Vision, Leadership, and Change: The Case of Ramah Summer Camps

Abstract

In his retrospective essay, Seymour Fox (1997) identified “vision” as the essential element that shaped the Ramah camp system. I will take a critical look at Fox's main claims:

• A particular model of vision was essential to the development of Camp Ramah, and

• That model of vision should guide contemporary Jewish educators in creating Jewish educational excellence.

I will draw upon historical accounts and theories of organizational leadership and change to question Fox's first claim about the history of Camp Ramah and to offer an alternative model of vision to guide future leaders of Jewish camps.

Notes

¹There is no reference in the original text to who this professor is and I am making an educated guess.

²Jerry Abrams, in a conversation in March, 2010, told me that when he returned in 1980 to once again become the director of Camp Ramah in the Berkshires after an absence of 13 years, it was like entering a completely altered environment. All the reigning assumptions from the Fox era were no longer current. He felt the directors in 1980 spoke a different educational language and the relationship to JTS had become far less intense.

³Jerry Abrams (personal communication, March, 2010) explained that Fox had had a very close relationship with JTS Chancellor Finkelstein and at the same time was the dean of the Teacher's Institute, the motivating force behind the Melton Research Center and the Ramah Camps. Fox kept all thee units interacting on a regular basis. But no one else in the Ramah movement ever had the connectedness that Fox had developed over time.

⁴In Vision at the Heart, the contributions of the JTS sages are called “The Jewish Ideas behind Ramah” (p. 11) and the contributions of Schwab and Bettleheim are called “The Educational Ideas behind Ramah” (p. 20). They seem to be parallel elements of the Ramah vision.