What Being a Camp Rabbi Means to Me

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By Stacy Rigler

Havdalah began last Saturday night with the words “Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu”.  Sitting next to me were several Israelis whom I had met at the Seminar outside of Tel Aviv this past April.  Their Hebrew accents and the beautiful music made the prayer come to life.

It took me back to the first time I had heard that song.  It was 1998 and I was spending my first year in Rabbinic School in Israel.  At the time there was one other person from Camp Harlam.  Arie Gluck asked the two of us, along with another student, to join him at the Seminar to meet the Israelis coming to camp that summer.  On the way back, an acquaintance I knew from camp, Peter Rigler, and I listened to “Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu” over and over again.  It was something of a joke at the time, but now I am grateful for that memory made.

21 years ago, I couldn’t have imagined that the prayer for peace would remain as strong. I wouldn’t have thought I’d continue to return to the Seminar to meet Israelis and welcome them to Camp Harlam, and I couldn’t have known the person in school with me would become my husband of 17 years.

I continued to look around the Beit on Saturday night.  First, I see the son of another friend from camp and Rabbinic school, who is a staff member.  Then I saw a son of one of Peter’s close friends from growing up at Harlam, also a staff member and a new staff member from my synagogue. I can picture the young woman walking into preschool at age 2, holding her mom’s hand and asking when she can stay all day – now she’s on staff as well! I see the couple whose wedding I officiated and the individuals who reached out to me when they needed someone for a family funeral. I see former campers, congregants, and now leadership team members who I met as NFTY leaders, Gesher (CIT) participants, and campers. I notice the British Jewish woman who was telling me about her Persian Jewish family at lunch and the staff member from Hungary whose eyes lit up when I explained that my family was also from Hungary.  The room, made up of individuals who arrived as recently as Thursday suddenly felt like a congregation.

Several years ago, Lisa David, Aaron Selkow and I talked about what it would mean to be a camp rabbi. I had thought a lot about this. One of my favorite quotes is from a female rabbi, Ray Frank, who was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1890 explaining why she would not be a rabbi:

“I would not say ‘I am the Rabbi’ and therefore do this or that; but I would reach their actions through their hearts. I would try and remember that example is better than precept…I would try the effect of …an earnest will, a helping hand… an unfailing courtesy and positive sincerity…”  

The past two Shabbatot I listened to over 30 members of our community share what it means to be a part of a kehillah kedosha (a holy community). I watched as new leaders conducted services, celebrated milestones, and as an Israeli counselor read from the Torah for the first time in the woods of Pennsylvania. These individuals spoke about Tikkun Middot (character traits), and how lessons from the Jewish tradition helped shape them into the people they are today.

As Havdalah concluded this week, and my memories brought me back to singing, “Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu” on Highway 1 in 1998 with Peter, the lights went onto a different camp community I have the privilege of helping to lead, and I thought this is what it means to be a camp Rabbi.  It’s not about leading Havdalah, it’s about helping a community learn the difference between sacred and ordinary.  It’s not about giving the sermon, it’s about watching the sermon come to life in the hills of Kunkletown.  Yesterday, Lisa David shared with our Gesher participants the original name for Camp Harlam – the Joseph and Betty Harlam U.A.H.C. Institute for Living Judaism.  Looking around as a new week begins tonight, nothing could be more true.

Rabbi Stacy Rigler is on of the Jewish Life Supervisors this summer.  She is an educator at Reform Congregation, Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park and a proud camp alumnus and parent of 3 campers.