Let My People Sing! 2018 program book

Make your commitment to sustain the earth:

livingthechange.net #livingthechange Demonstrate on a global scale how your individual transportation, home energy use, and diet choices can make a difference.

Hazon is the leading Jewish partner in Living the Change – a worldwide, faith-driven, evidence-based initiative designed to address the growing environmental challenges for our shared home.

Table of Contents Orientation Sheet..........................................................................4 Welcome from the Planning Team..........................................6 Upcoming Hazon Retreats and Programs............................7 About Hazon...................................................................................8 Our Food Values at Isabella Freedman............................... 10 Higher Welfare Meat................................................................. 12 Tefillah & Morning Practices Descriptions......................... 13 Schedule Thursday.................................................................................. 14 Friday........................................................................................ 15 Saturday................................................................................... 17 Sunday...................................................................................... 20 Meet the Lead Teachers........................................................... 21 Meet the Planning Team.......................................................... 22

All LMPS photos by the fantastic, creative, and brilliant photographer Jess Benjamin!

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Building the Culture of Let My People Sing!

• This retreat is a gift and an experiment! We are cocreating this together. Thank you all for being a part of it. Let’s assume best intentions and work generously with one another.

• To whatever extent possible, share what you know about where songs come from: history, origin, background. Also share briefly how you learned it and who taught it to you.

• Please allow for silence at the end of each song to let the energy of the song settle.

• This weekend is not about “singing well” – it is about being together; being more fully human and alive, through the power of song. Everyone can sing!

Everyone is “good” at this!!

• If you share a song that comes from a culture and/or lineage that is not your own, please share as much as you know about where the song comes from. If you are unsure if a song is appropriate to share, the planning team is available to help you think it through.

• Please do not imitate, exaggerate, or make fun of any group of people’s cultural or spiritual traditions or ways of expressing themselves, especially when they’re not your own. It is on each of us to know that everything we’re bringing is offered with authenticity, integrity and respect.

• We aim to be intentionally inclusive of people who are transgender and gender-non-conforming. In order to create a warm space that welcomes and upholds the dignity of all genders present, please do not to make assumptions about people's gender identities and pronouns. When you introduce yourself, share your name and pronoun, and also write your gender pronoun on your nametag, so we know how to refer to you. If you don’t know what someone’s pronoun is, please respectfully ask them.

• We have a lot of leaders and a lot of learners – we want to cultivate both. We want to lift up as many voices as possible, especially folks who are new at leading. Let’s make sure we are creating spaciousness for a diversity of voices.

Honoring Native Land At Isabella Freedman, we cultivate the soil to grow food, we climb mountains to gain new perspectives, we mikvah in the lake to mark transitions, and we pray, learn, and engage with our tradition and with the forests and living waters. Long before we started applying our own stories and traditions to this land, it was the sacred home of the Mohican people. For more than five hundred years, Indigenous communities across the Americas have demonstrated resilience and resistance in the face of violent efforts to separate them from their land, culture, and community. Too often their history is erased. As Jews we have experienced exile and persecution, and as part of the larger process of decolonization and reconciliation, we honor the Indigenous People who have stewarded this land for thousands of years.

Want to learn more about the history of Indigenous People where you live? Visit native-land.ca

Please wear your name badge throughout the retreat! • 3

WELCOME Welcome to Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. This beautiful campus has been touching people’s lives since the 1950s, and since 2014 has been the home of Hazon. The word “Hazon” is Hebrew for “vision.” We’re working to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community and a healthier and more sustainable world for all. We hope that your stay here will indeed inspire you to reflect, to learn, to celebrate, to recharge, and thus to return to your home and your community with a renewed sense of hope for our world and a renewed commitment to health and sustainability in your own life.

Please read upon arrival If you need anything during your stay, please contact the Retreat Manager on duty.

EMERGENCY CALLS: In the event of a medical emergency, please call 9-1-1 from your cell phone, OR: 9-9-1-1 from any land line phone, located in the buildings throughout campus.

Please familiarize yourself with the location of the nearest phone to your room. You must dial 9 before making any call on our land line phones. After making a 9-1-1 call, please contact a retreat manager at the IF Emergency #: Dial 860-453-3963 from a cell phone. Emergencies only, please. You must dial 9 before making any call on our land line phones.

SECURITY: Isabella Freedman is an oasis in a troubled world.

And, we are committed to vigilance and preparedness for the unfortunate realities of our society today. Two general guidelines provide the basis for our security program: Please wear your name tags at all times. Our staff need to be aware of who should be on our site.

In the event of a campus-wide emergency, you will hear three one-second blasts of a very loud air horn, repeated multiple times. If you hear this, immediately evacuate to the decorative gate at Adamah farm located across the street from the main entrance and remain there until emergency services arrive.

Do not use your cellphone or take time to look for others besides children.

FIRST AID: First aid materials are located at Guest Services, in the Lounge, Yurts, Arts and Crafts Building, and Pool House. A defibrillator is located in the Lounge.

FIRE SAFETY: Please only light candles at group candle lighting in the main building. Camp fires must be approved by the event coordinator in advance and are only allowed at the fire pit by the lake. Camp fires must be put out at the end of the activity. Please see a retreat manager for any questions.

SMOKING: Smoking is prohibited in all buildings, and throughout campus. You may smoke only at the fire pit by the lake. Please dispose of cigarette butts in the designated cigarette bin.

PARKING: Driving and parking is not allowed on grassy areas.

Please only park in the designated parking areas: the lot near the main entrance and the lot near the barnyard.

KASHRUT: Our facility is strictly kosher. Please do not bring any outside food or beverages or personal drinking and eating vessels (including water bottles and travel mugs) into the main building without prior approval from one of our kosher supervisors. Mugs from our coffee bar can be used throughout the main building. Please do not take our dishes outside of the dining spaces. Food may be brought outside of the dining spaces in compostable to-go ware found at the coffee bar. Any supplemental food you wish to have at a meal must be brought (in original sealed packaging) to be checked by our kosher supervisor.

BUSING TABLES: Please clear your table after finishing your meal. Bins for compost and dishware are located at the corner of the Dining Hall.

CHECK OUT PROCEDURE: On check-out day, you MUST move out of your room by 10 am or a $50 late fee will be applied to your credit card. Kindly strip your bed and place all sheets and towels into the pillowcases. (Please leave mattress pads, blankets and comforters on the beds.)

4 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 23-26, 2018

COMPOST & RECYCLING: Around campus you will see containers for compost (green), recycling (blue) and trash (black). Items that are compost: All food including bones, paper napkins, paper towels, to-go ware (hot/cold cups, lids, utensils, containers) tea bags, paper wrappers, corks, and wooden coffee stirrers. We use our compost to fertilize our Adamah Farm!

GUEST FRIDGE: You may store personal food items in the fridge located in the Sunroom near Guest Services. (These items do not have to be kosher.) Please label your name on all items.

POTABLE TAP WATER: ALL tap water on campus comes directly from a local well source and is potable and delicious!

HOT WATER/COFFEE: Due to our kosher policies, on Shabbat we offer coffee and hot water until it runs out. Once Shabbat ends, our staff make fresh batches. We appreciate your understanding, and we strive to provide enough coffee and hot water through the holiday.

CHILDREN: Please make sure that your children are supervised at all times, or are participating in children’s programming associated with your retreat.

GAMES, BOOKS AND MORE: We offer a variety of sport equipment, books, games and toys for your pleasure. Please see a retreat manager to borrow any of these items. Please do not use any bikes located on campus as these belong to Isabella Freedman staff.

LAKE AND SWIMMING / BOATING: The pool is only open when a lifeguard is on duty. Use of the lake is at your own risk – life vests are located in the shed by the dock. Please return the vests and oars to the shed and the boats to the rack after use.

HIKING: Please stay on Isabella Freedman trails when hiking. We advise telling a friend when you go out on a trail and when you return, carrying a cell phone and water bottle, and only hiking during daylight hours. Trail maps are located at Guest Services.

TICKS AND LYME DISEASE: We recommend doing a tick check after spending time outdoors. We have tick removal information available at Guest Services.

VISITING THE GOATS: Please only enter into fenced-in areas with an Isabella Freedman staff member present, and please respect any signage and/or directions given by staff members.

THERMOSTATS: The thermostats in your buildings/rooms are programmed to keep you comfortable. You may adjust the temperature by increasing or decreasing the thermostat one or two degrees.

We hope you enjoy your stay with us!

It’s important to us to know both what you enjoyed and ways we could improve our work here.

Please do fill out an evaluation form. If you do not receive one, please email evaluations@hazon.org.

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Welcome! A Letter from the Planning Team We are excited to welcome you to our 8th Let My People Sing! retreat! With each retreat we learn and grow, and it is our great honor to shape this space with you. We hope that over the course of the weekend everyone has opportunities to learn, lead, and listen, and that together we create a sacred and powerful space for singing. As the result of feedback over the years, we have added a Song Leader & Singing Skills Track. We are excited to provide sessions that more intentionally support participants in honing these skills!

This year's retreat falls in the month of Elul, a time of deep reflection and preparation for the High Holiday season to come. We hope that Let My People Sing! can provide you with the depth and space you need to enter this time with clarity and intention. Though it has always been this way, this year Pictured from left: Margot, Noam, Ilana, Batya & Mónica especially we feel how the world is on fire, and we know more than ever that song has a role to play in helping us get grounded, get focused, and commit to the work of liberation.

In the creation of this retreat, it was our vision for this to be a space to sing and share from a wide range of Jewish song traditions. We are thrilled to have a lineup of teachers representing a diversity of Jewish cultures and traditions. We recognize that all too often white and Ashkenazi culture dominates Jewish spaces in North America, and we hope that this retreat will embody a commitment to a more expansive plurality of Jewish identities and lineages: uplifting the voices and songs of Mizrahi Jews, Sephardi Jews, and Jews of Color. We’ve also received a lot of feedback over the years requesting more Yiddish song workshops, which we are happy to be providing. We hope this summer’s offerings balance the specificity and expansivity of our diasporic Jewish traditions. This retreat is an experiment, and in that spirit we ask all of you to create with us, and to offer feedback when you feel that it could be more inclusive and intentional.

We come together from a wide array of religious practices, singing experience, and musical knowledge. If singing is unfamiliar to you, you may have the sense that “everyone knows all of the songs except for me.” Trust us, you are not alone! For some, the many ways Judaism is practiced here might feel different or new, and it is important to remember that however you are is absolutely welcome here. You may also have the thought, “What’s all this praying about? I came here to sing!” Jews have been praying songfully in community as a way to connect us to ourselves, each other, and the sacred for generations. We are tapping into this ancient partnership of song and prayer, and we hope you’ll give services a try. Our incredible team of prayer leaders have worked hard to create tefillah (prayer) spaces centered around song and accessibility.

No matter where you are coming from, this space is for you. May the song in our lives increase, build community, and carry our hearts along.

In Song & Solidarity, Margot, Batya, Noam, Mónica & Ilana The Let My People Sing! Planning Team

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Upcoming Hazon Retreats & Programs All retreats take place at Isabella Freedman unless otherwise indicated. Visit hazon.org/calendar for more information.

August 31 - September 3 (Labor Day Weekend)

October 19 - 21

NEW YORK RIDE & RETREAT

JEWISH MEN’S RETREAT

Join the People of the Bike for our 18th annual ride! Enjoy a relaxing Shabbat retreat followed by two days of cycling around the beautiful Berkshires. This fully-supported ride, fundraiser, and community experience is for people of all cycling levels and ages. Let’s make the world healthier and more sustainable for all!

Deepen your relationship with your father, sons, brothers, friends, and congregants by inviting them to join for the weekend.

September 7 - 9

Cycle from Jerusalem to Eilat and broaden your understanding of the region as you meet Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians working towards peace, environmental sustainability, and regional cooperation.

SHABBAT ELUL Enjoy the last Shabbat of the month of Elul, and the year 5778 – prepare for Rosh Hashanah with spirited, diverse prayer and deep learning in a beautiful setting.

September 9 - 12

ROSH HASHANAH

October 23 - 30 (in Israel)

ARAVA INSTITUTE & HAZON ISRAEL RIDE – SOLD OUT

Sunday, November 11 (Philadelphia, PA)

HUNGRY FOR CHANGE: AMERICAN AND ISRAELI STRATEGIES ON FOOD SECURITY, RECOVERY, AND JUSTICE

Orthodox and Traditional Egalitarian prayer services, deep teachings, immersion in a relaxing wooded venue, tashlich in our stream, community celebrations, and fabulous farm-to-table feasting.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia invites all of our community members for one day of our international food conference, serving as an opportunity to learn about innovative food security initiatives currently in progress in Philadelphia and Israel.

September 23 - October 3

December 23 - 30

SUKKAHFEST

HAZON MEDITATION RETREAT

Perhaps the most joyous, and almost certainly the most diverse celebration of the holiday of Sukkot on planet Earth. Come for all or part of the 10-day festivities.

Silent meditation with instruction, musical prayer services, and evening teachings that draw on Jewish, secular, and Buddhist sources.

October 11 - 14 (Tamarack Camps, MI)

JOFEE NETWORK GATHERING For anyone interested in bringing Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming, and Environmental Education (JOFEE) elements to your work and home communities.

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About Hazon

The word "hazon" means "vision."

We're the Jewish lab for sustainability. We work to create a more sustainable Jewish community – and a healthier and more sustainable world for all. We do this through immersive multi-day programs like food conferences, retreats, and bike rides; through thought-leadership (writing, teaching and advocacy); and capacity-building – fostering new experiments in Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming & Environmental Education, across the Jewish world.

“The Torah is a commentary on the world and the world is a commentary on the Torah.”

Our theme quote reflects our belief that turning Jewish life outwards to address some of the greatest challenges of our time is good not only for the world, but also for the renewal of Jewish life itself.

Our programs are multi-generational and open to people of all religious backgrounds and none. We are based in New York, Detroit, Denver, Boulder, and at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in the Connecticut Berkshires.

Education We offer Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming & Environmental Education (JOFEE), providing thought-leadership and immersive experiences for a spectrum of ages and interests. From institutions and individuals using our wide range of curricula and sourcebooks to kids at our Teva programs weighing their leftovers and young adults living in community and farming with Adamah, Hazon supports learning at the intersection of Jewish life and sustainability.

Action Hazon participants take action. We compost and pickle. We improve the energy profiles of our Jewish institutions, use our food dollars to support local farms, and meet thousands of our neighbors at regional Jewish Food Festivals. We raise environmental awareness while riding our bikes. We share sustainable Shabbat meals, create gardens at our Jewish institutions, plant seeds for future generations, build intentional communities in North America, and visit our partners in Israel’s environmental sector.

Advocacy And in settings from synagogues to community board meetings to global climate marches, we advocate on local and regional projects like bike lanes and family-owned farms, as well as on national issues like climate change and sustainable agriculture. Hazon provides rabbis with sermon materials on climate issues, and training and support for meetings with government representatives. Hazon participants speak up to help make the world we all share healthier and more sustainable for everyone.

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Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center: Organizational Retreats & Simchas With decades of retreat hosting experience, Isabella Freedman is the ideal setting for your organizational retreat or simcha. We offer a unique gathering place for meetings, workshops, and team-building, as well as weddings, b’nai mitzvah, milestone birthdays, and family reunions. Our event coordinators will work with you to design and curate an experience that is perfect for you and your guests. Enjoy a tour of the Adamah farm, Teva nature programs, farm-to-table food education, yoga, meditation, and other on-site amenities and activities.

JOFEE Because Jewish life is short of acronyms, we’ve added a new one to summarize the fast-growing field that we’re catalyzing: JOFEE, which stands for Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming & Environmental Education. Our range of programs has grown steadily since 2000. We offer retreats here at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, plus bike rides, food festivals, curricula resources, mini-grants, and capacity-building. Flagship programs include Adamah, Teva, JOFEE Fellowship, and the Hazon Seal of Sustainability.

Seal of Sustainability Many Jewish institutions want to engage in healthier, more humane, and more sustainable behaviors, but don’t know where to start or how to keep up the momentum. Through the Hazon Seal of Sustainability, we are providing a solution – a roadmap to advance sustainability-related education, action, and advocacy in the Jewish community. The Hazon Seal will help you improve sustainability and strengthen your institution in three areas and through three audits: sustainable food and animal welfare, renewable energy and facilities, and ecosystems and health. Tap into our expertise, online resources (including our Food Audit), workshops, and field trips, for your Green Team to create a culture of sustainability through signage, educational programming, gardens, green kiddush, green roofs, composting, solar panels, and recycling.

Sustainable Israel Tour Join community leaders on a one-of-a-kind mission highlighting developments in Israel towards more sustainable food production, healthy living, and social justice.

Adamah Our flagship farming fellowship, based here at Isabella Freedman, is a three-month leadership training program for Jewish adults ages 20-35 that integrates organic agriculture, farm-to-table living, Jewish learning, community building, and spiritual practice. Adamah – a program of extraordinary impact – cultivates the soil and the soul to produce food, to build and transform identities, and to gather a community of people changing the world. We grow vegetables, fruit, herbs, goats, flowers, eggs, and more, using organic and sustainable methods.

And we grow people by creating hands-on experiences with ecology, food systems, spiritual practice, a vibrant evolving Judaism, and intentional community. Adamah alumni are fanning out across the American Jewish landscape as educators, rabbis, activists, entrepreneurs – and farmers.

Teva Teva works to fundamentally transform Jewish education through experiential learning that fosters Jewish, ecological, and food sustainability. Teva was founded in 1994 with the philosophy of immersing young people – children ages 2-17 years old and educators of children – in the natural world and providing structured activities to sensitize participants to nature’s rhythms, help them develop a more meaningful relationship with nature, and deepen their own connection to Jewish practices and traditions. Teva works with day schools, congregations, camps, JCCs, BJEs, youth groups, and other Jewish institutions that cover the spectrum of religious affiliation. Our Teva educators have been inspired by their experiences living and teaching in community to start initiatives that are making real impact in Jewish communities around the world. "Camp Teva" is available for children during most of our retreats at Isabella Freedman.

Hakhel The word hakhel means "gather the people," or "to create a community.” (It’s from the same root word as kehillah, community.) Hakhel was founded on the premise that communal life is an irreplaceable component in maintaining Jewish identity, and yet existing community models do not resonate with increasing numbers of people. Through Hakhel, we are cultivating the emergence of a range of new experiments in Jewish community by providing matching mini-grants, free professional consulting, and learning trips to Israel for individual communities and community leaders; by networking communities through conferences, peer-learning, trainings and seminars; and by developing content and educational materials to further develop the field and the discourse of Jewish Intentional Communities.

Bike Rides In 2000, we launched our first Jewish Environmental Bike Ride aimed at raising both environmental awareness and much needed funds to support greening initiatives in the Jewish community. What started as a singular program now includes several supported rides in cities across the United States, as well as a popular series of fun, free community events called Tribe Rides.

Thousands of people have participated in our various bike rides which often serve as entry points to organized Jewish life for those who are excited about biking, sustainability, the environment, and/or the outdoors. Our two largest bike rides – the New York Ride & Retreat (which takes place over Labor Day Weekend here at Isabella Freedman) and the Israel Ride – are powerful immersive experiences, as well as important fundraisers for Hazon and the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies.

Educational Curricula and Sourcebooks We have developed a diverse library of curricula and sourcebooks that can be used in the classroom, at home, or as experiential programs. Our tools are geared towards various age groups and are used in synagogues, day schools, JCCs, and camps around the world. Check the Hazon Bookstore here at Isabella Freedman for titles including Food for Thought: Hazon’s Sourcebook on Jews, Food & Contemporary Life, Tu B’Shvat Haggadah: The Hazon Seder & Sourcebook, Sustainable Shabbat Dinner, and more.

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Our Food Values at Isabella Freedman How do we create an American Jewish community that is measurably healthier and more sustainable, demonstrably playing a role in making the world healthier and more sustainable for all? Our food choices impact the earth, animals, indigenous peoples, agricultural workers, local communities, factory workers, and food industry workers.

Hazon is working to build connections and relationships between farmers, entrepreneurs, farm workers, consumers, distributors, rabbis, Jewish leaders, business leaders, and other faith leaders, among others. We are supporting farmers, building CSAs, inspiring farmers’ markets at our synagogues and JCCs, and helping to source local food at Jewish institutions.

At Isabella Freedman, we are incredibly proud of our kosher farm to table kitchen, which we call Adamah Foods. We strive to achieve the highest standards of sustainability through food sourcing that is seasonal, local, organic, fair trade, and supports animal welfare.

Following are some of our guiding principles.

Sustainable Fish As worldwide demand for fish has increased, wild fish populations can't keep up with our appetites and find themselves threatened by overfishing. Certain fish farming practices have very little effect on the environment while others are devastating. We use the Monterrey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch list in determining how to serve ocean friendly fish.

How can you make sure you are eating safe and sustainable fish at home? Get the Seafood Watch mobile app at seafoodwatch.org.

Fair Trade When we buy foods grown far away, like chocolate, tea and coffee, we make sure they come from Fair Trade sources. We choose reputable certifiers like the worker cooperative Equal Exchange and the indigenous rights and environmental advocates Deans Beans. Our fair trade chocolate costs four times more than most brands, but it is our priority to nourish our guests with food produced in fair and sustainable ways.

Craving chocolate? You can find ethically-sourced chocolate bars in the Hazon Bookstore!

Want to avoid consuming foods produced by slave labor? Choose fair trade in all of your shopping!

Taste the Forest Experience the liminal moment between winter slumber and spring vibrance in the maple syrup we serve. In late winter, when nights are below freezing but days are warm, trees move sap up to their branches and emerging leaf buds. Our neighbors Jude and Winter Mead siphon off a portion of the excess sap production of their maple trees each season, boil it down, and bottle it for us to serve throughout the year. 40 gallons of sap yield just one gallon of syrup, making this precious regional delicacy a real reminder to slow down and savor the sweetness of the world.

Want to bring some home with you? We produce a small amount of maple syrup from the trees right here at Isabella Freedman by hand – schlepping buckets and boiling the sap down in an outdoor evaporator. Purchase your taste of the Isabella Freedman forest in the Hazon Bookstore!

Pickles of All Kinds The Adamah farmers harvest organic vegetables from our land for seven months of the year, but the bounty of their labor is available every day on our salad bar thanks to oldworld preservation techniques. After harvest, Adamah fellows submerge cucumbers, cabbage, and other fresh veggies in salt water brine. Over the course of a few days or even several months – depending on the vegetable, time of year, and desired result – nutrients inherent to the vegetable are preserved while delicious pickle flavors and additional nutrients are brought out. Eating fermented foods restores beneficial bacteria to your intestinal tract, which aids with digestion and absorption of nutrients.

Can't imagine your post-Isabella Freedman meals without sauerkraut and kimchi? We have jars for sale in the Hazon Bookstore along with our small-batch jams and other Adamah products! You can also find a wide variety of lacto-fermented vegetables in your local market or CSA. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Michael Pollan's adage expresses our intentions for the Adamah Foods experience. We strive to nourish, accommodating all of our guests' different dietary needs. Please begin your meals with small portions, revisiting the buffet for second helpings so that not too much precious food ends up being wasted. In the interest of our community's health and the sustainability of our planet, we serve balanced meals that center on whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes. During the spring and summer we grow and harvest the majority of our own produce at the Adamah Farm. This includes kale, collards, chard, heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, cauliflower, scallions, garlic, salad greens, spinach, Jerusalem artichoke, turnips, radishes, kohlrabi, jalapeños, dill, parsley, cilantro, sorrel, watermelon, cantaloupe, summer squash, zucchini, winter squash (kabocha, jester, acorn, and delicata), radish, eggplant, cabbage, ginger, and watermelon radish.

Interested in reducing your footprint on the environment and feeling healthy? Try eating more vegetables by joining a CSA program, increasing your whole grain and bean intake, and keeping fruit and nuts around for snack time.

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Meat All of the meat we serve is provided by Grow & Behold, a company started by alumni of the Adamah program and former Hazon staff. Grow & Behold's mission is to provide premium Glatt Kosher pastured meats raised on small family-run farms.

Pasture-raised meats are better for the environment, for your health, and for the animals you eat. Turn the page to read more about how we are deepening our commitment to serving ethical, higher welfare kosher meat.

Interested in finding kosher, pasture-raised meat in your area? Check out growandbehold.com or kolfoods.com for nationwide delivery and buying club options.

Pri Ha’Gafen (Fruit of the Vine) The Twin Suns wine that we serve is produced with limited chemicals thanks to a farming system called Integrated Pest Management. The grape growers use beneficial insect habitats and predator perches to control insect infestations rather than spraying poisons. They also use a well-designed trellis system that aids production of phenolics and flavonoids – the good stuff in wine!

Want to be eco-conscious when organic products aren't available?

Look for the IPM label at the grocery store. IPM is a good alternative to organic when you are trying to minimize the amount of chemicals in your food.

Grains & Beans All of the rice, beans, and other grains we serve are certified organic. We are particularly proud of the corn meal we get from Wild Hive Community Grain Project, a local mill using traditional stone grinding equipment, as well as our tofu which is handmade by a local company called The Bridge from organic soybeans grown in New York state.

Does it really matter if I buy organic rather than conventional food?

Whenever possible, it is best to know your farmer's growing practices.

When you are faced in the grocery store with the decision between organic and unlabeled food, choosing organic is a great way to reduce your impact on the environment, keep your body free of dangerous toxins, and support safer conditions for workers who would otherwise be harmed by dangerous chemicals.

No EGG-ceptions We buy and serve eggs consciously. Why care about higher welfare eggs? More than 90% of laying hens in the U.S. are packed into tiny cages on factory farms. Barely able to move,

they suffer injuries, disease, and extreme distress. Many others endure similar distress in large, overcrowded barns. To support systems where hens can walk, spread their wings, lay eggs in nesting spaces, dust bathe, and perform other natural behaviors, we must support farms that value higher welfare. There’s more we can do for hens, but buying higher welfare eggs is where we start! The eggs we use are Oliver’s organic, free range, pasturefed eggs. We are also very proud to be a founding member of buyingpoultry.com’s Leadership Circle which recognizes organizations for using higher animal welfare poultry and eggs.

How can we switch to higher welfare eggs?

• Choose products with labels from “Certified Humane,” “Certified Humane + Pasture Raised,” or “Animal Welfare Approved.” These are some of the only labels on egg cartons that are truly meaningful for animal welfare.

• Use BuyingPoultry.com to search a list of higher-welfare egg brands and retailers.

• Download the new Hazon Food Guide for more information about higher-welfare products.

• Contact Jewish Initiative for Animals for support in finding higherwelfare eggs.

Keeping it Kosher The question of what is fit to eat is at the root of our kosher tradition – and more relevant than ever in today’s word. At Isabella Freedman, keeping it kosher means following the letter and the spirit of the laws – creating a space where everyone can enjoy food that is truly fit to eat together. We also care very much about making sure that every kosher product we buy is aligned with our food values. At every meal you will find one of our mashgichim (kosher supervisors) in the dining area who will be available to answer your questions about kashrut. Thank you in advance for respecting our kashrut guidelines.

Learn More Visit us online at hazon.org/jewish-food-movement or check the Hazon Bookstore for our resources on Jews, Food & Contemporary Issues, including sourcebooks, how-to guides, and curricula materials for adults, kids, and families. Please enjoy the abundance, ask lots of questions, demand answers, and challenge the ever-changing thoughts on what it means to eat responsibly. Thank you for being here; we are honored to feed you.

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Deepening Our Commitment to Serving Ethical, Higher Welfare Kosher Meat In our society, all too often the readily available and familiar sources for our food prioritize uniform quality and economies of scale over taste, nutrition, environmental health, animal welfare, hospitality, and support for local communities. Hazon has developed a list of food values that we strive to reach when we are preparing food at all Hazon events, programs, and meetings. However, we often are asked to prioritize one (or more) of our food values over another.

Hazon strives to take everything into account and prioritizes to bring you the best possible mix of foods and experiences, pushing both producers and consumers to make higher welfare foods available, and working within the realities of supply, budget, and our vision. Our food choices should not be reduced to a “this over that” mentality, but rather a holistic approach that we pursue with our vision clearly before us.

As we work towards a healthier and more sustainable food system where we will be able to meet all of our food values all the time, we are making a new, deeper commitment to foster growth and demand for the highest welfare kosher meat available.

Starting at the Hazon Food Conference earlier this month, Isabella Freedman will increase the heritage chicken (as defined by the American Poultry Association) that Hazon sources each year by at least 5% and we will no longer serve any conventionally bred turkey. Over the next 7-year period, we intend to incrementally move towards improving the welfare of the chickens that produce our meat and eggs, with a vision toward eliminating all conventionally bred chicken from our menu. Working with Grow & Behold Foods and JIFA (Jewish Initiative for Animals) and other allies, we aim to shift the percentage of kosher chicken that is heritage, which is important for both public health, the long-term stability of the food supply, and animal welfare.

In addition to our commitment to serving heritage chicken, and in an attempt to reduce meat consumption overall, we are developing new and creative plant-centered menus which can be augmented by flavorful preparations of meat. Some people are accustomed to always having meat at Shabbat or holiday meals. How do we take the Jewish sensibility of elevating holiday time with a particular food to enhance our understanding of, and commitment to, sustainability and gratitude? As we think about the food we use to sanctify our holiest of times, let’s make sure the food is a sanctification of life, the world, and all of our blessings. Using Michael Pollan’s approach of ‘The Third Plate’, we will be taking a ‘less meat, better meat’ approach to our meat consumption, including over Shabbat.

We will also continue to purchase our eggs from Oliver’s Organic Pastured Eggs, who maintain NOFA-NY certified organic, free-range hens. We have also connected Oliver’s with Red Barn Produce, a local wholesaler who has started selling their eggs and expanding the market for higher welfare eggs in the Hudson Valley and the Berkshires.

We encourage you to join us and help build the market for heritage poultry, higher welfare eggs, and less meat, better meat approaches to food purchasing.

The initial heritage chickens will hatch from eggs laid at Frank Reese’s farm, Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch. Frank focuses on animal welfare, breed conservancy, and environmental stewardship. We are also pleased to be able to support the important work that Frank is doing to safeguard genetic diversity and to preserve ways to raise poultry outside the currently dominant factory farm system.

12 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 23-26, 2018

Tefillah & Morning Practices Descriptions TEFILLAH (PRAYER) The Piaseczner Rebbe (the late Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto) suggests that we pray in the following way: "With your heart trembling, you are here to pour out your soul to God using music and voice, singing from the depths of your being… At first it was you singing to your soul—to wake her up—and now you feel the soul singing her own song."

Below are the prayer offerings for this year's retreat: Creative Minyan This creative prayer option will include creative interpretations of traditional Jewish prayer structure using a variety of spiritual practices. The services will combine singing, exploration of specific verses, instruments, and meditation. There is no Jewish prayer experience needed: this is a service that is open and accessible to all. It is an experimental prayer space that values heart and spirit-based experience.

Traditional Egalitarian Minyan Our traditional egalitarian services will be siddur (prayer book) based, and include a full liturgy. Services welcome people of all genders and will be songful, spirited, and participatory. We are open to anyone and everyone, regardless of background or prior experience with this kind of prayer. Come sing and pray with us!

Orthodox Minyan Join us for a soul stirring, song infused traditional tefillah (prayer). There will be a tri-chitza, a partition separating a men’s, women’s and all genders section.

Come ready to sing, dance, pray, laugh, cry and pour out your heart.

Avodat Lev with Adamah Adamah's morning prayer services are designed to open hearts to gratitude and minds to quiet presence.

We use the general structure of the traditional shacharit service but aim for accessibility and soulful intention by using shorter pieces of liturgy as well as new liturgy in Hebrew and English. For the Amidah we generally do silent or walking meditation, and often share learnings from the Torah and reflections from our lives.

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Daily Schedules Please note: In order to make this space accessible to people who are sensitive to fragrances, we ask that participants avoid using strongly scented products (such as perfume and strong hair products).

Thursday, August 23 2:00-5:00 PM Check-in

Great Hall

4:30-4:50 PM Mincha Orthodox Traditional Egalitarian

Red Yurt Synagogue

5:00-5:15 PM Camp Teva Mandatory Parent/ Guardian Orientation Arts and Crafts 5:00-6:00 PM Community Sing Library Please join us for our opening community sing! We especially encourage those new to Let My People Sing! to jump into the culture we are working to build over our time together.

5:15-6:00 PM Camp Teva Programming 6:00-7:00 PM Dinner

Arts and Crafts Tent

7:15-8:30 PM To Hold & To Energize: Bringing Singing Space to Life Library Ilana Lerman Depending on where you focus your energy, you can impact a singing space in a multitude of ways. Jewish Chant master Rabbi Shefa Gold developed techniques to uplift, contain, and deepen songful space. Through Jewish chant and niggunim (wordless melodies), we will play with different roles that can enhance any song space.

The invitation for this session is to learn these tools and practice them throughout the weekend – to experiment and to lean on each other to improve our contributions to group singing space. Everyone is encouraged to participate.

8:30-9:30 PM Community Jam Bring Instruments!

Library

9:30 PM Ma’ariv Orthodox Traditional Egalitarian

14 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 23-26, 2018

Red Yurt Synagogue

Friday, August 24 7:00-8:00 AM Avodat Lev Shamu Sadeh

Fire Pit

Vinyasa Yoga Beige Yurt Rebecca Bloomfield Tend to your mind, body, and spirit with a yoga practice that combines alignment and fluidity, using breath as the vehicle. This form of yoga challenges the mind, the body, and the spirit to work as one to detox, heal, and open the individual physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Beginners welcome.

7:30-8:30 AM Shacharit Orthodox Traditional Egalitarian 8:00-9:30 AM Breakfast 9:30 AM-12:00 PM Camp Teva Programming Gan Adamah 9:45-10:15 AM Welcoming Songs

Red Yurt

10:30 AM-12:00 PM INTENSIVES PART 1 (CONTINUED) Skills for Song Leading * Library Mónica Gomery & Batya Levine Leading songs in public has that mysterious quality to it: it's not rocket science, yet it's also not obvious how to do it best – it’s an art! Over the years through the incredible LMPS community, we've learned some best practices for holding space, teaching songs, and encouraging others to lift up their voices. Join us for an instructional workshop where we share song-leading skills, practice with some new songs, and hopefully move through some of what gets in the way of standing in our strongest, songfullest power. *Song Leading & Singing Skills Track

Synagogue

12:00-1:00 PM Lunch

Dining Hall

1:00-5:00 PM Camp Teva Programming

Arts and Crafts Beige Yurt Library

10:30 AM-12:00 PM INTENSIVES PART 1 Embodied Vocalization: Cultivating Resonant & Rooted Sound Synagogue Taya Shere In this experiential workshop, join chant artist and Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute co-founder Taya Mâ for an exploration of what is possible when we connect even our simplest vocal expression to our embodied presence.

Embrace the power of rooting the voice in deep center.

Turn within, explore with those in the circle, and open new pathways of finding sound. All are welcome!

1:15-2:15 PM Farm Tour with Adamah

Tent Arts and Crafts Meet outside Arts and Crafts

New Songs of Jewish Pride Library Gila Lipton "New Songs of Jewish Pride'' by Ed Lipton will include selected songs dealing with Jewish themes of harvesting of crops and relating to the living beings in our environment in consonance with the spirit of Isabella Freedman. Words & music will be distributed, learning & group singing encouraged!

Ed Lipton (1934-2011) came to Camp Freedman as a young adult for 1 week during one summer when such sessions were held. It quickly became his favorite place in the world, and he returned for over 25 of the following years, leading singing & folk dancing and eventually becoming Assistant Director at the Summer Program for Seniors. He sang many of the songs on this album for the first time at Camp. This CD, along with over 100 of his songs, is part of the permanent folk collection in the US Library of Congress, which has named him as one of the four most prominent folk musicians of our country. The session will be led by his wife, who will play the songs from the CD and will sing and teach, accompanied by autoharp.

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Friday, August 24 2:30-4:00 PM INTENSIVES PART 2

5:00-6:00 PM Camp Teva Kids’ Dinner

Shir HaShirem: Intimacy and Spirituality in Yiddish Song Synagogue Josh Waletzky Spiritual interpretation of love songs goes back to Solomon's Song of Songs, at once the most openly erotic biblical poetry and considered the most sacred expression of the union between God and the Jewish people. We will explore Yiddish songs (of Hassidic origin) that make this allegory explicit. Secular Yiddish love songs – which often feature themes of longing and rebellion against social norms – while not created in this allegorical mode, are often interesting to consider in this light. Think of it as in introduction through Yiddish song to the I-Thou.

No knowledge of Yiddish is assumed (song sheets will use transliteration and include translations).

5:30-5:45 PM Candle Lighting (light on your own)

Mizrahi Sacred Songs (Piyutim) – From Pulpit to Pop Chart Library Galeet Dardashti Galeet will offer an interactive session on Jewish Middle Eastern and North African (Mizrahi) piyut traditions. Come hear, study, and learn to sing several of these beautiful poetic songs, and gain an understanding of their shifting cultural significance throughout Jewish history and in Israeli pop and rock music today.

4:00-5:00 PM Mikvah Dock Immerse in the living waters of Lake Miriam on your own or in a group, as a way to prepare for Shabbat and the experiences ahead. Please respect times reserved. Bathing suits optional.

Tent Great Hall

5:45-6:30 PM Let My People Sing! Welcome and Orientation Library 6:00-8:15 PM Camp Teva Programming

Arts and Crafts

6:30-6:45 PM Mincha Orthodox Traditional Egalitarian

Red Yurt Synagogue

6:45-8:15 PM Kabbalat Shabbat & Ma’ariv Creative Taya Shere & Galeet Dardashti Traditional Egalitarian Anat Hochberg & Shmueli / Shana Salzberg Orthodox Isaiah Rothstein 8:30-10:00 PM Dinner 10:00 PM Community Sing / Tish

4:00-4:20 PM Men’s Mikvah 4:20-4:40 PM Women’s Mikvah 4:40-5:00 PM Trans & Non-Binary Mikvah

16 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 23-26, 2018

Library Synagogue Red Yurt

Tent Library

Saturday, August 25 7:30-8:30 AM Vinyasa Yoga Beige Yurt Rebecca Bloomfield Tend to your mind, body, and spirit with a yoga practice that combines alignment and fluidity, using breath as the vehicle. This form of yoga challenges the mind, the body, and the spirit to work as one to detox, heal, and open the individual physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Beginners welcome.

8:00-9:30 AM Breakfast 9:00 AM-12:15 PM Camp Teva Programming Gan Adamah

Dining Hall Arts and Crafts Beige Yurt

8:30 AM-12:00 PM Shabbat Services Creative (9:00 AM) Traditional Egalitarian Orthodox 12:15-1:30 PM Lunch 1:30-6:45 PM Camp Teva Programming

Library Synagogue Red Yurt Tent Arts and Crafts

1:45 PM- 2:45 PM SONG SESSION 1 Sounds of the Sephardim Synagogue Michelle Alany An exploration of the rich musical landscape and ancient to modern heritage of Sephardic music through the songs of sacred and secular Judeo-Spanish, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean lands. Violinist and vocalist Michelle Alany is a dynamic performer and internationally touring ambassador of world folk traditions, specializing in Sephardic, Mediterranean, and Eastern music.

1:45 PM- 2:45 PM SONG SESSION 1 (CONTINUED) Yiddish Tekhines (Supplications) for Liberation and the Heart Library Noam Lerman Tekhines are spontaneous heartfelt supplications in Yiddish that were written down and prayed mostly by women and also by working class people of all genders. We will sing old Yiddish words to new melodies that focus on spiritual and political struggles we still yearn to remedy today.

Singing for the World to Come Gazebo Sol Yael Weiss In this session we will use ritual and song as tools for resilience, to help us move through grief, despair, anger, confusion, and helplessness into hope and prayer to call forward the world we want.

Zmirot (Jewish Hymns) Circle Beige Yurt Marcia Schulman In this workshop, as time permits, each person will have a turn to either choose a zemer (Jewish hymn) to sing with the group, request a zemer from the group or pass. This is a space to share and learn zmirot, whether this is a new exploration for you, or you are excited to share one of your favorites, all are welcome.

Children Chant: Family Sing-Along for Holy Days and Every Day Red Yurt Jill Kimelman From our earliest days, we express who we are through music. Music games and songs help us explore our identity. This singing session invites children of all ages and their adults to lift their voices, move and play songs about our Jewish life and holidays. Laughter and fun combine with vocals and rhythm to create a celebration together!

Facilitated by Jill Teltser-Kimelman, Jewish music educator and prayer leader from Millburn, NJ

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Saturday, August 25 3:00-4:00 PM SONG SESSION 2 Stellar Song Leadership: Building Connected Chant Experiences* Synagogue Taya Shere In this workshop we will explore pace, transition, and state transmission as core building blocks of creating powerful experiences of sung devotion. We’ll engage tools for cultivating coherence in communal prayer and for refining and aligning presence in moments of song leadership and beyond. Through conversation, inquiry, and embodied exploration, we’ll notice our current patterns and align to the optimal versions of what we want to create. For those new to song leading, advanced practitioners, and everyone in between. *Song Leading & Singing Skills Track Arise! I Rejoice In Your Creation! Songs for Prayer Library Itai Gal Itai invites you to join them in singing new melodies and interpretive translations they set to liturgy, capturing the essence of the prayer in shorter, more accessible songs.

Itai's music draws most of its language from Klezmer modalities, with a few other ancestral and contemporary influences. These songs are in Hebrew and English, with translations that reflect expansive G!d-language and a yearning for justice. We may use instrumental accompaniment if it is within everyone's practice. Lyrics provided, and you'll learn where in the service they go so you can try them out yourself!

Multi-Part Circle Songs Beige Yurt Kestrel Feiner-Homer In this workshop we will learn a variety of original songs.

Most of these tunes have overlapping parts that when sung all together create a sound that is greater than the sum of its parts. The lyrics and melodies are simple and easy to learn, and focus on messages of reclaiming power, healing, and resistance.

European Resistance Songs Red Yurt Marco Schneebalg This session will bring together songs of the anti-fascist resistance in French, Italian, Yiddish, and Hebrew. While the songs originated in partisan groups in WWII, they are still sung in demonstrations and commemorations in their respective countries. We will go through the songs' histories and discuss their meaning, at the time – and today. Non-polyglots, fear not! They will all be translated and transliterated.

Finding Our Voice: Songs of Connection and Courage Gazebo Josh Blaine Since the summer of 2017, Josh has logged thousands of miles to interview, connect with, and learn from some of the best community song leaders in the country. His purpose has been to find the songs and methods for bringing people together to sing in order to help us face the immense challenges before us. He leads regular community sings in Austin, TX at the State Capitol rotunda, and is one of the theomusicologists of the Texas Poor People's Campaign (a revival of Dr. Martin Luther King's final legacy) and freelances as a song leader for various activism and organizing efforts in central Texas. This song session will be a "best of" selection of songs that Josh has caught, collected, and taught these last twelve months on the road and on the streets.

18 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 23-26, 2018

Saturday, August 25 4:15-5:15 PM Free time

Everywhere!

Nap Time Beige Yurt Ilana Lerman & Margot Seigle Join us for a shabbat afternoon nap, singing you to sleep with lullabies, psalms and songs.

Hike with Adamah

Meet outside Arts & Crafts

4:15-4:45 PM Mincha Orthodox Traditional Egalitarian

Red Yurt Synagogue

5:30-6:30 PM SONG SESSION 3 Singing, the Wounded World Awakes!

Synagogue Josh Waletzky This workshop will focus on Yiddish songs that express (or wrestle with) faith and our power to help heal the world and particularly how that power is connected with song. A workers' anthem, a post-Holocaust reflection, a contemporary "wake-up" song. In this context, a "singer" is one who celebrates rather than one who complains. No knowledge of Yiddish is assumed (song sheets will use transliteration and include translations).

Sephardic and Mizrachi Rhythms and Sensibilities Library Michelle Alany We will explore traditional rhythms of Sephardic, Mizrachi, and Mediterranean folk music through songs of the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire. As an international performer, educator, and composer of Jewish and other folk music, Michelle Alany is deeply connected to sharing a unique collection and interpretation of Sephardic and Mizrachi roots music. As a recording artist, she has collaborated with musicians from Spain and all over the world, producing a special collection of songs and recordings.

Shape Note Singing Gazebo Jesse Beller Shape note singing is a participatory and accessible tunebook-based 4-part harmony singing style from the American Protestant tradition. We'll learn the shapes and sing some songs from this exciting repertoire that shares some texts with Jewish tradition.

5:30-6:30 PM SONG SESSION 3 (CONTINUED) Rooting Ourselves Through Song: Diasporism and Jewish Relationship to Land Beige Yurt Margot Seigle, Chana Rusanov & Sol Weiss As Jews living in occupied America in 2018, how do we relate to home, land, and belonging? In this class, we will use the tool of song to explore our individual and collective relationship to these questions. As the core team of Linke Fligl, a queer Jewish chicken farm in Millerton, NY, we have been deep in this exploration through farming and gathering on the land we are tending and are excited to continue this learning with you through song.

Fight & Sing: Song Leading at Actions* Red Yurt Ilana Lerman Singing at a protest or action can unify people, can lift spirits in victory or loss, can fill the hours waiting in the unknown. Singing can make actions suck less, yet when it's not connected, it can be deflating. Bring your questions, your own tips and tricks, and a willingness to discover how to harness the power of singing to build power in movements. *Song Leading & Singing Skills Track 6:45-7:45 PM Dinner

Tent

7:30-7:50 PM Ma’ariv Orthodox Traditional Egalitarian 8:00-8:45 PM Community Sing Back* *Please clear your tables first 8:00-9:00 PM Camp Teva Programming 9:00 PM Havdallah 9:30 PM Participatory Concert Featuring Lead Teachers & LMPS Core Team

Red Yurt Synagogue Tent

Arts and Crafts Bonfire Pit Library

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Sunday, August 26 7:30-8:30 AM Tree of Life Yoga: Exploring Aspects of God Using the Ancient Kabballah Themes Beige Yurt king aswad

(Crown, Wisdom, Understanding, Living Kindness, Strength, Beauty, Victory, Splendor, Foundation, and Sovereignty) A loving self-care practice. King’s yoga flow class blends breath with a series of yoga poses. Be prepared to sweat through challenging sequences guaranteed to strengthen and release your body and mind. This class is appropriate for all levels.

Avodat Lev Adamah Alum

Fire Pit

Shacharit Orthodox Traditional Egalitarian 8:00-9:00 AM Breakfast 9:00-11:30 AM Camp Teva Programming Gan Adamah

Red Yurt Synagogue Dining Hall Arts and Crafts Beige Yurt

9:15-10:15 AM SONG SESSION 4 Persian Jewish Music Synagogue Galeet Dardashti We will explore the Judeo-Persian musical tradition through both recorded and live music examples (some of which you will learn). Galeet's grandfather, Younes Dardashti, was one of the most famous singers of Persian classical music; Galeet's family history and her own artistic work are central to this session.

9:15-10:15 AM SONG SESSION 4 (CONTINUED) Yearning to Grow: Chabad Nigunim Gazebo Rena Branson ChaBaD is an acronym for Chochma (the seedling of bright wisdom), Binah (taking root in deeper understanding), and Da'at (intimate knowledge that bears fruit in practice). Nigunim of the Chabad Chassidic tradition are often acrobatic exercises that refine the mind and soul to perform divine service in the world. In this session, we will cultivate focus, patience, and perseverance as we allow the nigun to blossom through us. You're invited with your yearning and your strength!

Alternatives to a Carlebach Kabbalat Shabbat Red Yurt Erin Taylor We will make our way through the psalms of Kabbalat Shabbat, sharing a few niggunim (melodies) for each. Erin will come with a niggun for each psalm or prayer, and invites others to bring their favorites to share!

Gathering Rounds Fire Pit* Laura Bellows Join us to sing, learn, and share multi-part rounds in English and Hebrew from various folk song traditions.

(Hebrew transliteration provided.) * Rain location will be in the Great Hall 10:30 AM-12:30 PM Community Sing & Closing Circle

Library

12:30 -1:00 PM Lunch Tent

Vocal Technique Exploration* Library Anat Hochberg Sound is a type of energy made by vibrations. In this workshop, we will take a look at the anatomy behind the sounds of our singing voices. We will play and explore with exercises and techniques to get to know our voices, and to discover and experiment with new ways to use them. We will also talk about vocal health and workshop challenges. *Song Leading & Singing Skills Track

Thanks for joining us for Let My People Sing!

20 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 23-26, 2018

Meet the Lead Teachers Galeet Dardashti, a vocalist and scholar, is the first woman to continue her family’s tradition of distinguished Persian and Jewish musicianship. She has earned a reputation as a trail-blazing performer of Middle Eastern Jewish music as founder and leader of internationally renowned all-female musical group, Divahn, and through her multi-disciplinary commissions, The Naming (Six Points Fellowship), and Monajat (FJC Inaugural Music Commission). Time Out New York has called Dardashti’s work “urgent, heartfelt and hypnotic,” and The Huffington Post described it as “heart-stopping.” As a scholar, she holds a Ph.D. in anthropology, specializing in cultural politics and contemporary Mizrahi music and culture in Israel. She is currently Assistant Professor of Jewish Music & Musician-in-Residence at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan.

Taya Mâ (Taya Shere) plays passionately in the realms of transformative ritual and embodied vocalization. Taya Mâ is co-founder and co-director of the Kohenet Institute. Her chant albums Wild Earth Shebrew, Halleluyah All Night, Torah Tantrika, and This Bliss have been heralded as “cutting-edge mystic medicine music.” She is co-author of The Hebrew Priestess: Ancient and New Visions of Jewish Women’s Spiritual Leadership and Siddur HaKohanot: A Hebrew Priestess Prayerbook, and is a practitioner of Ancestral Lineage Healing and Somatic Experiencing. Taya Mâ is faculty at Starr-King School for the Ministry, co-leads Makam Shekhina, a multi-religious Jewish/Sufi spiritual community, and mentors emergent spiritual leaders in embodied presence and counter-oppressive devotion. She makes home, music and other magic in the California East Bay, and regularly both teaches and offers private session work online.

Josh Waletzky is a world-leading Yiddish songwriter, deeply rooted in traditional Yiddish song.

For over 50 years Josh has been singing, teaching, and composing Yiddish songs in a variety of settings, this year at the Uriel Weinreich Yiddish Summer Program and at Yiddish New York.

Over the past decade, Josh has mentored several of the younger talents on the Yiddish song scene under the auspices of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (with support from the New York State Council Folk Arts program). This year marks the start of a new, ongoing project: the Yiddish Singing Society, where Josh leads weekly song-learning sessions.

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Meet the Planning Team Batya Levine is a Jewish musician, ritual leader, and educator.

Coming from the Jewish lineage of the tribe of Levi, who were the musicians in the Holy Temple, she is dedicated to music for the sake of healing, growth, and liberation on the individual and communal levels. Currently, she is recording an album of original music, and dreaming up her big, queer, Jewish life. soundcloud.com/batyalevine Margot Seigle is an organizer, community builder & radical dreamer who co-runs a queer Jewish chicken farm called Linke Fligl (left wing in yiddish). Margot hails from the midwest, currently lives in the Hudson Valley, and calls the queer Jewish diaspora home. Margot’s musical endeavors began at age 4 when they started learning violin by ear, and have since evolved to include song singing and leading. Since doing ADAMAH in 2012, singing has become a central tool for personal work, spiritual connection, community building, and ritual holding. Through this, Margot has witnessed the liberatory potential of song and is so grateful for the opportunity to co-create a space that holds that vision.

Noam Lerman grew up in Milwaukee, WI announcing songs for their father’s weekly Jewish radio show, and deeply connecting to music from Jewish communities around the world. They play drum, fingerstyle guitar, mandolin, and jawharp, and they are in love with nigunim, Yiddish folk songs, and laments. Noam started Der Yiddish Tekhines Proyekt, a project where new melodies are pared with excerpts of old Yiddish women's prayers so we can learn and chant them today. Noam is passionate about cultivating singing as a spiritual, radical, and meditative practice – one that can be a non-hierarchical collective experience for people to create intentional sacred space with their voices. They are currently a Rabbinical student at Hebrew College, and are training to be a chaplain for incarcerated and previously incarcerated individuals fighting for healing and liberation.

Mónica Gomery currently lives in Chicago and builds queer Jewish community as Associate Director and faculty member of SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. She grew up in a Venezuelan Jewish household both in Boston and Caracas and received ordination from the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in June 2017. Mónica is passionate about supporting people who have been denied access to, disconnected from, and marginalized by ancient and ancestral spiritual traditions to gain access to these traditions as a resource for empowerment and transformation in their lives, so that they can become vessels for healing and justice in the world. She believes that music is at the heart of building community, and loves nothing more than singing with others.

Ilana Lerman loves to interweave song throughout her political meetings and actions, her spiritual practice as well as her moped rides throughout Brooklyn, NY where she currently lives. Ilana is the Spiritual & Cultural Life Organizer at Jewish Voice for Peace where she feels blessed to work with visionary rabbis and ritual leaders fighting and praying for a more free and just world. Growing up surrounded by music and song, and as a graduate from Shefa Gold’s Kol Zimra program for chant leaders, Ilana is humbled by the power singing can bring to healing the brokenness in our bodies and in our world.

Leading and learning through song is a gift!

22 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 23-26, 2018

you make it possible.

THE TAMAR FUND Retreats have the power to change lives. At Isabella Freedman, we have a commitment to making Jewish retreats financially accessible.

Hazon works to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community, and a healthier and more sustainable world for all. Retreats are at the heart of what we do best. Each year we offer thousands of people the opportunity to immerse themselves in a vibrant and inclusive Jewish community. Through food, the outdoors, and the environment, we reframe and renew Jewish life; we inspire those who are already Jewishly involved and bring new people through the door; and we strengthen institutions and communities.

It costs about $150 per person per day for most of our retreats at Isabella Freedman. For some members of our community, especially young adults, that fee can be a barrier to participating in a program that could change their lives. A $180 scholarship from the Tamar Fund is often enough to make a $450 retreat affordable. Even a small gift goes a long way.

We are committed to making our programs accessible to all interested people to the greatest extent possible, regardless of their ability to pay. Towards that vision, Hazon awards over $110,000 in financial aid each year, much of it unfunded.

The Tamar Fund provides need-based financial aid to ensure that people from across the spectrum of the Jewish community have access to retreat experiences at Isabella Freedman.

"Throughout my young 20s, as I was exploring the world, Judaism and the expanses of my own identity, Isabella Freedman retreats were my steady anchors.

Here, I could let go of the outside world and be present in beautiful land with beautiful people, a place where I could simply be and connect.

Isabella Freedman's generous scholarships made these experiences possible. I thank Isabella Freedman with my full heart."

Natalie

The Tamar Fund is in loving memory of Tamar Bittelman, z”l who attended the Food Conference in Davis, California in 2011. Torah, Jewish community, ecology, and DIY food were values that Tamar held dear in her own life, and she very much appreciated the intersection of these values at the Hazon Food Conference. Sharing a meal with Tamar, particularly a Shabbat or Chag meal, was an experience filled with kedushah, where one was effortlessly and joyfully escorted to “a different place.”

Your gift to the Tamar Fund, in any amount, opens our programs to those who might not otherwise be able to participate.

Please contact Morgan Dorsch, Development Manager, at morgan.dorsch@hazon.org to make a gift. You can also visit the donation box outside of the bookstore. Thank you!

donate today. thank you!

Dining Tent

Emergencies only, please. You must dial 9 before making any call on our land line phones.

Isabella Freedman Emergency #: 860-453-3963