crl
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Mon, Jan 23 2012, 11:19 am
bigsis144 wrote: | Inspire wrote: | I watched the video from Camp Raninu and while there was a lot of footage on the drama, sports, trips and other entertainment, I didn't see much Jewish content; can anyone with experience at this camp comment on things like shiur, chesed projects, anything like that? |
I only went for one summer, and I was already staff by then -- the video girl, to be exact. (Though if the video you're referring to is recent, it's after my time.)
There is davening with the whole camp together every morning, shiur every morning for every bunk, mandatory shul and shiurim on Shabbos, divrei Torah at every Shabbos meal and melave malka (given by both campers and staff), lots of Jewish songs whenever they have singing activities after daily lunch...
The Nine Days are a big deal -- they don't want it to just be "days with no swimming", and the staff works hard to make those days especially meaningful in terms of middos and avodas Hashem. |
Hey, I was the video girl too! I also went for 4 years before that, 3 as Raninu, 1 as Rina.
I definitely think it's a more "high end" camp in the sense that you're not roughing it, as opposed to Sternberg which is more outdoorsy. There are always going to be individual bratty kids regardless of camp or hashkafa, and there are also going to be nice kids. It's big enough that you find your group.
There was definitely a frum atmosphere, the themes of the day were very often hashkafic, as well as many of the activities. They also had a lot of really fun just "stam" activities.
It definitely is a more to the right camp, but there is a huge mix of girls (at least there was in my day). When I was in Rina, we had girls from Mexico, London, Canada, all over the US, etc. so even if they were all technically "Bais Yaakov", it was a mix as to how that was interpreted. If I recall, the only things they were strict on (which I think is reasonable) is tznius (no leg showing, no slits, middle part of body covered, not too tight etc.) and no laptops or DVD players or cell phones. I'm assuming they've added rules about ipods etc, but I don't know.
The staff is also really nice, the counselors were (in my experience) really good from both a camper and a coworkers perspective. I had a lot of fun as both staff and camper and actually made some of my best friends there one year!
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