Connecticut Jewish Ledger

PALMER, Mass. — While Israelis sat in bomb shelters in the north of Israel, more than 60 staff members of Camp Ramah in New England - Americans and Israelis, sat in the staff lounge together-listening to the latest news from Israel, sharing concerns about family members and friends living in Israel and serving in the army, and offering support and friendship.

“I am torn from within - between my obligation to my nation, my country, my daughter (serving in the Israeli Army on the border with Lebanon), my feelings for Israel - and my shlichut - my serving as a representative of Israel to a Jewish summer camp,” reports Yedida Tzivoni, mother of four and leader of the Israeli delegation to Camp Ramah in New England for the past 16 years.

Approximately 40 Israelis from various backgrounds and cities and towns in Israel come to Ramah each year to serve as “shlichim,” or emissaries.

Rabbi Shlomo (Steven) Zacharow, who grew up in Trumbull and moved to Israel in 1991, echoes Tzivoni’s feelings.

“For Israelis, it is difficult to be away from home at a time when we want to be there with our people. We want Americans to understand that.” Zacharow, the camp rabbi, and a staff member of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, feels it is important to find the correct balance “since we are in a summer camp and don’t want to be talking about it at all times of the day.”

Camp Director Rabbi Ed Gelb, also struggles with finding the correct balance. “As a camp, we have to be sensitive to the needs of our large Israeli staff, we need to educate our campers and allow them to feel a connection to Israel, and we have to keep camp fun and positive.”

Life in camp continues mainly as normal-with campers swimming, boating, doing arts and crafts, woodworking, archery, practicing for the camp-wide zimkudiya (song and dance festival), rehearsing for plays, and going on camping trips. But, the “matzav,” the situation in Israel, is felt throughout camp. Psalms and prayers for the State of Israel and for the soldiers held hostage are recited at daily prayer services, the Israeli flag is flown at half mast, and the education department has made sure to teach campers about the situation in their daily Yahadut (Jewish Studies) and Hebrew classes.

“We decided to act immediately on the news,” reports rosh chinuch (head of education), Heather Fiedler, a fifth grade Judaic Studies teacher at the Solomon Schechter Day School of West Hartford. “When Gilad Shavit (an IDF corporal) was kidnapped (by Palestinians who attacked a base in Israel), we taught about our responsibility to ‘free captives,’ and we had the children in four of our divisions write letters to the Shavit family. We also looked at different newspapers in an effort to learn how news is reported differently. And we discussed ways to support our Israeli delegation.”

Israelis in camp clearly feel close to the situation-and the camp director has generously permitted each member to call family and friends in Israel whenever they wish.

Yonit Sharon, a third year Israeli staff member from Ramat Gan and teacher and supervisor of Hebrew language, typifies the stress and range of feelings each Israeli at camp carries around daily.

“I received an email from a friend in Akko (north of Haifa) telling me her parents and siblings were in a shelter, and her brother is serving in the Air Force at the border. I spoke with another friend who has a brother who was called for miluim (reserve duty) to serve in Gaza-his mother and father couldn’t sleep for three days until they finally heard from him.” Two other Israel staff members, overhearing the conversation, share their own personal connection to the situation-Rachel Showstack and Daniella Loya served as principal and teacher at schools attended by a soldier killed in the conflict.

Sharon reports that her staff took out a large floor map of Israel to show students precisely where the attacks were occurring.

“They identified with Israel,” says Sharon. “Students asked questions, they cried, they supported a fellow camper whose family is from a town near Tsfat.”

American staff members also struggle with a range of emotions. Marcia Glickman of West Hartford, helps run the Gan program for staff children at Ramah.

“I am proud of us,” says Glickman, reporting on the open discussions between Israeli and American staff members.

“It was an opportunity for us to say, ‘What can we do?’ and for them to say, ‘We are willing to accept your love, though sometimes we have our private anguish.’”