Camp Ramah in Wisconsin Inc

Summer camp – residential and day – is an American institution synonymous with two words: fun and friends. The allure of camp facilitates its true potential to shape the lives of children, adolescents, and emerging adults, potential that Ramah consciously mines to help its campers and staff develop diverse passions, learn new skills, cement burgeoning friendships into lifelong relationships of meaning, and promote their own sense of self, independence, and obligation to their communities.

Our institution, which we call Ramah Wisconsin, is far more than the name indicates. To the first of the Ramah camps, established in Wisconsin in 1947, we have added Ramah Day Camp in Chicago and interlocking webs
of in-person and virtual programming for current, prospective, and alumni Ramahniks, many but not all of which currently live or trace their family’s roots to our Midwestern catchment area. Ramah Wisconsin invests
significantly in programs and staff to provide the best possible innovative and field-leading offerings.

Our founding visionaries were a collection of Jewish professionals, dedicated volunteers, and camper families who identified a need for an immersive, educationally intensive, and ritually observant camp to help cultivate a new generation of American Jews who felt at home in their rich cultural and religious tradition and how the Jewish legacy they have inherited speaks to their contemporary experience. Today, this vision – and the stakeholders who ensure the camp’s ongoing success – remains vibrant. In each generation the fulfillment of that vision looks different, as developments in the field of summer camp, Jewish education, and the lived experience of campers and staff, change with the times.

Our focus on the developmental needs of our campers and staff, an appreciation for Jewish friendships and Jewish community, and the educational pillars that define our community link our alumni together across the decades. These pillars include: regular engagement with Jewish cultural artifacts; daily tefillah (prayer) and ritual observance; a deep connection to Hebrew; and an appreciation for our familial connection to the entirety of Am Yisrael (the Jewish people) and the State of Israel. Through these experiences Ramah Wisconsin educates, engages, and inspires the next generation of Jewish leaders and their families.
Ramah Wisconsin’s Jewish community embraces diversity and inclusion – of ideas, opinions, backgrounds, and human beings. From the friends made to the Judaism we live, we welcome Jewish families of diverse
levels of observance and perspective as well as the full spectrum of humanity, warmly embracing campers and staff inclusive of different abilities, races and ethnicities, gender- and sexual-identities.

Ramah Wisconsin accepts its role as a lifelong beacon to many of our alumni and the most important Jewish touchpoint for many current campers and staff.

TO ACHIEVE OUR VISION DURING THE COURSE OF THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, CAMP RAMAH IN WISCONSIN AND RAMAH DAY CAMP WILL PLAN FOR, EXECUTE ON, AND ACHIEVE FOUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIES:
1. DISTINGUISH - Define and communicate Ramah’s unique value for families and campers.
2. EXPAND - Increase affordability and reduce barriers to transformative Ramah experiences.
3. ELEVATE - Enhance overnight session offerings & program. Create superior day camp program & facilities.
4. CULTIVATE - Foster lifelong meaningful touchpoints with Ramah alumni, families and committed stakeholders.