last word
NEW CAMP RAMAH DIRECTOR
Miryam Seid
IS RIGHT WHERE SHE WANTS TO BE
Jarrad Saff ren | Staff Writer
Photo by Remi Sitko
B efore the pandemic, Miryam
Seid traveled across the
country with her husband,
Adam, to visit her childhood camp,
Ramah in California. The camp was
hosting a family experience during
Passover. But for Miryam Seid, it was
a chance to see the place where she
became herself.

Seid, now 43, spent eight summers
there, back when it was called Ramah
Ojai after its town, from 1989-’96. She
still credits the place for giving her a
Jewish identity via a connection with
other Jews and seeing the Jewish
lessons behind all experiences. So
when she returned for the fi rst time in
more than 20 years, her husband saw
it all over her face.

“She just looked so alive,” he said.

Less than fi ve years later, Seid is
back on a Ramah campus full time,
and she’s running the place. It’s not the
same oasis in Southern California. But
for the Wynnewood resident, it’s the
East Coast version: In February, Seid
took over as the executive director of
Camp Ramah in the Poconos.

“This is a marriage of passion and
profession,” she said. “It’s a tremen-
dous responsibility, but I love the road
ahead. I already know that.”
Seid graduated from Columbia
University and the Jewish Theological
Seminary in the early 2000s, earning
degrees in American history and
Jewish studies. At JTS, she also took
a work-study position in its institutional
advancement department. It made her
realize that she had a passion for
“development work,” according to her
profi le on Ramah’s website.

For the next decade-plus, Seid
worked for Jewish organizations. She
served as an advancement director at
Miryam Seid, right, with her daughter at Camp Ramah in the Poconos
JTS and as special events coordinator
at the Mount Sinai Children’s Center
Foundation, both in New York City.

The Seids moved to the Philadelphia
area in 2013 so Adam Seid could take
a pharmaceutical job. After staying
home for a few years following the birth
of her son, Miryam Seid became an
advancement director at the University
of Pennsylvania’s Hillel chapter.

During her three years at Penn Hillel,
camp was, as Adam Seid described
it, a “pipe dream.” When the couple
walked around Ramah in California
that Passover, they talked about how
cool it would be to become a camp
family. But Adam Seid also reminded
his wife that she was not just going to
take a job as a counselor.

She knew he was right. So, she
found a solution.

In 2019, Miryam Seid saw online that
there was an opening at Camp Ramah
for a director of institutional advance-
ment. She applied and got it. Her role?
Calling donors and asking for money,
a position that became vital during the
canceled COVID summer of 2020. But
Seid knew what she was doing. She
would always start calls with the same
question. “What’s your Ramah story?”
“People always want to talk about
their Ramah story,” she added.

Seid did such a good job that Ramah
now gives out $350,000 in scholarship
funds per year, a number that has gone
up over the past four years. Coming out
of COVID, Ramah has more campers
than it did in 2019 and the longest
waitlist in its history, according to Seid.

Those successes convinced Rabbi
Joel Seltzer, Ramah’s previous execu-
tive director, that Seid could replace
him. Seltzer announced in September
that he would be leaving his position
after more than 10 years. His chief
fundraiser informed him that she would
be applying, and the rabbi was both
“thrilled” and “relieved,” he said.

More important than her fundraising
skills is her “moral compass that points
to true north,” Seltzer explained. In
2021, Ramah implemented a bubble
to prevent COVID from entering. Due
to the challenge of bringing in interna-
tional staff members, the camp’s opera-
tions team had only eight workers,
compared to its usual roster of more
than 40. Seid responded by helping
out. She washed dishes in the kitchen,
served food in the buff et line and
packed bunks with fourth-grade boys.

“She has an incredible talent for
connecting deeply with people and
understanding complex situations,”
Seltzer said.

When Seid got the off er, she called it
a “dream come true,” and she still feels
that way. Adam Seid sees it when she
comes home from work. She walks in
with the same “extreme happiness”
that she brought to the day, he said.

The Seids belong to Adath Israel
on the Main Line. They go to the
synagogue on Shabbat and “do a lot of
hosting for Shabbat dinners,” Miryam
said. The mother encourages her two
children to invite their friends. She
compares it to Ramah.

“It’s spirited; it’s joyful; it’s fi lled with
family and friends,” she said. ■
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
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