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When campers’ luggage got stranded, a Ramah alum’s new trucking company stepped in
(JTA) — On Aug. 2, camp directors across the country — including at several prominent Jewish camps — received an email with stressful news.
Just days out from their campers’ return home, the company hired to transport all of their belongings home had announced its sudden closure.
“Despite our best efforts, including remortgaging my house to get July payroll done, online predatory lenders, local lines of credit, and making use of an inheritance I received, the path forward has become unfeasible,” Camp Trucking’s managing director, Dan Maguire, wrote in the email. “We are out of the capital to get the job done and it has led us to this heartbreaking decision.”
Among the dozens of camps left in the lurch by the abrupt shuttering of the nearly 50-year-old company were several in the Ramah network. Parents at the Conservative movement’s camps in New England, Pennsylvania, Georgia and New York all paid Camp Trucking hundreds of dollars to get their children’s gear to and from camp — but there was suddenly no way to get the belongings home.
That’s when Door-Va-Door Trucking stepped in. Co-founded by a Camp Ramah alum, the new luggage delivery service — its name a pun on the Hebrew phrase “l’dor v’dor,” meaning “from generation to generation” — hadn’t planned to pick up any bags before 2024. But its operators believed they could offer a solution.
“The Ramah camping movement is close to my heart personally, having grown up in that movement,” Joshua Romirowsky told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We’re excited to provide the service and execute and help support a great camp that’s in need of a hand.”
Romirowsky is a lawyer by trade and an alumnus of Camp Ramah in the Poconos who served on its board for eight years. His cofounder, Maor Rozalis, has logistics and operations experience from his time serving in the Israel Defense Forces and as CEO of a document scanning and shredding company. The pair met when their children began attending Jewish day school together at the Kellman Brown Academy in southern New Jersey, where they saw how much stress conveying camp belongings could cause for families.
“Knowing the camp industry, knowing how camps operate, and the customer base,” Romirowsky said, “I saw that from talking to parents and talking to camp professionals [and] from my own background … there was a need for a better service, a more reliable service, one that had better communication.”
Door-Va-Door Trucking officially launched in March and its founders spent the months since doing outreach to line up clients for next summer. When news of the sudden closure of Camp Trucking came last week, Romirowsky says he reached out to a few overnight camps to see if they could help. One took him up on the offer.
“Ordinarily, we would have months to prepare,” Romirowsky said. “With less than 10 days to prepare, we were able to coordinate with Camp Ramah Berkshires.”
Camp Ramah in the Berkshires declined a request to comment. But the camp had told parents when it informed them about Camp Trucking’s closure that it was working on another solution, and this week, it let them know it had found one.
Next week, Door-Va-Door will be picking up campers’ luggage and distributing it to six distribution points throughout the greater New York City, Long Island and North Jersey area.
“The camp’s handled it great,” said Jordana Horn Gordon, who has one camper and one counselor at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires. “They’re going to bring the luggage back for the kids, which is terrific.”
Horn Gordon said the snafu was minor compared to what camps and campers have been through in recent years.
“I’m not concerned about it at all,” she added. “Honestly, I think they communicated well and quickly. And I’m so thrilled that finally we’re back to having normal summers that I think that actually this is a situation where COVID and everything we’ve been through for the past few years has really put everything into perspective very nicely.”
Camp Trucking did not respond to requests for comment. Other camps have reportedly recommended that families contact their banks and credit card companies to file a claim if they paid for a service through Camp Trucking with a credit card ahead of time. Horn Gordon said she did not recall whether Ramah had recommended taking such action.
“Jewish camping, overnight camp, I think is a tremendous gift for kids, for families. I’ve benefited from it personally,” Romirowsky said, adding that the experience depends on having everything campers need in place before they get there.
“It’s not just a bag that’s going on vacation,” he said. “Parents are counting on their luggage getting to camp safely and on time so that their kids can have a great summer experience.”
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The post When campers’ luggage got stranded, a Ramah alum’s new trucking company stepped in appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.