by Leah Sherin, Tiferet Rosh Eidah (Unit Head)

In Tiferet Aleph, we have a clear focus on our Arts and Jewish learning curricula, but we also place a lot of importance on the spontaneity and silliness of camp. These last few days in Tiferet have been all about being silly and making some memories that Tiferet campers can hang on to as the session winds down.

Last week, a rained out tochnit erev (evening program) spontaneously became an improvised musical put on by our madrichim (counselors) and moomchim (specialists) for all of Tiferet. Our music moomchim improvised all of the music while everyone else acted out our made-up musical ghost story. Although the story was silly, the musical we put on could never be completely re-created and was a unique experience for all of our chanichim (campers). The popularity of the story we told grew within the eidah (unit), and campers wanted to find out what would happen next, so our tzevet (staff) decided to put on a more elaborate part two on the improvised musical. This time, chanichim submitted silly sentences they wrote to be included in the musical, and as the show went on, different tzevet would read these lines and include them in the story. As ridiculous as the story is, it is moments like these that really make it feel like camp—the pure silliness, inside jokes, and unforgettable experience.

Another amazing camp memory that Tiferet was able to experience this week was our annual Mesibah, the all-camp talent show put on by Tiferet. This show includes talent acts from every unit as well parody songs, sung by Tiferet, and a skit between the acts with several Tiferet chanichim in it. Each year, Mesibah has a theme, and this year it was called “MesibOz” and it retold the Wizard of Oz story using characters from camp, taking place at “Ozrui.” Mesibah is one of my favorite events all summer. The show allows Tiferet chanichim to spend the first three weeks of the session working on something together that they can be proud of and then present to the rest of camp. Mesibah is a great opportunity to share with the rest of camp what Tiferet is all about, and show how proud we are to be a part of Tiferet. Another special part of Mesibah is the songs that all of Tiferet sings during the show. Although they are super silly, I love these songs because they are an important part of OSRUI tradition and because chanichim often remember them for years to come. In fact, I still remember the lyrics to the songs from Mesibah when I was a camper in Tiferet in 2008! With one week left in Tiferet Aleph, I hope to continue finding moments of silliness and spontaneous fun to create more and more special camp memories for our chanichim.

Leah Sherin is so excited to be spending her 11th year at OSRUI as Tiferet Rosh Eidah! She just returned from a semester in Israel with The Nachshon Project, and will be returning to Brandeis University in the fall for her senior year