Xosh ffasPnah

Greetings

introduces campers to
the staff for the week.

Continue a
n!
73 year traditio

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Published: Sept. 10, 2015

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health and happiness for all our family and friends.
L'Shanah Tovah!

1

Rosh Hashanah
May the New Year
bring to all our friends
and family
health, joy, prosperity and
everything good in life.

2015
5776

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24 August 13 • 2015

Last year at Passover
Camp at Adat Shalom
in Farmington Hills:
Ramah Fellow Darrien
Sherman, 26, of
Bloomfield Hills

Camp All Year

Ramah Fellowship program renewed
through Davidson Foundation grant.

I

Stacy Gittleman

Contributing Writer

T

hanks to a renewed two-year
$530,000 grant, students in
area Conservative congrega-
tional Hebrew schools as well as Hillel
Day School of Metropolitan Detroit
in Farmington Hills and the Frankel
Jewish Academy in West Bloomfield,
will be having so much fun learning
about Judaism they will almost feel as
if they are away at camp.
The National Ramah Commission
recently announced that the William
Davidson Foundation renewed fund-
ing of the Ramah Davidson Detroit
Fellowship for an additional two years.
Established in 2013, the program
brings three young professionals, all
Ramah staff alumni, to work full time
within the Metro Detroit Jewish com-
munity and area Conservative syna-
gogues.
The program here in Detroit, the first
of its kind in the nation, is serving as a
model for similar fellowships, as other
regions, such as Northern California,
seek to create a fellowship this fall.
The Davidson Foundation, estab-
lished locally in 2005, strives to pre-
serve and enhance Jewish life in the
United States and abroad as well as
improve the economic prosperity of
its home community in Southeastern
Michigan to make the region an even
more desirable place to work and live.
Throughout the school year, the
fellows serve as ambassadors of the
Ramah camping movement by orga-
nizing programs such as Chanukah
and Passover day camps during school
vacations. During the 2013-2014
academic year, 60 children attended
these camps followed by 80 children in
2014-2015.
Additionally, during the past two
years, thanks to the work of the
Davidson Detroit Fellows, there
has been a "sizable increase" in the
number of campers attending Camp
Ramah in Canada from the Metro
Detroit area, according to Rebecca
Starr of Southfield, who will continue
to serve as senior mentor and consul-
tant to the local fellowship project.
Darrien Sherman of Bloomfield Hills,

an alumna of the Ramah Fellowship
program, is now project coordinator.
Three additional Service Corps Fellows
will join the team in September.

Pied Pipers

"From preschool to high school, our
fellows are well entrenched in the
Ramah style of informal learning and
Jewish engagement:' Starr said.
"We are truly blessed to have one of
the few programs of this kind right
here in Detroit and that the Davidson
Foundation has renewed this grant so
we can continue our vital work for the
next two years."
Starr said the program is success-
ful because it deploys something she
describes as the "Pied Piper complex"
"We hire young, cool college gradu-
ates who serve as positive role models
because of their passion and love for
being Jewish:' Starr said. "Younger
kids and teens love to hang out with
them:'
When it comes to imparting their
wisdom, Ramah fellows use anything
but the traditional frontal teach-
ing method, she said. To explore the
Jewish values of friendship and empa-
thy, the fellows may guide a group of
students through an exercise where a
classmate is walked through a human
obstacle course while blindfolded; only
receiving verbal instructions from
their friends. In another lesson about
the Jewish calendar, students may
learn about the phases of the moon
with different shaped cookies.
In addition to needing lots of creativ-
ity, the Ramah fellows must demon-
strate an independent, self-motivated
work ethic. They also have to not mind
sharing their living space with their
other Ramah fellows as they will share
a rented apartment paid by the grant.
Additionally, the community will
continue to benefit from an anony-
mous funder with the Ramah Service
Corps. Through this program, Ramah
counselors and staff work part time in
synagogues and schools across North
America organizing programs and
recruiting campers for Ramah.
To date, more than 100 young
Ramah staff alumni have participated
in the Service Corps.

❑

