In February 2009 AVI CHAI approved a grant to the National Ramah Commission (NRC) to implement a Hebrew language and Israel education program called Daber across Ramah’s overnight camps and also its Nyack day camp where the staff reside all summer.
Starting summer 2010, Daber will train and compensate a corps of counselors and specialty staff at each camp to enhance the use of Hebrew throughout camp activities, with programs and ideas shared across the camps. Hebrew language and Israel education consultants were engaged to identify approaches and compile curricula that integrate Ramah-style formal and informal educational programming. Each summer, the camps will recruit their Daber Fellows (eight per camp composed of five outstanding counselors, two specialists, and a program coordinator) who will engage in winter and spring on-line training, discussions of best practices for using more Hebrew, and a training seminar in the spring. Two new Hebrew language plays will be commissioned for performance each summer. Israeli staff will also receive new materials for teaching about Israel which will be linked to the camps’ Hebrew language goals.
The grant requires the NRC to fund or find additional support for the program from the outset, and AVI CHAI’s share declines in each year of the four-year grant. The NRC has committed to ensuring that the program would continue at the conclusion of our grant.