Have you ever met someone new, and as you slowly get to know more about them, you discover that you know people in common? You know someone who went to their college, who lived in their home town, who dated their brother, who worked for their mother, whose cousin’s sister’s rabbi’s friend’s teacher shopped in the same store as you on July 17th? It is that age old game of Jewish Geography that is so much fun to play! Well, on Sunday August 16th, Yavneh Alum entered into the modern version of this game called Jewish Geography Zoom Racing, organized by #campfiresandcolorwars.
Ann Lapin shot right out of the gate, guessing the identity of Mayim Bialik, so she got to choose her opponent for Round 2. Round 1 contestants were Rabbi Charlie Savenor, Kerem ’85 going head to head with Ami Abramson, Kerem ’89. They reached out to Yavneh friends and non-Yavneh friends to get them to find their chosen one. Tensions ran high between these two JTS-connected, Yavneh alum, but eventually they were able to find her, even though Charlie sadly mentioned that he felt it was like Maccabiah ’85 all over again. During this round we saw alum and board member Suzanne Kling Langman, Kerem ’85, Arie Katz, and current Yavneh parent and board member Cheryl Stober join the ZOOM, feverishly working to help our contestants. In addition, we had ringers on the call, Becca and Steve Shimshak and Bil Zarch helping our contestants.
Round 2 pitted Ann Lapin, Kerem ’92 against Yoni Silverman, Kerem ’04. This was the chaotic round, at some point having over 20 people on the ZOOM. Similar to Round 1, we saw many Yavneh alum brought in for support. Leah Forman, Josh Micley, Laurel and Tali Marcus, Natan Brownstein, Efraim Yudewitz, Roseanne Lesack (a member of the current Yavneh Camper Care team), Ami Abramson (what?!?) and ringers Davida Amkraut, Shira Loewenstein and Bil Zarch. This round made us all wish that Shabbat was close so that we could see what Parsha Players would have to say!
Round 3 was a first for Jewish Geography Zoom Racing. Two contestants sharing a screen. Jossie Forman, Kerem ’10 went head to head against her dear friend and current roommate, Talia Schwartz, also Kerem ’10. This also brought about some memories of their Maccabiah, and a rogue admission that one of them (you will have to watch the video to find out which one) has NEVER, in all her years at camp, been up to the top of Saddleback! Alum Maya Feldman joined this round to help out, as did ringers Davida Amkraut and Yoni Bokser. Oddly enough, Davida donated money to get someone on the ZOOM for help so that Davida could go to sleep quicker!
This event was literally major laughs from beginning to end and we thank all of our contestants and ringers for being such good sports throughout the night. We also thank all of our community for their donations and continued support of Machaneh Yavneh.
