I am writing today from Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Once again Congregation Etz Chaim has sent the most campers to OSRUI. This summer 72 of our children are here as campers. We also have several members of the staff.
50 rabbis, cantors and educators comprise of OSRUI each summer.
Earlier this summer Anne Stein was here working with Kallah Aleph and Rabbi Cosnowsky was here working with Avodah. Rabbi Cosnowsky returned to camp to be the scholar for the adults of a Lehrhaus weekend. I work with Chalutzim, the seven week Hebrew immersion program for High Schoolers.
Over the years we have held joint activities with the other Jewish camps in Wisconsin. Once a unit came to visit us from Ramah. Growing up in a Conservative congregation in Minneapolis I heard a great deal about Ramah in Wisconsin. I know they emphasize Hebrew. Every summer they put on a Broadway musical translated into Hebrew.
As part of the opening program I said some words of welcome in Hebrew. When the Ramah rabbi stood up to speak I expected that he would also speak in Hebrew. But he went back and forth between Hebrew and English. Later in the evening I had the opportunity to talk with him about this. He explained that if he had spoken entirely in Hebrew the day school kids from Chicago could have understood him. But the kids from Minneapolis, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Kansas City would not have been able to keep.
We have less than a handful of day school kids in Chalutzim. But we insist on speaking Hebrew. One might say that we are stubborn. I think we hold ourselves to a higher standard.
Chalutzim is the only Hebrew immersion program in the country. None of the other URJ camps offer Hebrew immersion programs, neither do the Ramah Camps of the Conservative movement. I did not create Chalutzim. It was here for 25 years before I became a part of it in 1985.
I am grateful for pioneering work done by my predecessors. I am pleased to work with my partners on the Chalutzim faculty. And I am proud of the campers Sh'mdabrin Rak Ivrit, who speak only Hebrew.
