Rabbi Josh is a long-time parent of a Sci-Tech camper and this year was able to join us for a session as a visiting faculty member. Visiting faculty spend their time at Sci-Tech supporting the existing programing by participating in various workshops, chugim (electives), and of course services. We caught up with Rabbi Cahan after he experienced his first Shabbat here with us at Sci-Tech.
There are so many great things going on here that at any given moment there are at least 3 different workshops I’d like to join. But I came in expecting that. What I didn’t expect was the care and creativity of Sci-Tech’s Shabbat services. Our own Rabbi Dan Medwin developed, in a previous life, a technique called Visual T’filah. It’s my favorite kind of innovation – once I saw it I wondered why I wasn’t doing it already. Each prayer is projected on a screen, but it’s not just the words. The text, transliteration, and English are superimposed elegantly over beautiful images and photographs that tie into the theme of each prayer, so the slides add to sense of prayerfulness and richness of the moment. Huge kudos to counselor Cooper Hartog, who has spent many hours revising and refining each slide. Campers sing along enthusiastically with the great energy of the Jewish Life staff, led by song leader Sam Sheran and Jewish Life Director Lydia Watkins. And the slides help give those songs a sense of meaning and sacredness that really sets Shabbat at camp apart.
