by Vanessa Ehrlich, Kallah Segel (Faculty)

I have been part of the Segel, faculty, at OSRUI since 1989.  As Segel we are responsible for t’filot (services), in the morning, helping to guide our madrichim (counselors) to lead our limudim (educational programs), teach Hebrew and help our chanichim (campers) to lead  t’filah in the evening.  When I first came to camp in the late ’80’s I  came equipped with a typewriter to type up my daily limud notes along with carbon paper and plenty of white out.  (If you are not familiar with any of these machines or products you may Google them and find out what it was like to work in an office at that time).  If I had to check in with my office I would sit in the community linen closet in the lodge and use our pay phone to patiently call and see if I had any messages at work and then call home.  There were two pay phones for the entire Segel not to mention all the madrichim who needed to call home.  I loved every minute being at camp and I still do.

Now, when I come to camp I have my computer, my printer, my cell phone and even an iPad.  I can keep in touch with work, home and better serve my madrichim as I help them prepare stories to tell at t’filot or look up You Tube clips to give them information on the Jewish/Israeli athletes in the upcoming London Olympics.  Some things have not changed at camp; the conversations held outside with a camper about God or feeling homesick still occur.  I also sit with our madrichim and we discuss pursuing a career in Jewish education, becoming a Cantor or a Rabbi, or talk about the best new apps for the iPhone.

For many years I have had the privilege of helping to coordinate all of the limud  themes and programs that our Rabbis, Cantors and Educators use and have created during their summers at OSRUI.  Again, when I first started this position I lugged around boxes of materials and folders and copied reams of paper to distribute yearly.  The paper method was followed by folders with floppy disks which stored our programs and now today all our educational martial is stored in Google Docs which  allows us to share and edit material from year to year.  Our limud are both figuratively and spiritually in the clouds and I believe both can not be any closer to God.

Being at camp allows us delve into many topics and we have the time, room and resources to do many things which are not possible to do at home.  In Kallah Gimmel where I serve as faculty this year, we are studying, Middot, values or virtues.  This week we taught savlanut (patience).  We did no frontal teaching rather we had the chanichim experience patience on our low ropes course.  They had to decide how to fit as many campers from their bunk as possible on a group of low tree stumps and they had to squeeze their entire bunk through the different spaces on our large (12 ft by 12ft) spiderweb. I know they will remember this lesson and I believe that they will also remember the savlanut it took them to complete this task successfully.

I am fortunate to be able to serve my congregation and OSRUI as I interact with chanichim from my congregation and from all over the United States, Europe and Israel.  I look forward to my sojourn every summer as I bring new and creative ideas to our limudim, our t’filot and to our interactions with one another.  If you see a group of chanichim marching into the pool for the prayer Mi Chamochah (when the Children of Israel crossed the Red Sea), it is probably my group.

Vanessa Ehrlich is the Educational Director at Lakeside Congregation in Highland Park, Illinois, and is serving as one of the faculty members in Kallah Gimmel.