ק֣וֹל בְּרָמָ֤ה נִשְׁמָע֙ נְהִי֙ בְּכִ֣י תַמְרוּרִ֔ים רָחֵ֖ל מְבַכָּ֣ה עַל־בָּנֶ֑יהָ מֵאֲנָ֛ה לְהִנָּחֵ֥ם עַל־בָּנֶ֖יהָ כִּ֥י אֵינֶֽנּוּ׃

“A cry is heard in Ramah — wailing, bitter weeping — Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children who are gone…” (Jeremiah 31:15)

Since its inception nearly seventy years ago, Camp Ramah in California has forged deep connections between our chanichim (campers) and tzevet (staff) with our brothers and sisters in Israel.

In difficult times such as these, we find comfort in our kehillah kedosha (sacred community) and in our aspiration to build a world of kindness - olam chesed yibaneh.

With these values in mind, we would like to offer two small ways for Ramahniks to support our kehillah in Israel:

Postcards to our Israeli Staff: Every kayitz (Summer), our chanichim have the privilege of having members of our mishlachat, our Israeli staff, as their madrichim (counselors), sports instructors, teachers, and chug leaders. This allows our chanichim to build and deepen their connection to Israel and Israeli culture. 

While many of our staff in Israel may be back on army bases or just living in the aftermath of these current events, we want to encourage our community to send them words of prayer and love. 

These can be letters, pictures, or you can use this template to send them messages.

A list of our 2023 mishlachat can be found here. If you have connections with mishlachat from other years, please send us those letters as well and we will do everything we can to distribute them accordingly.

Please email these to michal@ramah.org with the subject line “Letters for mishlachat.” (If you have a physical letter, please contact Michal for a drop off either at our Encino office or at a city location.)

Add to our Kudoboard: If you’d like to share a brief message with our past mishlachot and the rest of our kehillah (community) in Israel, you can post it on our kudoboard: click here.

Videos of Encouragement: Over the next couple of weeks we will be sharing videos of encouragement for our mishlachat and families/chanichim living, serving, and studying in Israel. If you’d like to take part in this social media campaign, please send a 20-30 second video to talia@ramah.org

We have created a space on our website with additional resources. In addition, the Ramah movement had decided to centralize its resources and information regarding Israel support at this time through the NRC website. Click here for NRC’s central hub.

May God comfort those who mourn and keep safe all our loved ones and all people of peace, v’nomar: amen.

B’Shalom,

Rabbi Joe Menashe, Executive Director

Ariella Moss Peterseil, Camp Director

Lee S. Rosen, MD, Board Chair