Campus Update: University of Pennsylvania

By Shayna Golkow
KOACH Intern

KOACH’s presence on Penn’s campus and especially at Penn Hillel has grown substantially this semester. On a cold Shabbat in November, KOACH hosted Ramah Shabbat to bring together thirty Camp Ramah alumni to feel the warmth of the KOACH, Penn Hillel, and Ramah communities. Some of these students had gone to a Ramah camp for just one summer, and some had gone for more than ten summers. Nearly all of the Ramah camps were represented, including Poconos, California, Wisconsin, Darom, Berkshires, Canada, Palmer, and Nyack.

The thirty students joined the Conservative Jewish Community’s regular Friday night services, but we added our own Ramah style. Ramah alumni led each part of the service using the tunes from their camps. After services, the Ramah alumni spent time together, met alumni from different camps, and reminisced about their favorite camp memories over a falafel dinner. People told funny stories from their camper days and even shared embarrassing camp stories about one another. Everyone in the room instantly bonded over their common experiences. One student who had stopped going to camp decided at the end of the dinner that she wanted to find a way to get back to camp this coming summer. The Ramah alumni left the event with a warm, "campy" feeling and a lot of nostalgia for their summers at Camp Ramah. Many of these students had never come to services at Hillel before or had never come to Conservative services, and have since come back because of their positive experience at Ramah Shabbat.

At the end of the semester, KOACH hosted a Hanukkah study break that attracted about twenty-five students for dreidel games and sufganiot (jelly donuts) in the middle of their finals studying. These students learned about KOACH and the KOACH Kallah, and hopefully some of them will continue their involvement. Overall, the Conservative Jewish Community at Penn calculated an approximate 2,585 attendances at our events this semester. It has been a great fall semester, and we’re now gearing up for an exciting spring semester!

[Posted 1/25/12]