Hundreds of Ramahniks have fallen in love and married someone they met at camp or on a Ramah Israel program. Below are Ramah marriage stories from the 2010s.
Netanel Burstin & Audrey Kutas Burstin
In 2008 Netanel returned as a shaliach to the camping staff at Ramah in Wisconsin from the year before, only this time with this sister Ganit.
Ari Derman & Talia Goldblatt Derman
We met in 1996, our Solelim summer at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin.
Alex Freedman & Laura Seidenberg Freedman
Laura and Alex met as counselors at Ramah Wisconsin in Summer 2004.
Asher Fink & Merisa Vinick
Merisa- Berkshires; Asher- New England: An unexpected match!
Neil Goldsmith & Elana Hoffman Goldsmith
Neil and I met when we were on staff at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin in 2004; I was a Senior Counselor and Neil was a Junior Counselor. Because he was one aidah younger and we were from different hometowns, I "scouted him out" before the summer began. Little did I know, he had heard I was interested in him, and we started our relationship quickly during staff week.
Harrison Rubenfeld & Susannah Levithan
Quoted in Ramah Berkshires enewsletter, June 2011: "As soon as we started talking about getting married, Harrison and I knew it had to happen in camp," said Susannah.
David Saiger & Elizabeth Jefferson Saiger
David and Elizabeth met in the summer of 2003, when Elizabeth was a Mador (first-year counselor) and David a fourth-year (this made him very desirable in her eyes; in his eyes, she was desirable because of her love of cleaning the hill after Tuesday barbecues).
David Gilboa & Shira Rimsky Gilboa
We first met at Ramah in Nyack in 2005 but started dating at camp the following summer. I was a counselor and David was swim staff.
Nate Bankirer & Sarah Shulman
Sarah and Nate met and fell in love at Ramah Rockies in 2010. Since then they have been inseparable, sharing a love for hiking, biking, writing poetry, and teaching.
PJ Edelman & Avi Rose
PJ and Avi first met on Ramah Seminar in the summer of 2003. Avi had been a lifelong camper at Ramah California while PJ had grown up at Ramah Berkshires.
Ezra Balser & Laura Elkayam
Laura and I were in Nivonim 2001 and we both decided to go on Seminar during 2002. We worked on staff together at Wisconsin from 2003-2006.
Mark Leuchter & Sari Schwartz
Mark and I initially encountered each other in the summer of 1987 when I was a second year counselor in Magshimim (15 year olds) at Camp Ramah in Canada.
Joshua Skolnick & Ilana Ellenberg
Josh Skolnick and Ilana Ellenberg met in 2006 and were married in 2012.
Matt Levitt & Sara Geboff Levitt
While walking back from a Hillel board meeting at Indiana University, Matt noticed Sara sitting outside on her porch reading a book about Israel.
Rafi Spitzer & Rachael Besser
While Rafi and Rachael did not meet at Camp Ramah, Ramah has been a large part of their lives, contributing to the shared values and experiences that are important to them.
Ethan Witkovsky & Erin Beser
While Ethan and Erin did not attend Ramah together, they met halfway around the world in Israel in 2009.
Bobby Jacobs & Alana Goldstein Jacobs
Bobby and Alana met at Ramah Darom in the summer of 2008 while working on Tzevet Mayim.
Jeremy Pappas & Abbie Fagin Pappas
Jeremy Pappas and Abbie Fagin Pappas met at Camp Ramah in Canada in 2009 and were married in 2012.
Dani Saks & Nomi Ehrlich Saks
Dani and Nomi met in the summer of 2009 at ulpan during staff week at Camp Ramah in the Poconos. Nomi liked the way that Dani spoke Hebrew and Dani thought Nomi was cute.
Andrew Markowitz & Michelle Chonofsky Markowitz
Andy and I met for the first time at a USY convention through a friend, and even though I thought he was funny and cool, we remained just friends for a number of years.
Matthew Tanzer & Lauren Lubarsky Tanzer
All that 12-year-old Lauren wanted in early summer 1999 was to go home to Dresher.
Brian Pogrund & Hannah Pogrund
We met the summer of 2000 (Chalutzim) at Ramah Wisconsin. We got married November 25, 2012.
Ben Landsburg & Arielle Davis
Ben Landsburg and Arielle Davis Landsburg met at Camp Ramah in the Poconos in 2009 and were married in 2013.
Ilan Buckman & Molly Dehrey Buckman
Molly and Ilan met in the the summer of 2009 as staff members on Ramah Israel Seminar. Molly spent her childhood summers at Ramah California and Ilan spent his summers at Ramah Canada.
Oren Pollak & Reena Saks
We did not actually meet on a Ramah program, we met on Nativ after our JC summer. Reena attended Ramah Poconos and Oren attended Ramah Berkshires.
Josh Smith & Sarah Koppel Smith
We overlapped in camp a number of years but we never really talked to each other. I always knew "Smitty" but he had no clue who I was. He was my sister's Rosh Gesher, and friends with my co-counselor and best friend.
Max Gorney & Jaclyn Greenberg Gorney
As the tallest poeple in our edah, our friends forced us to hang out (aka sneak out to the gaga court). We "camp dated" in Solelim 1998 and took a great photo at his bar mitzvah a few months later, Jaclyn sporting overalls and braces, Max rockin' the muscle tee.
Josh Gajer & Elana (Lonni) Romirowsky Gajer
Lonni Romirowsky attended Camp Ramah in the Poconos for almost 15 years. Before being able to stay in a tzrif, she was a "staff brat" in the gan, attended Camp Ramah as a camper for six years, served on staff for two years, and was a counselor for Ramah Poland-Israel Seminar.
Omer Leon & Adi Gluska
Omer and I met in the Summer of 2010 at Ramah Darom. I was returning for my second year as the head of climbing staff and he joined for his first year on climbing staff.
Michael Fish & Devora Yellin Fish
In 1980 we were ten years old and spending our summers at Ramah New England. My first memories of "Fish" are either by tetherball or in the gaga court.
Gabe Kretzmer Seed & Nina Kretzmer Seed
We met in the kitchen at Ramah Nyack; Gabe was the mashgiah and Nina was a CIT in Kochavim. We don't think we actually ever spoke to each other, but we remember seeing each other.
Daniel Rabin & Rachel Kozak Rabin
Though we met at the University of Maryland in 2008, Daniel spent a few summers at Ramah California and Rachel grew up at Ramah New England.
Sahar Zada & Audrey (Addie) Gellman-Chomsky
Having started at Ramah as a staff brat, I had always dreamily thought of one day ending up in a Ramah marriage, but never realized it would be with a member of mishlachat!
Josh Lerman & Lauren Sadler
Lauren and Josh met in 2000 at Camp Ramah Darom in the North Georgia mountains. Lauren remembers being interested in a goofy, funny, outgoing and charismatic boy that summer. Lauren was too shy to go over and say anything to Josh, yet all of her friends knew she liked him. Two summers went by and they really only talked to each other once - on the last day of camp.
Ephram Levin & Carlie Hershgordon
Ephram and I first met at USY Fall Convention in 2003, when we were introduced to one another by mutual friends. We worked together on Tzevet Machon 2005 during our JC summer at Ramah Poconos.
Adam Waxman & Michele Hasit
Michele and Adam were in Nitzanim together in 1997 but that was long before anyone could have guessed they would be married 18 years later.
Benjamin Yavelberg & Sarah Roth Yavelberg
Sarah and Ben actually met in 2004, when they were both campers but weren't really friends until they re-met on Tzevet Nitzanim in 2009.
Justin Hellman & Shira Aitchison
Shira grew up going to Camp Ramah in California, but Justin's first summer at camp was as a moomche, or specialist, in the summer of 2005 (a drum/rock band moomche to be exact!) Shira was a Giboreh counselor but they did not really meet that year.
Omer Dekel & Julia Kraut
Julia and Omer met as counselors at Camp Ramah in New England in 2009. On the first day of second session, Julia had to take her bunk to boating chug where Omer, a member of the mishlachat, was serving as a lifeguard.
Adi Segal & Danielle Schindler
In 2007, Adi Segal returned to the camp as a counselor. Not long after, Danielle Schindler followed suit. And in the summer of 2009, with many other counselors out sick or on vacation, the two bonded over an unenviable task — entertaining 85 jumpy, excitable 11-year-olds.
Ari Hausman & Laura Berke
In the beginning of 2012, Laura was in Israel on OTZMA and Ari was finishing his degree at Binghamton. They were both looking for jobs and stumbled upon the American Hebrew Academy where they had an intensive Fellowship program. They both applied, both were offered the job, and both showed up in August of 2012.
Raz Idan & Samantha Botwinick
It was love at first sight, although Raz doesn't remember our first encounter. Mine and Raz's friend Lindsey, a fellow Ramahnik, had told me about this great guy who I had to meet.
Jeremy Rose & Paula Sass Rose
Paula first went to Berkshires as a JC in 2008 before going to Washington University in St. Louis, where she met Jeremy.
Paul Altholz & Razie Alter
Razie and Paul first met as CITs in late June of 2008. It was Shavua Hachana at Ramah Nyack and Paul, a first-generation Israeli, arrived late to bagriyot.
Harry Chiel & Zoe Tabachnick
Harry Chiel and Zoe Tabachnick met at Ramah Nyack in 2008 and were married in January 2015.
Steven Lewis & Rosi Iskowitz
Since her first year as a camper in the year 2000, Rosi has been in love with Ramah Darom, and always dreamed of meeting her future husband at camp.
Graeme Ossey & Lauren Mendel
Lauren and Graeme both attended Ramah Darom as campers but because they were in different edot, they did not know each other as campers.
Brandon DeShields & Shayna Flink
Brandon and Shayna met in 2008 during their time in the LIST College Joint Program.
Jake Weiner & Shahar Elmaleh
Shahar and Jake met during staff week in the summer of 2011. It was the first summer at Ramah California for both of them.
Adam Odesser & Emily Meister
Adam and Emily met in the summer of 2014 at Ramah New England. Adam, a first year shaliach from Israel, was an all star counselor and Emily was Rosh Shoafim.
Adam Schlesinger & Tamar Dickstein
Over a decade ago when Tamar and Adam attended Camp Ramah in their respective home states, neither could have imagined the gift camp would bring.
Julia Lustig & Mike Weiss
Going back a number of years, Mike and Julia met at Ramah Darom when they were 13 years old and became great friends throughout their summers as campers. They started dating when they were 18 - Mike was beginning his freshman year at University of Central Florida and Julia was starting her sophomore year at Indiana University. Young and in love, they maintained a long-distance relationship for the next three and a half years and looked forward to the visits in between the summers they spent together at camp. After graduating from their respective schools, they began the next chapter of their lives in NYC, where Mike started law school at Cardozo.
The proposal story begins in March 2016. Mike, not knowing exactly when he was going to propose, went on a business trip to Louisville. The only catch is that Julia truly thought Mike's work sent him to Louisville with his boss to meet with one of their clients. To her surprise, the only business Mike had in Louisville was to get her parents' blessing to marry her.
Fast-forward 8 months to November 2016 when Mike sneakily invited his and Julia's parents to New York for the weekend. This weekend was special because it was the first Friday of the month, which meant Julia and Mike were spending their evening with camp friends at Ramah Shabbat. What better way to propose, than to make this come full circle with Ramah?
Mike left work early that Friday and had been practicing kneeling down in the mirror all day. They got to services and Julia had no idea what was in store. After the conclusion of the service, the leader of Ramah Shabbat made announcements and explained that they were going to be starting a new tradition by inviting one Ramahnik up each month from a different camp around the country to share his or her favorite camp memories. Side note, there are usually around 40 people in attendance, but luckily for Mike, it's a full house this evening. "Coincidently”, he was chosen this month, and he began to explain that he couldn't share his camp memories without his camp girlfriend up to help him, so he invited Julia to join him. At this point, Mike looked at Julia and expressed that when thinking of his camp memories, they all were about her. He thinks about the first time they met at camp, even though they fight about where that was. He thinks about the first time he told her he loved her during Havdallah at camp. He expressed how every moment he spends with her and has spent with her over the past 6 ½ years are his camp memories; and how all he wants to do is continue to make these camp memories with her for the rest of his life.
And the rest is history, folks. Julia's emotions took her a while to get out the word "yes" or maybe Mike just couldn't hear her because the entire congregation was dancing and singing songs at the top of their lungs. But finally, #MikeGotTheJul. They got married in Louisville, Kentucky on August 20th, 2017 surrounded by so many of their lifelong Ramah friends.
Molly Hoffman & Yael Zinkow
Molly and Yael met at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin in the summer of 2006. They formed a bond that would last a lifetime.
Noam Kornsgold & Gavriella Kornsgold
Our Ramah marriage story is less a story of us meeting, but more a story of how Ramah has been a part of our relationship. During our entire dating career, each of us spent our summers at our respective Ramah camps (Gavriella at California and Noam at Berkshires). The capstone of this summer dating separation was the summer in which we got married. Although we got married in the week following the conclusion of camp that summer, both of us worked at our camps leading up to the wedding. It was certainly a daunting task to put the final touches on our wedding while being at camp, but it was well worth it. Now that we're married, we still continue to spend our summers apart at our home camps. This culminated in the summer of 2019, when we were the Rashei Edah for the oldest edot at our respective camps. While we cannot predict our future summer plans, probably at some point, we may decide to actually spend a summer together.
Zach Sharfman & Talia Spitzer
For Talia Spitzer and Zach Sharfman, all roads lead back to Camp Ramah in California. The couple married there on June 10, 2018, a decade after they began dating in the summer of 2008 as counselors.
Gabe Pollack-Cohen & Deb Pollack-Cohen
Deb and Gabe met at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires during the summer of 2015, where they were both Roshim (unit heads). Starting from the first day of camp, Deb and Gabe were inseparable.
Joel Dworkin & Lauren Henderson
Lauren: "I honestly believe that camp is the reason why we fell in love – it was the container that made the foundation of our relationship possible.
Daniel Olson & Ben Goldberg
Despite the limitations, Ben and Daniel both felt that Ramah was a safe space to grow and learn as young Jews. As they embark on married life together, they are pleased that today things are significantly different for LGBTQ Ramah campers and staff.
Matthew Weinreich & Adiel Schmidt
In the summer of 2012, Matthew and Adiel were both working as counselors at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack. In July 2018, they got married, at Temple Emanu-El of Closter, NJ. Their journey has only just begun!
Yael Goldfeder Greenberg & Bryan Goldfeder Goldstein
In 2016, when the infancy of Ramah Galim demanded a rapid influx of new staff, Yael and Bryan, aka BGOLD, arrived on the delegation to save the day. Yael took a kitchen position and Bryan became Rosh Harpatka and a counselor for eight year olds. Though Yael and Bryan had met briefly in passing at Ramah Rockies, they hadn't exchanged more than a few words, and the summer fling that ensued took them both by surprise.
Two years later, they smashed the very first BGOLD Glass chuppah set and embarked on the journey of building a life together. Currently they collaborate on BGOLD Glass, a glassblowing venture focused on intentional Judaica, recycled glass, and functional art.
To check out their work, click here: https://www.bgoldglass.