Camp Ramah in Wisconsin

View the original article on Jewish News Syndicate. Photo by Brian Garfinkel

Elana Horowitz recounts: “Philadelphia has a thriving Jewish community, and not a single Eagles cheerleader is Jewish. Why can’t I be that role model?”

When Elana Horowitz auditioned for a spot on the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders squad, her Jewish identity, spunk and a bit of chutzpah—coupled with exceptional cheerleading, athleticism and dancing skills—helped her land this coveted job. Now, the 32-year-old high school math teacher who started dancing at age 2 is gearing up to celebrate the Eagles Super Bowl victory with the team and the city of Philadelphia in a victory parade scheduled to take place on Friday.

Elana Horowitz
Elana Horowitz at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. Photo by Brian Garfinkel.

Horowitz, who flew from New Orleans on an Eagle’s charter flight on Monday and was back in her Delaware classroom on Tuesday morning, spoke with JNS after school that day about her Jewish identity and how it comes to play in cheering for the Eagles.

Horowitz was born in Phoenix to parents who were both very active in Young Judea. When the family moved to Chicago when she was 2, she began dancing. “I have been taking ballet forever,” Horowitz says.

She attended the Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago from kindergarten through eighth grade and danced throughout, including a five-year stint with the Joffrey Ballet in the children’s cast of “The Nutcracker.” Horowitz also attended Camp Young Judaea Midwest for five summers. After she began attending Glenbrook North for high school, a public school, Horowitz reports missing her time at day school.

And so, she says, “I switched to Camp Ramah in Wisconsin so I could be with my Schechter friends.” 

Ramah began to occupy an important part of her life. Horowitz was a camper for two years and spent a summer in Israel with Ramah Israel Seminar. She then served on the dance staff for three summers and eventually married Daniel Soler, a physical therapist and former division head at Camp Ramah in the Poconos.

In high school, Horowitz continued to dance. She was on the Poms team, which danced and participated in pre-game and half-time ceremonies. “I fell in love with poms and learned this style, which is in line with the style of most NFL teams,” she says. 

Horowitz graduated from high school and spent a year in Israel on the Nativ program. While she enjoyed the gap-year program, she reports that “there were not many opportunities for dance.”

Fortunately, her college years at the University of Maryland offered opportunities to continue dancing, as well as the chance to be “very active” in Hillel and the Sigma Delta Tau sorority.

Horowitz double majored in math and education, and minored in Jewish studies. She joined Unbound Dance Team, the club dance team at the University of Maryland, where she noted that two of the dancers went on to cheer for NFL football teams. She began considering the possibility of trying out for one. “I was on the same dance team as them—I can do this,” she thought.

Elana Horowitz
Elana Horowitz at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. Photo by Brian Garfinkel.

‘An Israeli dance in my own style’

The very determined Horowitz graduated from the University of Maryland in 2015 and auditioned for the Baltimore Shuckers, a professional minor league basketball team, and for the Baltimore Blast indoor soccer team (she cheered for them for four years and received “Rookie of the Year” honors). Horowitz also auditioned for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, where she “got good feedback” but “kept getting cut” from the cheerleading squad.

She was proud to be selected for the Playmakers, the Ravens promotional team, where she and the team “engaged and hyped up fans” in the stadium. Unfortunately, the program was eliminated. But it got her thinking seriously about her future. “Maybe this isn’t it,” Horowitz recounts. She had been teaching high school math and decided to begin a master’s degree program. She also decided not to abandon her cheerleading aspirations.

Horowitz really liked the Philadelphia Eagles’ approach, which focused on what each person brings to the team. “I figured I would audition and be willing to move to Philadelphia.”

She notes that her husband grew up in Voorhees, N.J., not far from Philadelphia, adding that “when we got married, we combined our loves—the Eagles, the Cubs and Liverpool!”

But first, Horowitz needed to make the squad. The first year of auditioning, she reports that she made it the interview round and got cut. She continued taking virtual dance classes and working on physical conditioning. Then, she had an idea that could have proven to be risky.

“I decided to lean into my Jewish identity,” she says. This included making an introductory video where I talked about being Jewish, picking the song “Hopa” by Israeli singer Omer Adam to go with the reassigned dance, and speaking candidly about being Jewish in her second-round interview. “When they asked, ‘Why are you auditioning now?’ I said, ‘Philadelphia has a thriving Jewish community, and not a single Eagles cheerleader is Jewish. Why can’t I be that role model?”

Horowitz was invited to proceed to the final round, which took place over two nights. She had to perform the same routine as the semifinals, though this time it was as a soloist and not as part of a group. For the second night, the requirement was to present a “meaningful” dance.

“I did an Israeli dance in my own style to “L’Olam B’ikvot HaShemesh,” she says. “I made the team!”

Horowitz is particularly proud of how much Judaism she has been able to share with the team. On the second night of Rosh Hashanah, Horowitz brought apples and honey for her teammates. “They were obsessed with the honey sticks,” she recalls. “They came up to me and thanked me so much for sharing.”

On Chanukah, Horowitz brought dreidels, gelt and an electric menorah.

Just before the NFC championship game, she volunteered to lead the pre-game huddle, explaining to her team a Jewish prayer: “We said the ‘Shehechayanu.’ Obviously, we won!” 

As she looks back on the experience of bringing her Judaism to her fellow cheerleaders—many of whom are teachers, dental students and professionals from a wide range of fields—Horowitz reports that “it has been amazing to share my Jewish identity with the team. They embrace it!” 

She was particularly moved when a fellow cheerleader came up to Horowitz to sheepishly tell her: “I am Jewish, too. I didn’t know about the apples and honey!”

But her biggest fan, she says, is her husband: “He is my No. 1 support system. He is so insanely proud of me and posts all the time on social media.” She also notes how useful it is to have a physical therapist at the ready who can help her with post-game recovery.

Horowitz still can’t believe how lucky she feels to be an Eagles cheerleader and member of the extended Super Bowl championship family. “The game was a truly amazing experience. Even though it didn’t feel like were home, most of the crowd was rooting for the Eagles. Our motto all season was ‘Not if, when.”

Elana Horowitz
Elana Horowitz at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Feb. 9, 2025. Credit: Courtesy.

She recounts dancing with her team on the sidelines throughout the game and at the two-minute warning of the second quarter as victory was looking likely. She describes Gatorade thrown a bit early. “We then got together as a team, rushed the field and danced in the confetti. There is no feeling like it!” Horowitz was surprised to learn that each confetti piece was in the shape of the Vince Lombardi trophy awarded to the winner.

After the game, the cheerleaders went to the locker room to “clap it up.” After eating, they went to their hotel to change into “our winner’s dresses” and celebrate at the official Eagles after-party.

Horowitz says she is looking forward to the parade, to an off-season of appearances and to the yearly Eagles Autism Challenge event set to take place on May 17. The one-day bike ride and family-friendly 5K run-walk help raise money for autism. And, of course, she hopes to return to the cheerleading squad next year.

Rounding out her experience, she wants the world to know that “I got to dance for the Eagles—partly because of my Judaism. I pointed out what they were missing, and the Eagles saw that.”

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The original article is published at JNS.org

Julie Finkelstein of the Foundation for Jewish Camp says “there is lots of interest on the part of Israelis wanting to come, but they are still waiting,” due to the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.

When Jacob Cytryn, executive director of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, was asked to share a story of the camp’s strong connections to Israel with the hundreds of delegates at the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Leaders Assembly in Atlanta in December 2022, he recounted an emotional night in June 1967, just days after Israel’s stunning victory in the Six-Day War.

“Around midnight, the group of Israeli shlichim (‘emissaries’) descended from their rickety bus in the still, pitch-black Northwoods of Wisconsin after a trip that must have taken nearly 10 hours from the airport in Chicago and over a day since they departed from Israel. Exhausted, they walked into the auditorium, and the lights flicked on, and the entire camp erupted in cheers, song and dance. That June of 1967 changed the Jewish world. Many campers of that generation made aliyah and others felt forever connected to the promise of the modern Jewish state. And, 50 years later, their descendants in this room—in leadership and Jewish identity-building—still grapple with the miracle of Israel’s stunning victory and the thorny, complex and unresolved political and military morass it left in its wake.”

This summer, nearly 60 years after that war in Israel, Jewish summer-camp directors across North America are hoping that Israeli shlichim—an important source of inspiration, Israel education and experience, and labor—will show up this summer. If and when they do, the campers and counselors will be ready for them. After all, they, too, have had a challenging year. All three groups will arrive seeking the solace and sense of community that American Jewish summer camping has offered for generations.

Cytryn and fellow camp directors are hard at work preparing for a summer they hope will have Israelis on staff, as they have for decades.

Still, uncertainties remain due to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, “Operation Swords of Iron,” which started on Oct. 7—Shabbat and Simchat Torah morning—after the infiltration of Hamas terrorists across the border and into southern Jewish communities, murdering 1,200 men, women and children, and taking some 250 hostages (134 who still remain captive, with 32 confirmed dead).

At a summer camp run by the Union for Reform Judaism. Credit: URJ Camps.

And given the current realities in both Israel and North America, planning for this summer involves much more than recruiting Israelis, planning programs and outings, and purchasing food, basketballs and life jackets. Camps are also investing a great deal of time on staff training, camper and staff care, and security.

According to Julie Finkelstein, senior director of program strategy and innovation at the Foundation for Jewish Camp, “camps are moving full-steam ahead and want to hire Israelis, but they know the new shlichim are still up in the air due to the army/miluim [reservist service] and school. There is lots of interest on the part of Israelis wanting to come, but they are still waiting.”

The camps remain both optimistic and realistic, focusing on staffing since these issues affect operations.

“The camps are discussing how we responsibly tell the story of the past year with or without shlichim,” acknowledges Finkelstein.

The facilities are also bringing in security personnel to make sure that the grounds are as safe and secure as possible, and also working on an initiative with the Jewish Agency for Israel to bring 750 campers from areas near Gaza—along with staff and mental-health professionals—to Jewish camps this summer.

Still, Finkelstein notes, “there is less panic than you may think.”

FJC sees these unusual times as an opportunity. “It’s been a while since we’ve had to focus not on health and safety, but on what we are about—mission, vision and values.” As part of this process, FJC has planned two Israel trips for camp professionals so they can “bear witness and understand what is happening,” as well as show solidarity and help them “better talk about Israel at camp.”

Kids at Camp Ramah in the Rockies. Credit: Camp Ramah in the Rockies.

‘Grow, develop and not worry’

For some camps, talking about Israel will be natural and close to home.

Alan Silverman, who lives in Alon Shvut—a Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria—and has been serving as director of Camp Moshava in Honesdale, Pa., for 38 years, reports that his camp is filled with Israeli staff and kids, including families who live in Israel. This summer, he is also expecting to include two groups of 40 campers displaced from the communities near Gaza, accompanied by Israeli staff members.

They will naturally be able to share firsthand stories of the current realities of Israel; nonetheless, Silverman faces many uncertainties as he plans for June, July and August. “The adults who made aliyah and are not army-eligible, and their young kids who are too young to serve, they will come. For the others, we don’t know,” he says. “I have some excellent staff from the woodworking, education and ropes programs who were all called up for army service. And we started doing interviews—out of 50, 45 were women—most men are in the army now.”

Counselors at Ramah Day Camp in Nyack, N.Y. Credit: Ramah Day Camp in Nyack.

Silverman, who usually expects staff members to honor their commitments to camp, is prepared to be especially flexible this season: “Everybody has family, friends and boyfriends in the army. They may not want to come, or they may need to go back.”

He has a number of mental-health professionals on staff, including many who live and work in Israel, and “understand the Israeli psyche and speak Hebrew.” They include psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, social workers and those who have experience working with the army and with people grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Silverman, who expects to have 1,600 people in camp for the first session—noting in the same breath that he almost never leaves camp during the summer—will also be concentrating on the Jewish state. “I have three boys in the army. If things heat up, I may have to fly back and forth. Luckily, I have wonderful staff.”

For now, he is focused on all things camp-related. He is recruiting staff, reviewing security protocols and shifting educational curricula. While educational programming usually follows a five-year cycle, this year they will move to their “Shevet Achim” curriculum, which incorporates knowledge of Israel and antisemitism.

Silverman and other camp directors have not lost sight of the goals and importance of camp, saying kids need it now more than ever. Still, he said, “we need it to be a safe environment so campers can learn about and practice Judaism, have a great time, grow, develop and not worry.”

Celebrating “Israel Day” at Camp Ramah in California. Credit: Camp Ramah in California.

‘Coming to get away from it all’

Helene Drobenare-Horwitz, executive director of the Young Judea Sprout Camps, agrees and is already planning a week where staff both “own” the current realities and put them aside so they can create a strong, sound environment for their campers.

“There’s never been a year like this,” she attests. “There has never been an Oct. 7 or a year like this in the United States with such an uptick in antisemitism.” While Drobenare-Horwitz is sensitive to and preparing for the needs of her Israeli staff and campers, she points out that “we are preparing to support all staff—not just Israelis. There has been trauma on both sides of the ocean.”

At camp, one full day will be devoted to MESH (Mental, Emotional and Social Health) training. Drobenare-Horwitz  is working closely with trauma specialists to help create a “space for staff to unpack it and actively work on how to move forward.”

She feels strongly about stating that “we, as a Jewish people, have been through trauma.”

Once staff members begin to understand that trauma and work through it, they will be prepared to offer campers the experience they are coming for. After all, “camp is a place for kids. Lots will happen over the summer. We don’t want staff stopping every 10 minutes to check the news. Parents are not sending their kids to camp for that. They are coming to get away from it all.”

Havdalah at a summer camp run by the Union for Reform Judaism. Credit: URJ Camps.

Drobenare-Horwitz shares the expectation that staff be “fully present” at the interview. “I tell them, ‘If you can’t do that, this may not be the camp for you.” In interviewing Israelis to work at camp, she asks more questions than in past years so she has a better understanding of where they have been this year and how they have been impacted by the situation in Israel. “Did they serve? If not, did they volunteer? How was their family affected?” And she is conducting all interviews in person.

She remains keenly aware of the responsibilities that she and her team face this summer—much different than in other years. Namely, she states, the issue is how do we take care of the Jewish people?

“There are lots of different traumas coming to camp this summer—Israeli kids coming to camp, Americans who spent the year in Israel and (American) kids with stories of antisemitism,” she notes.

In the Reform movement, Ruben Arquilevich, vice president for Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) camps, National Federation of Temple Youth (NIFTY) and Immersives is proud that thousands of Israeli participants have cultivated deep friendships, community and sacred Jewish learning at our camps over the decades.

“These connections are year-round and lifelong,” he says.

In preparing for the summer, Arquilevich expects that the numbers of shlichim will be lower than in past years due to army reserve duty but points to “the great interest in Israeli teens joining Jewish camps across North America this summer.”

Celebrating Israel pride at Camp Ramah in the Poconos. Credit: Courtesy of the Foundation for Jewish Camp.

‘Boundaries, guidelines, tools, resources’

He explains that Campers2Gether (C2G)—a new partnership between the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC), the Jewish Agency for Israel and Mosaic United—aims to bring 75 groups of 20 Israeli teens (a total of 1,500) entering grades nine and 10, along with two group leaders and one MESSH support specialist per group, into second-session or post-camp environments for two-week visits to Jewish overnight camps across North America.

This program is designed specifically for teens who have been displaced from the Gaza Envelope in Israel’s south and the border with Lebanon in the north. In addition, the URJ Camps are continuing their longstanding partnership with the Israel Movement for Progressive and Reform Judaism (IMPJ), thanks to a generous anonymous donor, Reform and Progressive communities and congregations across Israel to URJ Camps for four-week camp experiences.

Passing around challah at a summer camp run by the Union for Reform Judaism Credit: URJ Camps.

Arquilevich says that “in preparation for the summer, we are developing culture and skills-building opportunities to create communities of belonging, including safety around diverse perspectives.” He stresses the need to provide a safe, educational environment for discussing Israel “while also setting clear boundaries, guidelines, tools, resources for staff in the camp environment.”

Back at Ramah Wisconsin, 57 years after those Israeli heroes of the Six-Day War arrived at camp, Jacob Cytryn is preparing for his Israeli delegation. Like his colleagues across the Jewish camping world, he acknowledges that he may not know until just before camp starts just how many Israelis will arrive.

Cytryn and his team are also preparing their “curricular response” to recent events in both Israel and North America. “I know cabin-age staff may want a break from the onslaught of the year, but I feel as an educator, we have a mandate to our parents to respond educationally.” While the details have not been fully worked out, he is clear about one thing: “We will adopt the theme of Kol Yisrael areivim zeh bah zeh—“All Jews are responsible for each other!”

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