Summer 2025 #JTSRamahConnection
Throughout the summer, JTS students, staff, and faculty, as well as many alums, contributed to the dynamic Jewish living and learning environments at Ramah camps.
Several members of JTS’s administration visited camps, where they shared information about JTS’s undergraduate and graduate programs, taught, and enjoyed getting to know campers and staff. Many members of our senior leadership team shared their reflections and wrote in-depth about their experiences. Read more here.
Both Chancellor Shuly Rubin Schwartz and Rabbi Gordon Tucker, Vice Chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement, had wonderful and meaningful visits to Camp Ramah New England.
- Chancellor Shuly Rubin Schwartz, who spent three formative summers there, had the opportunity to see “the wise ways in which the camp has evolved over the decades” as well as “how much has remained the same.”
- Rabbi Gordon Tucker led an informative session about studying at JTS and a limud session for some of the older campers.
Rabbi Joel Seltzer, Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement, and Randy Michaels, Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer, merged their new and past professional experiences through their visits.
- Rabbi Joel Seltzer observed how today’s young people are adding the holiness of Judaism into their lives at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, his “forever home,” where he was previously executive director.
- Randy Michaels returned to Camp Ramah in California, where he served for nearly 18 years as the Chief Operating and Financial Officer. He also visited several Ramah camps throughout North America, including Camp Ramah in Canada, Ramah Day Camp in Nyack, Ramah Berkshires, and Camp Ramah in Wisconsin.
Faculty members brought the JTS classroom to camp:
- As professor in residence at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, Professor Robbie Harris, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, spent a memorable summer teaching campers and staff a variety of topics, visiting with family, and playing Shabbat afternoon softball games.
- Professor Benjamin D. Sommer, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages, united with JTS alum Cantor Steven Walvick and Rabbinical School student Maddie Herrup at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires.
- Dr. Shira Billet, Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics, taught “The Politics of Friendship” to a young group of campers at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack.
- Professor Yitz Landes, Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures, also visited Camp Ramah in Nyack, where he taught a Limmud session about where Jews are at home.
JTS students served as JTS Ramah ambassadors this summer at almost every Ramah camp! From Northern California to Ramah Darom, ambassadors shared Jewish learning with campers and represented JTS throughout the summer.
