  That sad, holy day is a punctuation in the Jewish calendar that stands out with such painful clarity its passing leaves us gasping for breath.  Fear and pain can make it hard to breathe, almost impossible to even imagine a future.   Immediately upon Tisha Be'Av's departure I left for a week as Rabbi-in-Residence at Camp Ramah in Ojai.  And, after bumping into the many CNS kids spending their summer as Ramah campers, I experienced the antidote to Tisha Be'Av: a JewishSong/Dance Festival!  I witnessed frenetic energy being happily expended by the young and less-young Jews around me, and I wept.  I sobbed looking at the silly happy Jewish people around me.  Somehow, despite my own few years, I felt my soul bridge an expanse of centuries and millenia, overwhelmed with relief and gratitude that we are still here, that our People can sing and dance and rap and riverdance and allow our grief to be overwhelmed with joy every now and again.  I somehow saw that night's celebration as a Jewish survivor who never thought Jewish joy could be real.  One day after ritual memory of Jerusalem's destructions washed over us all for Tisha Be'av, that night Jews broke free of fear to dance.  Words cannot express my heart's gratitude to have felt this  way. One experience  after another at Ramah of line-dances and laughter, friendship and and Torah learning woke up my soul.   Chevreh - it is good to be awake in such a profound way!  I am so excited for the coming month at CNS leading us all into the Yamim Nora'im, our High Holy Days.  A sample of the coming programs and experiences at Netivot Shalom should suffice to make my enthusiasm contagious: Aug 21, 11:00 am:  Rabbi Citron of the Carlebach Shul in Manhattan will discuss "The Influence of Lurianic Mysticism on Judaism Today" Aug 23, 6:30 pm: A Presentation on the Israel Ride and Arava Institute, the premier environmental studies program in the Middle East, preparing future Arab and Jewish leaders to cooperatively solve the region's environmental challenges. Aug 30: the 2nd Annual CNS Yeshivat Lev Shalem adult learning program in preparation for the High Holidays begins. (click here for recordings from last year's Yeshivat Lev Shalem!) Sept 4: CNS cooks and serves at the Berkeley Men's Shelter.  (Click on this link to join in! http://tinyurl.com/CNSshelterdinnersignup.)  I am also deeply moved to announce that Netivot Shalom is marking the 10th anniversary of September 11th with a special September 10th Shabbat morning Drasha by Ruth Messinger, Executive Director of American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and a special program on September 11th itself, cosponsored with our friends in our local Turkish Muslim community. Stay tuned for more information about these important moments.    Chevreh - this is far from a complete list.  Visit our shul's online calendar and our new CNS blog for even more!   Given the urgency of our shul's financial picture, this year will see us reaching deep to sustain the vision of Netivot Shalom.  We have very serious work to do.  I offer the following teaching in that light:   In the aftermath of Tisha Be'Av, we can dwell in the depths.   Or we can raise our sights to the heavens and do some serious dreaming.    The deepest Jewish message I know is that when hope is available and waiting for the activating, take your whole self - including all your fear and pain and memory.  Harness all of this to change the world, starting with yourself.   You have untold power within.      Jump in.  Find a way to build yourself with our precious Netivot Shalom community.  Yes, fear  is real and fragility is a universal condition.  Tisha Be'Av's lessons do linger.  But that will never immobilize us from making beautiful miracles happen for our community and for the world.  Let's Dream!   Kol Tuv, Rabbi Creditor

More Magic Moments from Across the International Ramah Camping Movement

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National Ramah Commission, Inc. of The Jewish Theological Seminary www.campramah.org August 2011  Av 5771   Magic Moments from Across the Ramah Camping Movement   Camp Ramah in the Berkshires Ramah Day Camp in Nyack Camp Ramah in California Ramah Outdoor Adventure Camp Ramah in Canada Ramah Day Camp in Philadelphia Chicagoland Ramah Day Camp Camp Ramah in the Poconos Camp Ramah Darom Ramah Jerusalem Day Camp Camp Ramah in New England Ramah Israel Seminar Camp Ramah in Wisconsin Ramah Outdoor Adventure: High Impact Along with High Altitude    Click on photo to view slideshow This week, Ramah Outdoor Adventure (ROA) in the Rockies concluded an incredibly successful second season. One parent raved, "My daughter just returned from camp. I have never seen her happier, more confident, or more spiritual. She has not stopped talking about her experiences and the only adjectives she uses to describe her time at camp are "amazing, unbelievable, and incredible."        ROA wowed not only campers and their parents, but visitors as well. Upon her return from a Shabbat spent at camp, Francine Lavin Weaver, the president of 18 Pomegranates, a private Boulder foundation that supports ROA, wrote in an article, "A Journey into 'Awesome Jewness'": "Now Jewish kids can go to camp and enjoy mountain biking, horsemanship, rock climbing, farming, mining, rafting, hiking, and the like. Along with it, they lead services, integrate the Torah portion of the week with their own lives, and sing and dance up a storm. I wish that Ramah in the Rockies had been available when my own kids were growing up."  Chicagoland Ramah Day Camp's annual Yom Yisrael celebration includes a tradition where the oldest campers spend time "training" and learning official army commands with one of the camp's shlichim, a former IDF soldier. These chanichim, led by their "mefaked" (commander) marched into the chadar ochel carrying an Israeli flag and demonstrated their moves to the rest of the camp, calling out "Smole, yameen, smole" ("left, right, left") as they kept in step. Kol hakavod to camp's awesome shlichim, some of whom are pictured above.  As Ramah Israel Seminar participants returned home, we have received wonderful feedback from their families about their children's amazing summer experiences. Hugh Pollack captured the feelings expressed by many of these parents when he wrote that his daughter's "growth and excitement about her experiences was obvious on all levels - educationally, spiritually and socially" and that it was "most gratifying for us to see the bond created between her and Israel - a bond that is set for life and will surely grow through further connections, a bond that has been fostered and cultivated by your dedicated staff and your inspired programming."   New for 2011 at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires was the SABABA! program for Bogrim campers (entering ninth grade). For five days, Bogrim campers went to one of six different specialty programs of their choosing: hiking in the Adirondacks, bicycling in Vermont (see photo), mitzvah projects in Rhode Island, theater arts and visual arts through the BIMA program at Brandeis University, and kosher culinary arts in Manhattan (featured in "Specialty Camp Offers a Taste of New Cuisine"). Read more about SABABA!   "Yom Foam" is one of the most popular and anticipated events of a summer at Camp Ramah in New England. Cheering crowds of campers put on their bathing suits to "swim" through the foam. Engulfed in a large sea of foamy bubbles, everyone had a marvelous time! Click here or on the image above for more Yom Foam photos.  At Ramah Day Camp in Philadelphia, it was "Lights, Camera, Action!" as chanichim took the stage for an all-camp production of Ramah Fills Me With Glee. Campers from ages 4 to 12 had a special opportunity to shine on stage. As part of the drama program at Machaneh Ramah Yomi Philadelphia, campers also participated in improvisation and theater games.    Yom Yisrael at Camp Ramah in Canada is always one of the most memorable days of the summer. Planned and organized by the mishlachat, this year's Yom Yisrael featured educational activities focused on how the Jewish holidays are celebrated in Israel. Click here or on the image above for highlights of this very special day. Donate to Ramah Click here to make a donation to the National Ramah Commission, or to any of the Ramah camps and Israel programs.   www.campramah.org  At Ramah Darom, for the first time ever, havdallah and dancing were web-streamed live from camp at the conclusion of the final Shabbat of Kayitz 2011. Havdallah, as always, was beautiful, with campers and staff singing and swaying arm-in-arm, bidding farewell to the magical experience of Shabbat at camp. With lively dancing and great joy, the community transitioned into an joyous celebration to welcome the new week. There were more than 1,000 hits from camper parents and the Darom extended community! Click here or on the image below to view a short recording of the video.  At Ramah Day Camp in Nyack, campers were excited to see one of the newest additions to camp, the "oto glidah" (ice cream car). Dressed up in costumes, the Israeli staff members drove around camp "selling" ice cream for 5, 6, or 7 shekels. Children ordered their ice cream in Hebrew and heard songs from Israeli ice cream commercials. The oto glidah was a great new way to infuse Hebrew into a favorite camp activitiy, building on the programming of the Daber Hebrew Language Initiative, funded by the AVI CHAI Foundation. Click here or on the photo below to view a short video clip of the oto glidah in action!  This summer at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, the Sollelim (entering 7th graders) presented HaKosem Me'Eretz Utz (The Wizard of Oz). They were energetic, enthusiastic, and smiling throughout. At the end of this beautiful night, they sang their aidah song, and then joined with the rest of camp in the traditional singing of the camp song, Hymnon Ramah. Read more about the Sollelim musical, and click here or on the image below to hear "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" in Hebrew!  Maccabiah at Camp Ramah in California began with a grand opening ceremony filled with music, dancing, and ruach (spirit). During Maccabiah, campers participated in athletic events, such as basketball, swim, and track and field. In addition, team members joined together for "wacky events" and hofa'ot, themed performances that allowed campers to show off their dramatic skills. It was a day and a half of competition, teamwork, creativity and fun for all.    Campers in Shevet Negev (entering grades 5 and 6) at the Ramah Jerusalem Day Camp are pictured below enjoying a game of "Breakout" on the deshe, the grassy area on which many of the camp's wonderful activities are held. This game is a particular favorite, as each participant plays both offense and defense, trying not only to score but also to prevent scoring by others.  For Maccabiah at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, each of the four teams represented one of the four "houses" from the Harry Potter series. In the books, each house is known for certain characteristics, and for Maccabiah, these traits were linked to Jewish values. Griffindor's trait was ometz, courage; Slytherin's theme was n'chishut, determination; Hufflepuff's trait was charitzut, perseverance; and Ravenclaw's theme was chochma, wisdom.