Ramah Israel

Our Seminar madrichim are hard at work getting ready for an unforgettable summer, and they can’t wait to meet you all! 💙🎉

The countdown is officially on!!!

A message from one of our former Seminar chanichim 🌟🥹

“I just saw my brother on the zoom call for his upcoming incredible seminar summer and wanted to reach out again to thank you for everything. I thought you would enjoy knowing that for my college studies I have committed to a dual degree program between Columbia University and Tel Aviv University. Meaning that I will be spending a whole 2 years studying in Tel Aviv before I go on to continue for another 2 years in New York. I truly mean it when I say that a year ago I would have never considered even applying to this program. In fact I knew about the program and told my parents I would never even consider living in Israel. After seminar my perspective completely changed and I went from not even considering a gap year in Israel to thinking that just one year wouldn’t be enough. Thank you not only for an incredibly fun and educative summer but for inspiring me with that love and connection with our Jewish state. I pray that you will have another incredible and safe summer in Israel and maybe once I go to Israel I can go down to Jerusalem and visit.
Thank you!!! ❤️”

“וְהַסְּנֶה, אֵינֶנּוּ אֻכָּל” “And the bush was not consumed”

Emma Loewenthal

Each morning this phrase stares back at us from the embroidery on the Aaron where we hold our Torah. Each morning as we make our way through this world we tend to overlook the true strength of our Jewish community. Whether it be through wars against our people or antisemetic protests, we stand strong against adversity. Being here at TRY has strengthened my connection to Judaism. This program has brought me unforgettable experiences and friends that have taught me to never let the evil or unjustness in my life consume and take over what I know is rightfully mine. We, as a people go through life with a heavy weight on our shoulders. We are taught from a young age to be a good example of Kiddush Hashem. This could be viewed as a burden, but it’s also an opportunity to change people’s perspective on Jews and our place in the world.

The Silence After
by Golda McPherson, written and read during the Poland Journey

I’m sitting on top of seventy thousand bodies, surrounded by graves stretching farther than my eyes can see, one after another. My mind refuses to comprehend it, no matter how hard I try. My heart understands what my mind can’t, there was pain here. I know there was pain here. I can feel it in my bones, the screams, the fear, the hunger my body has never actually known.
And still, my mind can’t understand it.
What does it mean to be lifeless? Do thoughts stay even when the body is gone? Is death forever consciousness without flesh, like your brain is suspended in silence? Or does your soul vanish, disappearing into nothing at all? But still i wonder what does it feel like?
Everyone dies. It is the one certainty that connects every human being together, the only thing we truly all share. But is death the same for all of us? Is it the same for you and I?
Can the dead feel their names being spoken, carried forward by the next generations? and can they feel the moment they are forgotten? Can they feel anything at all?
It’s impossible to imagine the absence of feeling forever. No thought. No movement. No self. Is death nothingness? And can a human being, once they have existed, ever become nothing at all?