Over the past seven years at the helm of Ramah Day Camp of Greater Washington DC, Rabbi Jill Levy saw the summer camp double in size. The camp director is stepping down July 2, and the current associate director will take her place.

Levy moved from Texas to Rockville in fall 2019 to begin as Ramah Day Camp DC’s first full-time camp director.

“I knew I would learn and grow through this opportunity, but I could never have imagined the extent to which our family would become so deeply woven into the Ramah community,” Levy shared in a LinkedIn post announcing her upcoming departure.

During her time as camp director, Levy played a central leadership role in more than doubling camper enrollment. Ramah Day Camp DC served 179 campers when she started — that number is now more than 420. The budget has also grown considerably, from $650,000 to upwards of $1.2 million, she said.

Levy attributes this growth to the camp’s “amazing, committed team” that is dedicated to camper and staff care.

“We’ve also tried to be as creative as possible so that we can let in more campers each summer,” she said.

In 2023, Ramah Day Camp DC launched a smaller STEM camp around the corner from its base location. “That’s also allowed us to grow,” Levy said.

The programming options have also grown in the past dozen years, according to associate director Sharon Rosenberg Safra.

Last year, the camp opened a chava, or farm, that’s now home to three goats and four chickens. A couple of years ago, the camp added an outdoor cooking elective, where campers learn how to prepare kosher eats over a campfire.

Levy drew upon her rabbinic background to make Ramah Day Camp an immersive Jewish experience for campers entering kindergarten through fifth grade. A smaller camp, BIG IDEA @ Ramah, goes up to seventh grade.

“When they come home, they’re telling their parents about the friends they made and the Israeli songs and dances they’ve learned and the community they’ve built,” Levy said.

In addition to rabbi and camp director, Levy is also a Jewish educator. “[That role] just really helped me bring that frame of Judaism into everything that we do,” she said.

“We believe in having an integrated model at Ramah, so that when the kids come in in the morning, the first thing they’re doing is dancing on our migrash to Israeli and all-Hebrew music and feeling that ruach — that spirit — in everything that we do,” Levy said.

She also helped integrate Jewish learning into the various programmatic areas at camp.

“We’re even seeing in surveys and research that we’re doing that this Jewish impact is not something that just lasts for a summer, but that it is having a long-term impact on our campers,” Levy said.

It wasn’t an easy decision for the camp director to step down from the role she’s held since before the pandemic.

“It was one that took a lot of soul-searching, because I really, really love this camp,” Levy said. “As a Jewish professional, I’m ready for some new challenges and experiences.”

She will begin as senior director of Jewish immersive learning at Mem Global, the umbrella brand that includes Moishe House, where she will work with Jews in their 20s and 30s.

“We have great leadership who can step in, which is awesome, and we have a long-term site plan starting in 2027, so we know that we have security for the future of our camp,” Levy said.

Rosenberg Safra, the longtime associate director of Ramah Day Camp DC, will take over as camp director.

“I’m thrilled that [the Ramah team] trusts and has the confidence in me to carry the torch,” she said.

“[Sharon] has been at camp longer than I have,” Levy said. “This [is] summer No. [12] for her … and she knows this camp better than anybody and has such a high level of dedication and commitment to camper care, staff care, Jewish education and learning.”

Rosenberg Safra, who holds a master’s in Jewish education, is a career Jewish professional. She served as B’nai Israel Congregation’s family education director for 13 years, and before that, the assistant director of University of Maryland Hillel.

She has a long history with Ramah Day Camp DC. Her youngest child began at the day camp during its pilot program in 2014, and Rosenberg Safra, who worked part time at B’nai Israel, asked the camp leadership if she could help out that summer.

She began as the camper care specialist in 2015. “And here we are 12 years later,” she said.

Rosenberg Safra called the upcoming transition “bittersweet, but exciting,” as she has enjoyed working with Levy.

“The camp is in a super strong place,” Rosenberg Safra said. “Our enrollment has never been higher. We’ve had waitlists. … So [I’m looking forward to] continuing the strength of our programming and commitment to camper care.

“We’re hoping for a very seamless transition and that’s because we have a great team and a great community of families who believe in Ramah’s mission and our staff, so I’m excited about that,” she said.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com