Dear CAI Family,

Greetings from Camp Ramah in the Poconos where I am spending a month on sports staff.

I’ve been enjoying the change of pace from my regular daily responsibilities — trading suits and ties for shorts and t-shirts — and imbibing the atmosphere of camp. It’s been a long while since I spent time in an environment like this, and I’m grateful for the simple blessing of time to breathe, pray, and play in a natural setting. I’ve also learned a great deal from the innovative educational approach here at camp and the joy of living in an intentional bubble of a Jewish community.

My children are here at camp for the summer. I can already see the many benefits of camp for them — friendship, a screen-free environment, role models who are more like their peers than adults. It’s also wonderful to connect with a number of other children and staff members from the CAI, GMW, and GOA communities. For them, I hope it’s fun to see a different side of their rabbi as we connect on the softball field or in passing at meals rather than in synagogue.

This week, there was a group of rabbis from the Philadelphia area visiting camp and they asked me why I came to camp to teach ultimate frisbee and softball. My first response is that I love it and I always try to teach what I love. But then I added that there are fundamental principles in ultimate frisbee like

“the spirit of the game” and “the basic joy of play” that I think are important for (young) people to learn. There are no refs in ultimate. Players call their own fouls and there are ways to resolve disputes on the field so that you can keep playing even without an authority figure to adjudicate them. I’ve been trying to emphasize these principles and I believe they have applications far beyond the frisbee field.

Here’s a picture of me with the sports staff. Most of the staff are members of the mishlahat — young Israelis brought to American Jewish summer camps as part of a program linking our Jewish communities. Many of the 44 Israelis at camp were recently released from military service and all of them have been extremely affected by October 7 and the war. Inevitably as news continues to come out of Israel it affects these Israeli staff members in a personal way. Their presence in camp is so valuable and I believe they also gain a great deal from the experience of living in an American Jewish summer camp environment. There are also two members of the sports staff, Yonatan and Esau, who are Jews from Uganda. They’ve been coming to Ramah for 5 summers and are beloved teachers and role models. And then there’s me — a 41-year-old rabbi from suburban New Jersey. Somehow, we’ve all been working together to create a fun environment for the kids here to learn sports. We try to use as much Hebrew as possible (that’s a big part of the Camp Ramah mission) and we emphasize sportsmanship and menschlichkeit over competition.

The other day we had a campwide program called “Yom Pesah.” It is what it sounds like (don’t overthink it). We began with tefillot (services) in which we also marked 9 months since October 7. We took time in our prayers to sing and pray for the hostages and Israel in an age-appropriate and camp-appropriate way. We acknowledged that while we were about to enjoy a day filled with play and fun learning about our holiday of freedom, there were still many Jews who are not free. It was a poignant experience.

As part of this special day of programming, the sports staff created a “floor is lava” activity in which campers had to get from one side of the Red Sea (the basketball courts) to the other using different items, but without touching the ground. It was fun and challenging. The oldest campers were paired with the youngest campers, and there was another group paired up with Yedidim, the camp’s special needs program. I could say a lot more about how wonderfully the Yedidim program is adding to the camp experience. But for now, I’ll point out that as these kids helped each other across the sea, I felt experientially, what it may have been like at the actual Exodus — trying to get Jews of lots of different ages and abilities to the other side.

I’m so impressed with the young staff members here — most of them in their late teens and early twenties. They are caring, creative, devoted, and positive. They are empowered to take on a lot of responsibility in this environment and do wonderful things with that opportunity. I wonder how we might think about that in our home communities and Jewish life. Sometimes, we need to let this youthful energy take us to new and exciting places. I, for one, am grateful to witness what they have built here in a short period of time. 

I intend to share more updates, but for now, I wish you all well from Lakewood, Pennsylvania.

B’shalom,

Rabbi Ari Lucas

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