The year 1972 was formative for Ellen Moss Brown and for Camp Ramah alike. For a fourteen-year-old Ellen, it was her first kayitz as a Ramahnik. For Camp Ramah, it was the first kayitz on what was then the “new” property. While most of the chanichim (campers) spent that summer back at the old campsite, the Machon edah, including Ellen, had the run of the new property – though it looked a lot different back then. There were pup tents and outhouses. The outdoor spigot showers were rudimentary at best. Despite the rustic facilities, Ellen remembers the magical feeling of being at camp. It was the people that she fell in love with. That’s why she returned in subsequent summers to work as a madricha (counselor). During those formative years, as a student at Birmingham High School in the valley, Ellen remembers feeling a bit different from other students because of her family’s commitments to kashrut and to Shabbat. All that changed at Camp Ramah, where being Jewish wasn’t different; it was something special. Ellen was a product of the Conservative movement in Los Angeles, busy during the school year with Valley Beth Shalom’s USY chapter and Los Angeles Hebrew High School. But It was her summers spent in Ojai, the experiential education of everyday Jewish joy, that lit a spark. Ellen spent the early part of her career working in advertising. In 2001, she redirected her efforts onto the Jewish community, first working to grow membership in Hadassah’s Northern Area Resource Center, and then as Care Transition Coach for the Los Angeles Jewish Home, where in 2016 she received the JHA Home Team Employee Recognition Award for excellent service. For The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Ellen served the Valley Alliance Women’s Department Chair both as Chair and Campaign Chair, and as Chair of the Strategic Planning and Distribution Committee. She was honored with the Valley Alliance’s Women’s Department Juliet Award and the Rita Reznikoff Leadership Award. Ellen has served the Valley Beth Shalom Day School in a variety of capacities since 1996, including Parent Organization Co-President, Chair of the Annual Giving Campaign, and as a Board Trustee. In 1999, she was honored by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles – Valley Alliance Organization’s Assembly for her efforts at VBS, and then by VBS the following year with the Rita Reznikoff Leadership Award. Since 2007, Ellen has served on the Board of Directors of Camp Ramah in California, including four years as Board Chair, from 2019-2022. She works as the Campaign Manager, Donor and Alumni Relations at de Toledo High School in West Hills, CA staffing the school’s Annual Campaign, and lives in Tarzana, CA with her husband Jeff. She loves to spend time with her children and children-in-law, Sara and Matthew, Jonathan, and Emily and Sam, and with her delicious almost 3-year-old grandson, Reuben.

The tagline of Camp Ramah in California is “A Journey for a Lifetime.” For Gwen and Jeremy Rosenthal, that journey spans three generations. Jeremy’s story begins back in 1965, when his parents met at Camp Ramah. Jeremy’s mom worked in the camp office as part of K’vutzat Ramah and his dad worked in the chadar ochel (dining hall). Jeremy’s own Journey for a Lifetime begins in the kayitz (summer) of 1983 when was a young camper. For Gwen, it was a decade later, in 1993, when she worked as a madricha (counselor). It wasn’t until 1998 that Gwen and Jeremy first met while on tzevet (staff). Gwen was Rosh Edah for Adat Shalom, and Jeremy was Rosh Edah for Abirim. Jeremy was, in fact, the last Rosenthal for Gwen to meet: his mom had been Gwen’s yoetzet; his sister had been in Mador when Gwen was a Rosh; and she had previously met his brother while in Israel at Pardes. Camp Ramah changed their lives – and not just because it was where they first met. Ramah provided a foundation for Gwen and Jeremy to learn about themselves and to develop their identities in challenging but safe ways. They can trace almost every part of their lives, including their deepest and closest friendships even today, to the impacts of Camp Ramah. Gwen and Jeremy took the lessons they learned at camp about how to weave Judaism into the rhythm of their daily lives and incorporated it into their parenting decisions. They have worked to create a home and a lifestyle for their three children based upon the values they learned at Ramah: a lifestyle where Judaism is taken seriously, which offers ethical and intellectual challenges to wrestle with, which prioritizes education, identity, tzedakah, ritual, and community. They feel privileged to have been able to spend their summers with their children at Camp Ramah, where Gwen has served as yoetzet for more than a decade. It is especially important to Gwen and Jeremy that camp be affordable and accessible to everyone who wants to participate. They believe strongly that Camp Ramah is a place for families of all backgrounds, and that it should embrace all of what Judaism can look like. That, in part, is why they are also dedicated to supporting the Tikvah program. Gwen has been an educator for over twenty years as currently serves as middle school humanities teacher and department chair, and Director of Student Life and Learning, at Pressman Academy. Jeremy is an attorney who helps companies in distress work through their financial and operational difficulties with Force 10 Partners. In addition to Camp Ramah, where Jeremy serves on the Board of Directors, they are also involved at Beth Am and IKAR. Gwen and Jeremy live in Los Angeles with their three Ramahnik children, Ezra (17), Micah (15), and Eli (12).

If Alyse Baron had to pick one word to describe Camp Ramah in California, it would be “impactful.” It’s not difficult to understand why Camp Ramah has had an impact on her own life: she met her future husband at camp! Alyse began her Journey for a Lifetime at age 10 when she spent two weeks at camp in Gesher. She returned to camp every kayitz (summer) through her Machon year, which is when she met Jonathan (he was in Tzofim that year), though it would be a few years before they started dating. Alyse’s return to camp would come some twenty years later, when she began to volunteer her medical expertise in the MARP for a week or two each summer. Then, in 2018, Alyse joined the Camp Ramah Board of Directors and continued her work to develop and implement procedures to ensure the health and wellness of the thousands of chanichim (campers) and tzevet (staff) who spend their summers in Ojai each year. After nearly two years of hard work developing COVID mitigation plans and procedures, Alyse says that returning to Ojai in the kayitz of 2021 was simply magical. Watching kids shed the stresses and anxieties of the pandemic, seeing how happy they were to be with their friends, was one of the great joys of her Ramah career. Alyse credits Camp Ramah with shaping her Jewish identity, something that Ramah has also done – and continues to do – for her three children: Hali (19), Ryan (16), and Shira (13). Alyse, Jonathan, and their family live in Newport Beach, CA, where she works as a pediatrician at Coastal Kids: A Pediatric Medical Group. In addition to her volunteer efforts for Camp Ramah, Dr. Alyse Baron serves as Medical Liaison for Temple Bat Yahm Preschool, on the Health Advisory Committee for Tarbut v’Torah Community Day School, and as President of the Musical Theater Academy of Orange County.

When Andrea Kasowitz moved to Los Angeles with her family six years ago, she could not yet have had any idea that she would find a home at Camp Ramah in California. Though Andrea grew up in a Conservative Jewish household in Syracuse, NY, she spent her summers at Young Judaea camps like Sprout Lake and Tel Yehuda in upstate New York. Years later, she and her husband Andrew enrolled their kids in Ramah camps, but it wasn’t until 2018 that she first spent significant time at a Ramah camp herself: one week volunteering in the MARP in Ojai. One week turned into two, two weeks turned into ten, and that, eventually, led Andrea to join Ramah’s year-round professional team as MARP Clinical Director. If Andrea could not have known that moving to LA would mean a year-round position at camp, she really could not have known that within a year of accepting that job, the world would be turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the intense pressure and uncertainty in navigating this unprecedented challenge, Andrea recalls feeling all the stress and tension melt away when campers finally returned to Ojai in the kayitz (summer) of 2021: smiling, laughing, hugging. Andrea graduated from Tufts University with a degree in Clinical Psychology and went on to receive her medical degree from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. She then completed her residency in Family Medicine in New Jersey. She worked as a physician at the Rutgers University Student Health Center in Newark, NJ and then at the UCLA Student Health and Wellness Center. Andrea is now also pursuing her love of public health and infectious disease research through a Masters in Public Health program at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she is conducting research on HIV prevention in sub-Saharan Africa. In her position as MARP Clinical Director, Andrea is especially committed to making camp more accessible to children and teens with chronic illnesses. Dr. Andrea Kasowitz lives in Los Angeles with her husband Andrew Goldberg, and their three children, Ross, Simon, and Dean, each of whom are proud Ramahniks.

Yetzivut (Sustainability)– $100,000 2 premier tables of 12 • First slide after introduction of Virtual Book • Recognition in all event advertising materials • Recognition from stage • VIP Parking for five cars

Sakranut (Curiosity) – $50,000 2 premier tables of 10 • Sakranut slide in Virtual Tribute Book • Recognition in all event advertising materials • Recognition from stage • VIP Parking for three cars

Yetziratiyut (Creativity) – $36,000 1 premier table of 12 • Yetziratiyut slide in Virtual Tribute Book • Recognition in all event advertising materials • Recognition from stage • VIP Parking for two cars

Manhiygut (Leadership)– $25,000 1 premier table of 10 • Manhiygut slide in Virtual Tribute Book • Recognition in all event advertising materials • Recognition from stage • VIP Parking for one car

Ometz Lev (Courage) – $18,000 1 preferred table of 10 • Ometz Lev slide in Virtual Tribute Book • Recognition in all event advertising materials

Zerizut (Zest & Zeal) – $10,000 1 table of 10 • Zerizut slide in Virtual Tribute Book • Recognition in all event advertising materials

Emunah (Conviction) – $5,000 6 dinner Tickets • Emunah slide in Virtual Tribute Book

Simcha (Joy)– $2,000 2 dinner Tickets • Simcha slide in Virtual Tribute Book