CAMPS CAMPS CAMPS CAMPS CAMPS CAMPS CAIVEIPS CAMPS C.AM1-' ( - .A1VJA 4,1=‘..1V11. A Camp Ramah board member recalls her fond summer memories at the camp. R ah or Rainah by Rusty Rosenthal Rosman amp Ram- ah was a familiar name to me as I grew up I since knew so many kids who went to Ramah in Wisconsin. By the time I decided that I was brave enough to go so far from home, Camp Ramah in Wisconsin had far more applicants than space. The letter that came to say "sorry" also said that the next year, 1960, a new Ramah was opening so there would be plenty of room for everyone who wanted to go. The new Camp Ramah was in Canada and it sounded like it was a million miles from home. To get there, the 23 of us from Detroit and Flint had to meet the sleeper train in Detroit at 7:30 p.m. and take it to Toronto. At 7:30 a.m., buses took us and our luggage (mountains of it, so it seemed!) to a To- ronto synagogue where we had breakfast, and then we boarded buses with tons of kids from Toronto to drive forever to get to camp. When we arrived at Camp Ramah in Canada, we were speechless. It was huge; it was old; and it was so strange to all of us. As with any group of kids who live and play together and at Camp Ramah, daven together, we learned so much from each other. In 1960, most all directions given to the campers in their bunks as well as in the the dining Hadar Ohel room — and during all other activities were exclusively in Hebrew. As all of us from Michigan were after- school Hebrew students, it was a tremendous boost to our knowledge of Hebrew as a living lan- guage.We spent an hour and a half each day in classes — usually under one of the beautiful trees that edged the lake — and hours and hours in the coldest lake in the whole world — Skeleton Lake. — We fished; we water- skiied; we sailed; we canoed and we swam miles. The camp is locat- ed in a cove on the lake and had been built in the early 1920s. It was called Camp Winnebago back then and I know two peo- ple who went there - one lady is in her 70s and the other in her 50s. After comparing notes with them, I learned that the camp was always old and the lake was always on this side of frozen! Camp Ramah was such an awakening for me. I had never been so far from home and I never had heard or spoken so much Hebrew. I was fas- cinated by the davening and the ability of the boys who davened. I wasn't used to davening each day so I was really impressed that they knew how to do all those prayers. My Hebrew reading speed was mighty slow but that summer helped me speed up my reading and helped me be more com- fortable with the siddur and the prayers. One of my fondest memories about Camp Ramah in Canada was about something they didn't have. The camp was brand-new in 1960 as a religious camp and, therefore, lacked many of the religious objects we are so used to seeing in a religious setting. I was Ramah page 72