We have the honor of working with OSRUI’s youngest chanichim (campers), the kids of Kallah. And these youngest chanichim on camp, most especially, adore their madrichim, their counselors. They are trusting of them, seeing them as mentors and teachers, leaders and guides. It truly is amazing to watch the way that our youngest kids and our oldest young people come together.

Camp is focused on our chanichim, but it’s also focused on our staff, and we are raising their generation as well, teaching them to be role models and mentors….camp is one of those great places where older and younger kids can really grow together. For a lot of our staff, they remember being chanichim, but they are also in a very significant growing period of their own. They are shaping their own lives and holding such an important place in the lives of their campers as well. It’s a big set of shoes to fill but our counselors do it so well. The madrichim are making their own camp memories and also learning so much about how to be mentors and guides to the younger chanichim.

Throughout the first few days of our session together, we’ve noticed our staff taking on important roles in the learning and growing lives of our chanichim. One of our staff members noticed that a certain prayer ritual seemed unfamiliar, and she asked us to elaborate upon it for the benefit of her chanichim. Other staff members are deeply invested in specific camper concerns and challenges. Still more are taking on significant leadership roles in the eidah (unit) and in the camp as a whole. They feel the weight of the job that they have to do – to help create an outstanding experience for their chanichim – and they bear the weight with enthusiasm, energy, and joy.

There is a lot of legacy here at OSRUI, and the staff are aware of their own place in that legacy. The campers don’t know it yet, but they’re the next ones in the chain.The staff are working hard to make sure that these chanichim are the next links in the chain, and that camp’s future is secure in the hands of this newest link in the OSRUI chain.

Our Kallah Gimmel Segel are Rabbi Fred Greene is the Rabbi of Har Hashem in Boulder, Colorado. Rabbi Phyllis Sommer is the Director of Congregational Learning at Am Shalom in Glencoe, Illinois.