{"id":29493,"date":"2016-04-15T12:02:27","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T18:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=29493"},"modified":"2016-04-15T12:06:32","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T18:06:32","slug":"rabbi-linden-prepares-for-new-challenge-at-camp-ramah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/rabbi-linden-prepares-for-new-challenge-at-camp-ramah\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabbi Linden prepares for new challenge at Camp Ramah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By ALAN SMASON, <em>Exclusive to the CCJN<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With approximately nine weeks left before he leaves the Greater New Orleans area, Rabbi Ethan Linden is preparing for his last Passover season in New Orleans with mixed feelings. He is looking forward to new challenges ahead, but reluctantly saying goodbye to a community he has helped to transform for the past seven years.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_29494\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Lindens_edit.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29494\" class=\"wp-image-29494 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Lindens_edit-300x218.jpg\" alt=\"Lindens_edit\" width=\"300\" height=\"218\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Lindens_edit-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Lindens_edit-1024x743.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/218;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29494\" class=\"wp-image-29494 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Lindens_edit-300x218.jpg\" alt=\"Lindens_edit\" width=\"300\" height=\"218\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Lindens_edit-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Lindens_edit-1024x743.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-29494\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rabbi Ethan Linden with wife Liba Kornfeld as seen at his invocation in 2009. (Photo by Alan Smason)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Linden, the dynamic and ebullient spiritual leader of Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation, officially accepted the position of director of Camp Ramah in the Berkshires a few weeks ago, after privately announcing last year to synagogue officials and members of his intent to apply for that position.<\/p>\n<p>Linden leaves for the Berkshires after Shavuot in order to begin the process of taking over the reins of leadership for the camp located in Wingdale, NY.<\/p>\n<p>For Linden the summer camping experience has been ingrained in him for a long time. He came to Shir Chadash from a similar-sized camp, Camp Ramah of New England, in 2009 and took on his first role as a senior pulpit rabbi. Linden immediately made himself a vital member of the community rabbinate. He proved to be an impressive and considerate speaker and a valued teacher. But the allure of the lake waters and hills associated with the outdoors and the Jewish camping experience proved too attractive to the still very youthful rabbi.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I loved being rabbi here at Shir Chadash,&#8221; he told the CCJN in a phone interview. &#8220;I loved the pulpit rabbinate, but the opportunity to be the director of a Ramah camp doesn&#8217;t come up very often and it was an opportunity I didn&#8217;t feel I could pass up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, his words are concurred by Rabbi Paul Resnick, the current director of the camp, who is retiring after 28 years as camp director. Resnick came to Camp Ramah in the Berkshires in 1987.<\/p>\n<p>Resnick said he and his board are looking forward to working with Linden in the coming months as he prepares to begin his camp directorship for the first time next year. He will be at the camp during its full session this year at which more than 740 campers will attend. The physical campus includes a kosher dining hall, swimming and aquatics at a freshwater lake and several arenas and sports facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Because of Linden&#8217;s work at Camp Ramah of New England, Resnick was already quite familiar with Linden. &#8220;I\u2019ve known Ethan and was very impressed with him and what he was doing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I remember him sitting at the table and thinking he was incredibly competent and capable a decade ago. I was certainly excited that he was one of the applicants.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The winter headquarters for the camp are located in Englewood, N.J. and both Linden and his wife, Liba Kornfeld, are looking forward to moving their family near there.<\/p>\n<p>As to his work with others, Linden admits he is proud of the interaction he has maintained with other Metairie Jewish community leaders including Congregation Gates of Prayer Rabbi Robert Loewy and present and past Congregation Beth Israel leaders Rabbis Gabriel Greenberg and Uri Topolosky, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Under his spiritual leadership, Shir Chadash has grown over the last seven years, but in reflecting on his record, Linden is loathe to take any credit for anything himself.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am very proud of where the synagogue is today,&#8221; Linden said. &#8220;That has less to do with me than the way the community has grown and has been strengthened. In membership, programming and in learning, I think the shul is in a very strong place.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The one area where he will grudgingly accept credit for his leadership and vision is in the area of Jewish education and learning. Linden has been an instructor for the Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning since his arrival and his regular weekly &#8220;lunch and learn&#8221; sessions and Shabbat study sessions have all been well attended through the years.<\/p>\n<p>While things are winding down for the rabbi, he will have a number of holiday-related activities to attend to in the coming weeks including the Yom Ha&#8217;Shoah, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha&#8217;Atzmaut programs, all of which lead to Shavuot and the time he will be saying goodbye to New Orleans and hello to the Berkshires.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Rabbi%20Linden%20prepares%20for%20new%20challenge%20at%20Camp%20Ramah\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8790,8795,7332,3524,8788,8824,7781],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29493"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29502,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29493\/revisions\/29502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}