My last year as a camper or staffer was at Ramah California in 1969. My first year as a camper was in 1962. I was at camp for 7 years. I made aliyah in 1969, through the one year program at HU, while on the Joint Program between Columbia and JTS. Prior to my aliyah I spent the year at HU.

I had no family members in Israel when I made aliyah. My parents made aliyah in 1984, but my brother and sister live in the United States.

I’m not connected to any formal institutions at this stage, and consider myself Conservadox.

Motivating factors for making aliyah: Zionism, taking seriously what Professor Walter Ackerman embued in us. One of my highest points in Israel, after I finished my BA and was serving in a paratrooper reconaissance unit for my army service, was when I found myself in the honor guard of our unit in order to commemorate the Lt. Avida Shor (one of my commanders), of Kibbutz Shoval, who was killed in my unit during the “Spring of Youth Raid” in Beirut in 1972. This raid is shown in Spielberg’s movie about the Munich 11–but far from the real thing. Professor Ackerman attended the event, as the Rector of Ben Gurion University since a scholarship fund had been awarded in the name of dear Avida. Ackie and I recognized each other, I left the honor guard and we hugged. It was the educator and the disciple going full circle. I will never forget this moment.

The Ramah experience made all of the difference. The Hebrew, the shlichim, Ackie, the talks about the Warsaw Ghetto fighters on Tisha Be-Av, learning the geography of Israel, the songs, the plays—-everything. It influencd me deeply.

The friendships I made were helpful, and the networking through all of the shlichim who came also helped.

One interesting anecdote: as the head of the Raphael Recanati International School, Vice President of a small private university in Israel, and the director of Hillel in Israel, Rabbi Yossi Goldman (my old counselor from Machon in 1965! ) asked me to open a Hillel on our campus. So, I did this with love. Yes, 42 years after being the camper of Yossi Goldman in Ojai, California, we collaborated again and we now have a flourishing Hillel, with an egalitarian and traditional minyan, with Friday night dinners, with a pluralistic Beit Midrash, etc.

Anorther going full circle was when my daughter, Adi Davis, was serving in the IDF as a medic in the Navy Seals, and was sent to Camp Ramah in order to become an outdoor activities counselor. She went back the following year to head all of the outdoor activities, and this was 44 years after I was at camp. That is kind of cute and makes me feel like an alter kaker. She loved it, no less than I did all of those years ago.

So, did Camp Ramah influence me? Boy, it sure did!!!