Jonathan Stein & Vanessa Ivey

As a camper and a Seminar alum, it was only natural for me to return to staff at Camp Ramah Darom. Three weeks after high school graduation, I was on my way. During staff week, I became friends with Jonathan (a year older) because his younger sister was going to be a camper in my edah. He had never been to Ramah, but his sister had been a camper for many summers. Our friendship grew once the campers arrived because Jonathan came to see his sister a lot. The first Shabbat evening, he asked me to spend some time with him. We sat at the campfire circle and talked all night. From there, our friendship grew into dating. We spent the most amazing summer growing close thanks to Ramah. We took days off together, sat with Jonathan’s sister “bein” between us during services, and spent evenings walking around enjoying the stars. After the summer, we continued a long distance relationship while Jonathan went to Israel for a semester and I started college. We dated for two and a half years long distance. He proposed in January 2005, and finally in August 2005 we moved together to Virginia Beach, VA. We were married in June 2006, in Memphis, Tennessee (Jonathan’s hometown), and currently live in Orlando, Florida.

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