Yasher Koach to Tikvah campers, staff and family members. After lots of work preparing our video cameras, headsets and computers, Amitzim campers and staff members “met” at 7 pm for a video conference on MegaMeeting. A total of 12 people sang Shabbat songs, and shmoozed about such things as Ilyse’s dog, Shira’s cross country team, the new Spiderman movie, and “one great thing we have been doing at home or school.”

At 8 pm, members of Voc Ed and Post Voc ed had their own “Shabbos Is Calling” meeting with 9 participants. David, Melissa, Jakie and Ortal talked about their jobs. We learned that Jakie helps out at the Jewish Home in New Haven, escorting people to minyan! David works for a private school’s dining service. All are very excited for the upcoming reunion over Shabbat Chanukah in West Hartford, CT. 

The “Shabbos Is Calling” vide meetings will continue each week. Directors of three other Tikvah programs–Canada, California, and Wisconsin will soon follow our lead and bring “Shabbos Is Calling” to their camps!

Come see us in action!


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SECAUCUS, N.J. – In his keynote presentation entitled, “State of the Kosher Industry: The Transition of Kosher Foods to a New Level,” Menachem Lubinsky, President and CEO of LUBICOM Marketing Consulting, pointed out just how far the kosher food industry has come. “In the early years, there were nine booths with potato kugel. Then there were 10 or 12 booths displaying sponge cake. Now, there are gourmet and health products–change has come to the kosher food industry in a dramatic way !”

Lubinsky was referring to the rows and rows of booths at Kosherfest, the trade show for the kosher food industry, which took place Oct. 26 and 27 at the Meadlowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, N.J. Kosherfest is the yearly gathering of everyone who’s anyone in the kosher food industry-manufacturers, distributors, certifying agencies, cookbook authors, magazines, camps, restaurants, caterers and more.

Lubinsky further notes that today’s kosher consumer is much younger, more health conscious, and has learned to navigate the retail map, shopping in a variety of stores –from supermarkets, to smaller independent kosher markets, to stories like Costco.

A walk through the aisles at the two-day show gave a glimpse of the 125,000 kosher products now available in U.S. supermarkets, produced in the plants of 10,650 kosher producing companies–all contributing to a market with a dollar value of $12,500,000,000.

Old favorites displaying products include Manischewitz, Streit, Tulkoff, Barton’s Chocolates, Gold’s and Osem. But even these companies came with new products and new packaging.

There were corporate “tie ins,” too. Cookbook author, Susie Fishbein, was promoting her new book, “Kosher by Design: Teens and 20-Somethings,” in front of the Kolatin kosher gelatin booth, and Jamie Geller, author of “Quick and Kosher Recipes from the Bride Who Knew Nothing” and the new “Quick and Kosher: Meals in Minutes,” was distributing recipe cards at the Kosher.com booth. There are many new, tasty products to look for on super market and specialty store shelves. Chocolate raspberry macaroons by Lily Bloom’s Kitchen, were voted both best new dessert/candy and Best In Show-First Runner Up.

Elite Natural 100% Organic Juices, with a plant in Ankara, Turkey, offers an assortment of juices, including pear, quince, honeydew melon and pomegranate. President, Ali Suman and Vice President Mark Rollino were happy to answer all of my questions, including number of watermelons it takes for one bottle of their watermelon juice (it takes 8). The juice was voted Kosherfest’s Best New Beverage; and, in case you wanted to know, it takes 20 or 23 pomegranates to fill a bottle of the company’s pomegranate juice and in development is a juice made of persimmons.

Kind Healthy Snacks offered samples of its six new all natural gluten free flavors (my favorites: apple cinnamon and pecan, and pomegranate blueberry pistachio + antioxidants). Big Apple Pretzels passed out soft pretzels. Freund’s Fish Market had sushi for the taking. Steve Katz, owner of Katz’s Bakery in Southfield, Mich. was handing out very tasty seven layer cake samples.

A record number of countries were represented — from Poland to Ecuador, Argentina, Canada, Lithuania, Switzerland, Belgium, England, Spain, Australia, China and of course, Israel. Osem chefs prepared Israeli whole wheat and tri-color cous cous. Vegetali vegetarian hot dogs in a blanket was voted Best New Fine Food from Israel (and they had many other wonderful vegetarian products–including Moroccan cigars). Neviot is hoping to soon bring their bottled water and flavored water to the American market; the Etz Hazait Collection of oils of Haifa, marketed as “The recipe for good health,” is also “not here yet but looking to be here,” according to Shirley Rocheli, company spokesperson.

Other items of interest include Sue Fishkoff’s new book “Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority;” a new bi-monthly kosher food magazine, entitled “Kosher Inspired;” “New York Kosher News,” a free publication of Kashrus Magazine focusing on New York and New Jersey area kashrut news.

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I just signed up to spend five days riding 50-65 miles per day through the Galil and mountainous Golan Heights of Israel. Why?

The ride combines three of my loves: Jewish special needs camping, Israel and bike riding.

I have spent more than 1/3 of my life working with our Tikvah Program; I have loved Israel since childhood, and I have become a big bike rider in recent years.

Ramah has found a way to support all 3! I would love your help. Please sign up to ride. If you are unable to ride, please consider sponsoring me: http://www.firstgiving.com

100% of the net proceeds raised for the Ramah Galil Ride 2011 will be used to: 1) provide scholarship support for families with children with special needs who have financial need, to enable them to attend Ramah programs; 2) develop a national training initiative for staff of special needs campers. While you may be most familiar with our Tikvah Program, nearly every Ramah camp offers a program for campers with special needs. In fact, Nearly 2,000 campers with special needs have participated in these Ramah programs over the past 40 years, and Ramah’s special needs programs now serve about 250 campers each summer.

https://howardblas.com (if you’d like a pdf, write to me at howardb@campramahne.org and I’ll send it to you).

Thanks!  Howard

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I was sitting in my living room at 9:30 pm Sunday night, staring at my computer screen, hoping and praying. And one by one, they appeared–Rose from Chicago, Elyssa from Denver, Beth from New Jersey, Adam and Casey from Toronto, Ralph from Chicago and me in Manhattan. And Avi joined us for twenty minutes from his home in Washington, DC to update us on the status of the Tikvah Ramah Bike Ride in Israel.

For weeks, I had been preparing for this day. Our Ramah Special Needs Program Directors Community of Practice (CoP), designed to connect directors from eight Ramah programs in four time zones in the US and Canada, has been meeting regularly since April, 2010. In our Google Group and in our conference calls, we have been offering each other support and sharing information relevant to directors of overnight camping programs, vocational training programs, and family camp programs from staff training to buddy programs; social skills groups, Yahadut curriculums, use of technology with a special needs population, fund raising, and Israel trips even such sensitive issues as sexuality and marriage.

But Sunday was different. After sending out Meeting Wizard to find a date to bring all of us together, then trying out Megameeting with three smaller groups, speaking with Megameeting tech support (how do we reduce feedback and squelching? can a member who will be on the road call in by phone?), sending out step by step instructions and reassuring notes to our somewhat technophobic group, and praying–the moment arrived!

One by one, the nervous faces turned to smiling faces. Within minutes, we were hearing about a May, 2011 bike ride in Israel to raise scholarship money to support our programs. We were learning about the successful Buddy Program in Ramah Wisconsin. We were sharing ideas about the successful Shabbos Is Calling Program in New England and discussing ways to use video conferencing to connect campers in the winter months in Canada, California, Wisconsin, and New England. The group was excited when they learned that we can apply for a foundation grant for this exciting project aimed at connecting a population which often feels isolated. We discussed staff hiring, and the role of the division head within our programs. And, best of all, our ninety minute meeting ended with plans for our next video conference, and with a discussion of when and where we might meet over the summer for an in person meeting. The group was excited to meet at one of the camps to see an actual program in action!

I am proud of my colleagues who are the best proof that online technology works! A group of busy camp directors who live in four time zones, have other employment in the winter, and are a bit nervous with new technology, are excited to meet and share on a regular basis.

Perhaps we should invite Tzvi Daum to join us in a future MegaMeeting. Daum, in a recent blogpost writes:

I don’t want to sound pessimistic or be the naysayer who says it can’t be done, but until I see a successful open source Jewish educational project I remain unconvinced about the viability of using open source to solve Jewish educational needs. I know for example, the Jim Joseph Foundation made a grant to 14 fellows to build online communities of practice, I am curious where that will lead to after two years of training.

We can tell Daum how helpful our CoP has been, and we can let him know what we have accomplished after just one year of Jim Joseph Foundation Fellowship training. I hope he will share my excitement when I tell him my plans for our CoP going forward connecting counselors and staff from Ramah camps. And a CoP for all staff members of Jewish special needs camps Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Community you name it. And if he has time, I can share updates about the status of my 13 amazing Jim Joseph colleagues all hard at work on their CoPs and changing the landscape in the area of education and online technology. Visit us, Tzvi!

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