Ariel Oberfeld, 17, recalled watching his 8-year-old campers dance, sing and laugh at a recent “Camp Disco Night.” The experience sounded typical, one that thousands of children and teenagers enjoy annually at overnight camp. But then came a “scary sound” in one of the songs, Oberfeld said. The next thing he knew, “during the disco they started crying.”

Though Oberfeld is from Deerfield, Ill., his campers come from across Ukraine, including some of the country’s hardest-hit cities. “These kids have [experienced] trauma,” he said.

Oberfeld, the son of two Ukrainian emigrants to the U.S., returned to his parents’ war-torn birth country this summer to volunteer as a counselor at Camp Ramah Yachad in Sunny Valley, near Chernivtsi in western Ukraine. He is the first American volunteer counselor since the war broke out. 

“I tried to convince him not to come,” Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya, the camp’s director, told eJewishPhilanthropy before the camp started. “I made a very convincing speech about why it can be dangerous and complex, but he tried so hard to convince me to let him do it and about how it’s important for him that I could not say no.”

Camp in Ukraine has both similarities and differences to Oberfeld’s memories as a camper at Camp Chi, a Jewish overnight camp in Lake Delton, Wis., which he describes as a “great experience, it connected me with my Judaism.” 

Last year, Oberfeld’s love for camp led him to fundraise from the U.S. for two children to be able to attend Ramah Yachad. But more than two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Oberfeld decided he would dedicate his summer before senior year to helping children on the ground. “I didn’t want to just sit back and give money this year,” he said. “I’m very involved with my Jewish community back home and I want to share that with kids where my family is from. Camp creates such a meaningful connection, and this camp being centered on Judaism strengthens kids’ Judaism. I saw how that helped me and want to give that experience to these kids. If my parents didn’t leave for America, I could have been one of these kids.” 

“The kids are very passionate about their Judaism,” he told eJP in a phone interview from Ukraine during a short break between water sports and dinner. “They are very happy to be here and this is their safe haven from their stressful lives at war.” 

This is the third year that the camp is operating since the Russian invasion. Several aspects are different this year, including the harsh reality that many fathers have chosen not to drop off or pick up their kids at camp for fear of being snatched off the street by Ukraine’s authorities and pressed into military service. With many of Ukraine’s soldiers killed or injured, the government in May stepped up its efforts to mobilize more men — with conscription officers on the hunt for those between 25-60 who did not register. 

But there are also positive changes to camp this year. For the first time, Camp Ramah Yachad has collaborated with Maccabi USA and Maccabi Ukraine under the leadership of Arnie Fielkow to bring some 20 Ukrainian campers from Maccabi Ukraine. Under the partnership, the camp will host its first sports day, called Maccabiah, for the campers. (Maccabi also sent 16 children to Ramah Galim in Northern California.) 

The idea to bring Maccabi USA to camp in Ukraine was personal to Fielkow because of his ties to the country and to Ramah, the vice president of Maccabi USA and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, told eJP. “My love for Ukraine started in 2007 when my wife and I adopted two beautiful daughters from Ukraine,” he said. At the time, the girls were 2 and 5 years old. Now both are college students in the U.S. 

When war broke out in 2022, “it made me want to do something… to help the youth of Ukraine, especially the youth that are part of Maccabi Ukraine,” he recalled. 

“These kids need a place where they can have fun, tranquility and get away from the war for even a few weeks,” Fielkow said. With the assistance of donors who wish to remain anonymous, about a dozen Maccabi Ukraine youth were brought to Ramah sports academy in California last summer. 

The summer was a success, according to Fielkow who said that it led to “a call I got from a family foundation that wants to remain anonymous that said ‘we love what you’re doing and want to broaden it.’ So as a result, we have created this multifaceted movement between Maccabi Ukraine, Macabbi USA and the Ramah movement,” Fielkow, who grew up attending a Ramah camp in the U.S., said. The partnership entails sending 16 children to Ramah Galil in California and 20 to Ramah Yachad in Ukraine, as well as the purchase of sports equipment for both camps. The initiative comes with a hefty price tag “in the six figures,” Fielkow, who is visiting Ramah Yachad this week, said. 

The partnership extends beyond the summer camp experience —  although that is that main component —  and already has plans to continue, regardless of whether Ukraine’s war with Russia stretches into another year. “Next summer are the big games in Israel, the Maccabiah, and we will be financially supporting the Ukrainian delegation to come to Israel [and] we have put some dollars in place to help with programming for chapters of Maccabi Ukraine that have been devastated by the war,” Fielkow said. “Even when the war ends the rebuilding is going to be so substantial that these kids will still need a respite.” 

The other favorable addition to camp this summer is Oberfeld, said Gritsevskaya, who serves as executive director of Midreshet Schechter in addition to her work as the leader of the Ukrainian Conservative/Masorti community. “It’s very important what Ariel is doing,” she said. “A whole generation of children of people who left Ukraine 30 years ago or more are growing up in the states and the fact that teens in this generation remember their roots is very meaningful.” 

Oberfeld is the only American at camp and is working alongside Israeli and Ukrainian counselors — making the language barrier one of the summer’s challenges. But it hasn’t set him back. Oberfeld grew up speaking Russian, but said over the years he’s become rusty. Though similar, Russian is also distinct from the Ukrainian that most of the campers speak. “In the first couple of days, I quickly got it back, and I’m even starting to learn some Ukrainian,” he said. 

In return for the kids teaching him Ukrainian, he’s started a conversational club in English, held on Shabbat, for kids who want to learn. 

The camp also has a psychologist and two doctors on staff to help with the children’s trauma, which can show itself even on Disco Night. “But mostly we really believe that arts activities, sports and human connections, that’s the way to deal with it,” Gritsevskaya told eJP. “[We’re] allowing the kids two weeks of normal life, normal childhood.” 

Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.