You're Invited!

On Sunday, November 6th, at 5:30 PM PST we will gather as a community for a joyful moment – our 2022 gala! We invite you to help us honor Ellen Moss Brown, Gwen & Jeremy Rosenthal our Alumni Leadership Award Recipient and special recognition for Dr. Alyse Baron and Dr. Andrea Kasowitz. You can purchase a sponsorship, an individual ticket, or a tribute page. 

Your participation makes a critical difference, not only showcasing our collective gratitude for the commitment and service of Ellen, Gwen & Jeremy, Alyse and Andrea, but also helping to sustain Camp Ramah and keep it vibrant for generations to come.

Proceeds from the Gala Celebration will enable Camp Ramah to continue to flourish, ensuring financially accessible Jewish camping and content-rich summer programming now, and by establishing The Ramah Infrastructure and Sustainability Endowment Fund.  Seeding this vital endowment with net proceeds from this evening will provide an enduring resource to protect camp from the inevitable threats and challenges posed by an aging infrastructure and a rapidly changing climate. Managing more than 450 acres and over 100,000 square feet of facilities more sustainably will ensure that Camp Ramah will continue to be a home for generations to come.

If you have questions about attending please contact John Magoulas at (818) 668-2929 or john@ramah.org.

Virtual Tribute Book Options

SAKRANUT VIRTUAL SLIDE – $25,000

YETZIRATIYUT VIRTUAL SLIDE – $18,000

MANHIGUT VIRTUAL SLIDE – $12,500

OMETZ LEV VIRTUAL SLIDE – $9,000

ZERIZUT VIRTUAL SLIDE – $5,000

FULL PAGE – $1,500

QUARTER PAGE – $500

HALF PAGE – $1,000

NAME LISTING – $180

AD SIZES AND SPECIFICATIONS – Please submit artwork to john@ramah.org Full Page: 11"w x 8.5"h | Half Page: 5.5"w x 8.5"h | Quarter Page: 5.5"w x 4.25"h | Eighth Page: 2.75”w x 2.125”h. We are happy to design your page. Photos and camera-ready artwork are welcome.

Virtual Tribute Book ad prices do not include tickets to the dinner. Sponsorships and Tribute Book ads are in addition to your 2022 annual gift to Camp Ramah in California

Honorees

Ellen Moss Brown

The year 1972 was formative for Ellen Moss Brown and for Camp Ramah alike. For a fourteen-year-old Ellen, it was her first kayitz as a Ramahnik. For Camp Ramah, it was the first kayitz on what was then the “new” property.

While most of the chanichim (campers) spent that summer back at the old campsite, the Machon edah, including Ellen, had the run of the new property – though it looked a lot different back then. There were pup tents and outhouses. The outdoor spigot showers were rudimentary at best. Despite the rustic facilities, Ellen remembers the magical feeling of being at camp. It was the people that she fell in love with. That’s why she returned in subsequent summers to work as a madricha (counselor).

During those formative years, as a student at Birmingham High School in the valley, Ellen remembers feeling a bit different from other students because of her family’s commitments to kashrut and to Shabbat. All that changed at Camp Ramah, where being Jewish wasn’t different; it was something special. Ellen was a product of the Conservative movement in Los Angeles, busy during the school year with Valley Beth Shalom’s USY chapter and Los Angeles Hebrew High School. But It was her summers spent in Ojai, the experiential education of everyday Jewish joy, that lit a spark.

Ellen spent the early part of her career working in advertising. In 2001, she redirected her efforts onto the Jewish community, first working to grow membership in Hadassah’s      Northern Area Resource Center, and then as Care Transition Coach for the Los Angeles Jewish Home, where in 2016 she received the JHA Home Team Employee Recognition Award for excellent service.

For The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Ellen served the Valley Alliance Women’s Department both as Chair and Campaign Chair, and as Chair of the Strategic Planning and Distribution Committee. She was honored with the Valley Alliance’s Women’s Department  Juliet Award and the Rita Reznikoff Leadership Award.

Ellen has served the Valley Beth Shalom Day School in a variety of capacities since 1996, including Parent Organization Co-President, Chair of the Annual Giving Campaign, and as a  Board Trustee. In 1999, she was honored by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles – Valley Alliance Organization’s Assembly for her efforts at VBS, and then by VBS the following year with the Rita Reznikoff Leadership Award.

Since 2007, Ellen has served on the Board of Directors of Camp Ramah in California, including  four years as Board Chair, from 2019-2022. She most recently worked as the Campaign Manager, Donor and Alumni Relations at de Toledo High School in West Hills, CA staffing the school’s Annual Campaign, retiring this past June.  Ellen lives in Tarzana, CA with her husband Jeff. She loves to spend time with her children and their families:  Matthew and Sara, and her delicious almost 3-year-old grandson Reuben, who live in Boston.  Jonathan, who lives in New York; and Emily and Sam, who recently moved to Los Angeles. 

Alumni Leadership Award

Gwen and Jeremy Rosenthal 

The tagline of Camp Ramah in California is “A Journey for a Lifetime.” For Gwen and Jeremy Rosenthal, that journey spans three generations.

Jeremy’s story begins back in 1965, when his parents met at Camp Ramah. Jeremy’s mom worked in the camp office as part of K’vutzat Ramah and his dad worked in the chadar ochel (dining hall). Jeremy’s own Journey for a Lifetime begins in the kayitz (summer) of 1983 when was a young camper. For Gwen, it was a decade later, in 1993, when she worked as a madricha (counselor).

It wasn’t until 1998 that Gwen and Jeremy first met while on tzevet (staff). Gwen was Rosh Edah for Adat Shalom, and Jeremy was Rosh Edah for Abirim. Jeremy was, in fact, the last Rosenthal for Gwen to meet: his mom had been Gwen’s yoetzet; his sister had been in Mador when Gwen was a Rosh; and she had previously met his brother while in Israel at Pardes.

Camp Ramah changed their lives – and not just because it was where they first met. Ramah provided a foundation for Gwen and Jeremy to learn about themselves and to develop their identities in challenging but safe ways. They can trace almost every part of their lives, including their deepest and closest friendships even today, to the impacts of Camp Ramah.

Gwen and Jeremy took the lessons they learned at camp about how to weave Judaism into the rhythm of their daily lives and incorporated it into their parenting decisions. They have worked to create a home and a lifestyle for their three children based upon the values they learned at Ramah: a lifestyle where Judaism is taken seriously, which offers ethical and intellectual challenges to wrestle with, which prioritizes education, identity, tzedakah, ritual, and community.

They feel privileged to have been able to spend their summers with their children at Camp Ramah, where Gwen has served as yoetzet for more than a decade.

It is especially important to Gwen and Jeremy that camp be affordable and accessible to everyone who wants to participate. They believe strongly that Camp Ramah is a place for families of all backgrounds, and that it should embrace all of what Judaism can look like. That, in part, is why they are also dedicated to supporting the Tikvah program.

Gwen has been an educator for over twenty years as currently serves as middle school humanities teacher and department chair, and Director of Student Life and Learning, at Pressman Academy. Jeremy is an attorney who helps companies in distress work through their financial and operational difficulties with Force 10 Partners. In addition to Camp Ramah, where Jeremy serves on the Board of Directors, they are also involved at Beth Am and IKAR. Gwen and Jeremy live in Los Angeles with their three Ramahnik children, Ezra (17), Micah (15), and Eli (12).