Small Acts Add Up to Great Good! We are in a global environmental crisis. Jewish tradition compels us to respond. Isabella Freedman, the home of Hazon, is dedicated to healthier, sustainable communities. Twelve years ago we shifted from disposable to compostable cups and dishes for use outside the Dining Hall. While much better than plastic and single-use, disposable items, today we need to do better. To leave the trees standing and to keep carbon in the ground we will be phasing out our single-use compostable dishes and we ask you to use the provided mugs inside the Main Building and to carry your own reusable water bottle around the Isabella Freedman campus. To make the transition easier, we are introducing:
Klean Kanteen triple insulated hot or cold bottles We will be selling them at check-in at a sliding scale of $18–$36, as we are committed to keeping prices affordable.
Table of Contents Welcome from the Planning Team..........................................3
Schedule
Guest Information.........................................................................4
Thursday.................................................................................. 14
About Hazon...................................................................................6
Friday........................................................................................ 15
Our Food Values at Isabella Freedman..................................8
Saturday................................................................................... 17
About Let My People Sing!...................................................... 10
Sunday...................................................................................... 20
Building the Culture of LMPS................................................. 11
Meet the Lead Teachers........................................................... 21
Let My People Meet & Shmooze........................................... 12
Meet the Planning Team.......................................................... 22
Tefillah & Morning Practices Descriptions......................... 13 2 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 22-25, 2019
Welcome! A Letter from the Planning Team We are so thrilled to welcome you to our 9th Let My People Sing! retreat! With each retreat we learn and grow, and it is our great honor to be shaping this space with you. We hope that throughout the weekend everyone has opportunities to learn, lead, and listen, and that together we create a sacred and powerful space for singing. We are in a time that calls on us to guard our morale, build resilient communities, and show up for one another; to learn the sacred roots of our traditions and creatively rework them in response to the needs of today. Singing is a place of refuge and a practice of communal interdependence. We come together to sing for medicine, for healing, for spiritual nourishment that can sustain us for the long haul. We sing in resistance to the forces of hatred, greed, and oppression that will cast a shadow over the years to come. We sing to remind one another: we are alive, we are strong, we are together, we will survive. This year LMPS is so excited to introduce a new scholarship fund specifically for Jews of Color, Indigenous, Sefardi, and Mizrahi Jews. This is made possible through community fundraising efforts this past year, and generously matched by Isabella Freedman. One of LMPS’s primary goals is to expand the body of Jewish song that is uplifted in our communal spaces. We want our music to reflect our multiracial and diverse communities, and to reimagine who is at the center of Jewish life. We see this as necessary, given the ways that Ashkenazi heritage and whiteness have been dominant within Jewish communities particularly in the United States. Our project includes restoring lost, broken, or marginalized lineages of cultural and ancestral transmission, and simultaneously elevating and celebrating the incredible new music being created right now. We seek to lift up teachers and transmitters of traditional Mizrahi and Sefardi music, as well as Jews of Color and Indigenous Jews who are teaching and creating both old and new lineages of song. We’re excited to make it financially possible for more JOCISM to attend LMPS this year, and to support the cultural organizing and communitybuilding that JOCISM folks are doing right now across the United States and around the world. If you being here was made possible through this new scholarship fund, we are so deeply grateful to have you, and if it is also your first time, an extra loving welcome from the whole LMPS community! Pictured from left: Margot, Mó, Noam, Ilana & Batya
The LMPS 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! Core Team
Please wear your name badge throughout the retreat! • 3
Guest Information 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 & 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 super-
visors. Mugs from our coffee bar can be used throughout the main building only. For to-go coffee and tea please use one of our compostable cups, including usage in the Synagogue. 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. CLEAR YOUR 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.) 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. 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.
4 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 22-25, 2019
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 open seasonally and only 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: During the spring, we welcome the babies of our hardworking mother does! You are encouraged to visit the Adamah barnyard during scheduled goat activities. 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. Please do not feed the goats or visit when a goat is sick, giving birth or about to give birth. We want to be sure that everyone is safe and healthy!
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.
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! • 5
About Hazon The word Hazon means “vision”. Our vision is of a vibrant, healthy Jewish community, in which to be Jewish is necessarily to help create a more sustainable world for all.
We’re in a global environmental crisis. Jewish tradition compels us to respond… As the Jewish lab for sustainability, Hazon is building a national movement that strengthens Jewish life and contributes to a more environmentally sustainable world for all. People who participate in our programs deepen their Jewish identities; experience the connection between inherited Jewish wisdom, food, climate, and the natural world; and become linked with others who care about creating a more sustainable Jewish community and world. Hazon develops, networks, and provides resources for those growing into leadership – people changing existing institutions or building new organizations and communities that live the values we cherish and the world needs. These individuals become part of a powerful movement of like-minded people within and outside the Jewish community who take responsibility for fixing what has gone awry in our relationship to the world and for designing a more sustainable future for all.
Everything we do is rooted in seven core principles: 1. Vibrant experiential education that renews Jewish life – Using songs, growing, cooking, meditation, retreats, Shabbat celebrations & the arts... 2. Connections between Jewish tradition and the outdoors, food, farming, and ecology Engaging with texts, ritual, prayer, thoughtleadership, and the physical world that sustains us... 3. Intellectual excellence and rigor – Relating to Jewish tradition with integrity; committing to best practice; learning from expert teachers; and using ongoing evaluation to improve all that we do... 4. Justice, diversity, and inclusion Including in relation to religious expression, gender, identity, race...
5. A focus on leadership, because leadership amplifies impact Educating, networking, nurturing and empowering leaders across the JOFEE (Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming & Environmental Education) field... 6. Healthy and sustainable actions Operating at the highest possible standards in relation to health and environmental sustainability; farming organically; demonstrating meatless meals; serving high-welfare eggs; reducing plastic and sugar... 7. Investing in our own people Supporting staff and board development as critical to our own long-term success…
6 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 22-25, 2019
Teva Since 1994, Teva has engaged over 100,000 Jewish students, day school teachers, and young adults in Jewish environmental education. The program works to fundamentally transform Jewish education through experiential learning that fosters Jewish, ecological, and food sustainability. Each year, Teva engages roughly 1,000 day schoolers and 13 young adults, who receive professional development and serve as trail educators.
JOFEE Fellowship
Key Hazon Programs Hazon Seal of Sustainability The Hazon Seal of Sustainability guides Jewish organizations and their members to become healthier and more sustainable. Organizations take sustainability audits, design greening initiatives, and receive the Hazon Seal as a testament to their leadership. Over 75 Jewish organizations from coast to coast, and all walks of Jewish life, are currently in the Hazon Seal – including synagogues, day schools, camps, social service agencies, and Hillels. “I am incredibly proud of being part of an organization that puts so much emphasis on sustainability. I love having the Hazon Seals up as a talisman of what we stand for and something to visibly point out to staff, campers, and guests.” – Ramah in the Rockies
Adamah Jewish Farming Fellowship Adamah is a three-month fellowship that provides space for young adults to explore the intersection of sustainable agriculture with Jewish identity, community building, spirituality, and personal development. An exceptional leadership training experience, the program’s 400+ alumni have gone on to found a wide range of organizations and projects dedicated to agriculture, justice, and Jewish life.
The JOFEE Fellowship invigorates the Jewish educational landscape by seeding Jewish communities with outstanding Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming, and Environmental Educators. The program has graduated over 60 fellows, who have run programs for 75,000+ individuals across the country. “[The JOFEE Fellowship] has been absolutely transformational for my work and personal Jewish identity. I now feel qualified to be an impactful JOFEE educator and really own the Jewish elements that I felt I was lacking.”
Transformative Retreats Each year, Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Hazon’s home in the Berkshires, engages over 6,000 individuals in immersive, pluralistic Jewish retreat experiences that celebrate Jewish life, learning, and leadership. Visit hazon.org/calendar for our full retreat schedule. “Can one’s life change in the course of three days? I think so. I wasn’t really sure what I’d signed up for when I registered for the Hazon Food Conference. But I’m confident that I didn’t expect to have the transformation/ awakening I ended up having.” – Daphne Steinberg
Community Lab in Detroit Detroit is in the midst of a cultural, Jewish, and economic renaissance which provides fertile ground for exploring new ideas and programs to create long-term change. The Hazon office in Detroit serves as a “lab” that models for other communities how Jewish life can be reinvigorated through a commitment to healthy eating, sustainability, and food justice.
Please wear your name badge throughout the retreat! • 7
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.
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.
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 Hazon Food Guide for more information about higher-welfare products. • Contact Jewish Initiative for Animals for support in finding higherwelfare eggs.
Meat
All of the meat we serve is provided by Grow & Behold Foods, 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. At the Hazon Food Conference in August 2018, we pledged to increase the heritage chicken breeds that we source each year by at least 5%. We intend to incrementally move towards improving the welfare of the chickens that produce our meat and eggs, with a vision toward diversified chicken genetics including a variety of heritage breeds. Working with Grow & Behold Foods, Jewish Initiative for Animals, and other allies, we aim to shift the percentage of kosher chicken that is both pasture raised and from a diversified breeding stock, which is important for public health, the long-term stability of the food supply, and animal welfare. We encourage you to join us and help build the market for pasture raised chicken from diverse breeds, higher welfare eggs, a diet that includes less meat, and more thoughtful approaches to food purchasing overall. Learn more at hazon.org/higherwelfaremeat Interested in finding kosher, pasture-raised meat in your area? Check out growandbehold.com for nationwide delivery and buying club options.
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 old-world 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.
8 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 22-25, 2019
“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.
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.
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.
Learn More
Visit us online at hazon.org/jewish-food-movement 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.
Want to avoid consuming foods produced by slave labor? Choose fair trade in all of your shopping!
Please wear your name badge throughout the retreat! • 9
About Let My People Sing! WE BELIEVE IN THE LIBERATORY POTENTIAL OF SONG AND THE IMPORTANCE OF A VIBRANT JEWISH SINGING CULTURE.
Let My People Sing! brings together singing traditions across Jewish time and space – from ancient to contemporary music, and everything in between. We sing in Ladino, Hebrew, Yiddish, Judeo-Arabic, Aramaic, and in languages from around the world – wherever Jews dwelled in diaspora, they sang, and we are still singing! Our project includes restoring lost or broken lineages of cultural and ancestral transmission, and simultaneously elevating, celebrating, learning, and teaching the incredible new music coming out of our communities. Through this work we connect to our spiritual, familial, and chosen ancestors, we heal trauma, and we deepen our human interconnectedness. At Let My People Sing! everyone can be a leader and a learner of song. Our retreats are a place to practice and develop leadership and new skills with the support, mentorship, and love of the core team, teachers, and the entire community. Our vision is for more kinds of people to learn how to embody and lead Jewish music and tradition, transforming us individually and transforming Judaism as a whole. This is a project of spreading seeds of song that go out into the world to sprout new singing communities and a justice-based singing culture far and wide. We create retreats where people can experience the potential of liberation by connecting closely in communal spaces.
Learn more at letmypeoplesing.org.
10 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 22-25, 2019
Building the Culture of Let My People Sing! • This retreat is a gift and an experiment! We are co-creating 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. Judaism has so many expressions regionally, culturally, ethnically, denominationally, etc. Honoring and educating about the plurality of our traditions is a value we want to bring into cultural work! • 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. One way to resist cultural dominance and appropriation is to be specific about the tradition, lineage, context, and creator(s) of the cultural work. This can help us un-learn seeing some cultural traditions as “normal” when they’re actually just dominant. If you are unsure if a song is appropriate to share, the core 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.
Please wear your name badge throughout the retreat! • 11
Let My People Meet & Shmooze! LMPS is overflowing with powerful, interesting, big-hearted people and we would all be so lucky to get to know each other more! Here are some sweet and simple questions if you are looking for conversation starters: Who is your favorite singer/songwriter? Why?
What is your most embarrassing singing or musical moment? We all have them :)
What new things do you want to learn musically? Why?
Talk about a mentor in your life who is important to you- singing related or not.
What other forms of artistic expression interest you?
What is your Jewish community like today? What parts do you love or want to change or yearn for?
What does it feel like to sing in large groups of people versus small groups of people?
Do you ever sing alone? If so, how often?
What is the first song you remember someone singing to or with you as a child?
Have you ever written a song? If yes, what was your creation process like?
12 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 22-25, 2019
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: 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: 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: 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.
Please wear your name badge throughout the retreat! • 13
Daily Schedules Please note: In order to make this space accessible to people who are sensitive to fragrances, we ask that participants avoid using scented products (such as perfume, scented deodorant and scented hair products).
Thursday, August 22 3:00-5:00 pm Check-in Great Hall 4:45-5:00 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. 5:00-6:00 pm Camp Teva Programming Arts and Crafts 6:00-7:00 pm Dinner 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.
7:15-8:30 pm Improvisational Singing Synagogue Mónica Gomery One of the most empowering ways to sing is without a plan and without words; to let whatever is alive in us come forward. Join Mónica for a workshop of improvisational singing, which will warm up our deep listening and musical sharing skills for the weekend. We’ll use a number of exercises to facilitate free sound and expression, creating completely original music together with just our voices. This is a great workshop for harmonizers, beat boxers, melody makers, risk takers, hand drummers, and anyone else who wants to access some of their own raw musical material. This is also a chance to ease into the nourishment of song at LMPS, and to start to attune your singing to the voices around you. 8:30-9:30 pm Community Jam Library Bring Instruments! 9:30 pm Ma’ariv Orthodox Red Yurt Traditional Egalitarian Synagogue
** If it’s your first time at Let My People Sing, we encourage you to go to this session! It will provide tools for community singing, which will set a great frame for the rest of your time at LMPS.**
14 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 22-25, 2019
Friday, August 23 7:00 - 8:00 am Avodat Lev with Shamu Sadeh Fire Pit
for Shabbat and Motza'ei Shabbat that were sung by the Baghdadi community in Calcutta. Rahel will also share stories and customs from her Baghdadi-Indian heritage.
7:30 - 8:30 am Yoga Beige Yurt
12:00-1:00 pm Lunch Tent
Shacharit Orthodox Red Yurt Traditional Egalitarian Synagogue 8:00 - 9:30 am Breakfast Dining Hall 9:30 am-12:00 pm Camp Teva Programming Arts and Crafts 9:30 am-12:00 pm Gan Adamah Beige Yurt 9:45-10:15 am Welcoming Songs with Our Lead Teachers Library 10:30 am-12:00 pm Intensives Part 1 A Stranger in a Strange Land: The Possibilities of African American Music in Jewish Prayer Spaces Synagogue Anthony Russel African American music is a profound element of American life, history and culture. Even so, does that necessarily mean it has a place in American Jewish prayer spaces? Is Jewish communal interaction with Black music possible without tokenizing, appropriation or theological issues? In this session, through conversation and music, we will attempt to find out. Baghdadi-Indian Melodies: Shabbat Spirit, Song, and Story Library Rahel Musleah This melodic journey to India will open your heart and spirit as you learn intriguing, unusual, and lyrical songs
JOCISM Meetup* *Jews of Color, Indigenous Jews, Sephardim and Mizrahim will be gathering, new friends and old, for joyful connection, song sharing and relationship building. We can’t wait to sing with you. 1:00-5:00 pm Camp Teva Programming Arts and Crafts 1:15-2:15 pm Farm Tour with Adamah Meet outside Arts and Crafts New Songs of Jewish Pride: Messages of Diversity & Inclusion Library Gila Lipton The theme of this session is diversity and inclusion, exemplified in songs by Ed Lipton, including excerpts from his CD "New Songs of Jewish Pride." These easily- learned, tuneful songs are especially appropriate for teachers who are seeking creative ways to convey the above-mentioned concepts. Words & music will be distributed and group singing is on the agenda! 2:30-4:00 pm Intensives Part 2 Becoming the Song Synagogue Anat Hochberg In this workshop, we will develop our songleading by sinking into our connection with song; learning practical song teaching techniques; and exploring the way our voices, breath, and movements can deeply express the musical character and spirit of songs when we lead. Songs of My Matriarchs: Yiddish Songs of Beyle Gottesman and Lifshe Schaechter Library Naftali Ejdelman Beyle Schaechter Gottesman and her mother Lifshe Schaechter Widman, were both renowned in the world of Yiddish music for their respective contributions- Beyle for her original Yiddish songs sung in traditional folk styles, and Lifshe for transmitting Yiddish ballads and folk music from her native Please wear your name badge throughout the retreat! • 15
Friday, August 23 Bukovina (Western Ukraine). Naftali will be sharing some of his favorite music from his great-aunt and great-grandmother including several new Yiddish ballads, a bar mitsve song and an old Yiddish lullaby. No knowledge of Yiddish required 4:00-4:15 pm Men’s Mikveh 4:20-4:35 pm Women’s Mikveh
5:45-6:30 pm Let My People Sing! Welcome & Orientation Library Attend this quick session in order to meet new people, and to learn all about LMPS – why and how we do what we do, norms for creating community together this weekend, practical info about the retreat, key people to look out for while you're here. And of course, practice and learn this summer's LMPS Nigun!
4:40-5:00 pm Trans & Non-Binary Mikveh
6:00-8:15 pm Camp Teva Programming Arts and Crafts
5:00-6:00 pm Camp Teva Kids’ Dinner Tent
6:45-8:15 pm Kabbalat Shabbat & Ma’ariv
5:15-5:30 pm Mincha Orthodox Red Yurt Traditional Egalitarian Synagogue 5:30-5:45 pm Candle Lighting (light on your own) Great Hall
Creative Minyan Library Arielle Rivera Korman & Chloe Zelkha Traditional Egalitarian Minyan Synagogue Anat Hochberg, Laura Lassy Townsend, Natalie Haziza & Naftali Ejdelman Orthodox Minyan Red Yurt Yoni Stokar 8:15-9:45 pm Dinner Tent 9:45 pm Community Sing / Tish Library
16 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 22-25, 2019
Saturday, August 24 7:30-8:30 am Yoga Beige Yurt 8:00-9:00 am Breakfast Dining Hall 9:00 am-12:15 pm Camp Teva Programming Arts and Crafts 9:00 am-12:15 pm Gan Adamah Beige Yurt 8:30 am-12:00 pm Shabbat Services Creative Minyan (9am) Library Jessi Roemer, Ilana Lerman, Arielle Rivera Korman & Molly Bajgot Traditional Egalitarian Minyan Synagogue Itai Gal, Mira Pitch, Rahel Musleah & Michal David Orthodox Minyan Red Yurt Anat Hochberg, Naftali Ejdelman & Yoni Stokar 12:15-1:30 pm Lunch Tent 1:30-6:45 pm Camp Teva Programming Arts and Crafts 1:45 pm- 2:45 pm SONG SESSION 1 Songs of Resistance Synagogue Jessica Levine It is known as deeply as our bones that we as Jews have a history of persecution; the fact that despite this persecution we are still here is a record of resistance. This record has inscribed itself into our musical tradition, and while Jews in the so-called United States — especially
the most marginalized Jews — face renewed danger, we can unearth this record and use it as a map by which to guide and sustain our own continued resistance. This session will teach a few songs of Jewish resistance from throughout history, in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English. Then, in the time remaining, it will open up to session attendees to share songs of Jewish resistance in any language and of any time period, up to and including original compositions. Original Songs! Gazebo Arielle Rivera Korman Original songs! In this session I’ll share songs I’ve written to both familiar and less familiar texts/liturgy. We’ll also have a moment of individual song-humming and see what new melodies we can generate together from this place and moment in time! Preparing for Tishrei Beige Yurt Sol Weiss Each late summer into fall, our tradition drags us through our own unwinding and reweaving. To prepare for this time, this session will use ritual and song to help us connect with the cycle from Tisha B'Av, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur to Sukkot and the work of each holiday. We will sing songs that move us through the cycles of loss, birth, death, and homecoming that connect us to the work of these holidays, to what it is that keeps us human and prepares us for the fullness of life. Songs for a Transcendent Shabbos Red Yurt Aura Ahuvia This workshop will showcase numerous songs from the Shabbat liturgy that exude joy, beauty, and tranquility. Composers from a cross-section of the Jewish world, mostly from the past 30 years, will be included. All songs, which will mostly be sung in Hebrew, offer rich opportunities for beautiful and creative harmonies. 3:00-4:00 pm SONG SESSION 2 Singing for the Streets Synagogue Emet Ezell Amidst the whirlwind of political protest and direct action, song-leading is often needed most but remembered last. This session imagines otherwise: explicitly tending to the craft of song-leading for the streets. Whether you’ve led song at hundreds of actions, or you want to learn how Please wear your name badge throughout the retreat! • 17
Saturday, August 24 to channel the magic, the desire is to build a stronger network of support for community organizers and songleaders alike as we “pray with our feet.” We will exchange practical strategies and steady song - embodying various scenarios and experiences - all while preparing our hearts (and our voices!) for whatever the Movement calls for next. Baghdadi-Indian Melodies: Holidays in Harmony Library Rahel Musleah Part Two of a melodic journey to Jewish India focuses on holiday songs and customs. You'll learn sweet and sassy new songs to sing in the sukkah, around the seder table, and in the synagogue. A fascinating musical window onto a rich culture little-known to most. The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of its [Multi] Parts Gazebo Arielle Solomon We'll sing songs with multiple parts that fit together in amazing ways! Great for folks who have never sung this way before because you can team up with others on a part, and also great for folks who want to see if they can hold a part all on their own! Choose your own adventure. These songs are all in English and are by a variety of artists. Hamin, Adafina, Chulent: Shabbat Zemirot for Hungry Neshamot Red Yurt Mira Pitch As chulent is a mix of ingredients thrown into a pot to create something delicious, this session will be a "chulent"; of zmirot of all kinds to enhance the Shabbat table experience. Participants can attend to learn new songs, sing old favorites, and share what these songs mean to them, with Ashkenazi, Sefardi, and Mizrachi classics all covered along with some super fun English tunes. You Are Not Alone: Songs for (all sorts of ) Survivors Beige Yurt Ishka Shir Life is challenging. All of us have survived something; depression, the loss of a friend or family member, physical or emotional abuse, illness, discrimination... The songs I share are not Jewish specific, but they are here to remind us that we are not alone, that tomorrow may be brighter, and to encourage us to reclaim our power. I will share mostly easy to learn songs where you can find/add your own harmonies. I will share a mix of original and collected songs. Also, folks are welcome to lay down and immerse themselves in a song bath (tears are welcome here).
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 Red Yurt Traditional Egalitarian Synagogue 5:30-6:30 pm SONG SESSION 3 Longing for the Future: Yiddish Songs about Moshiach Synagogue Naftali Ejdelman Throughout the course of history, Jews have written and sung songs about their yearning for the messianic era. Yiddish songs about Moshiach are full of hope, irony, humor and devotion to Judaism. We will learn to sing some of the most popular Yiddish songs about this longing while learning enough Yiddish to understand the lyrics. Swim Lessons in Sourcing the Divine: Improvisational Sound Library Marin Magat Improvisational sound is like water, a surrounding connective body we can't fully see. At any time, we can reach into the myriad channels and bring music into being. We can even do this together. This workshop is about *Helping us feel comfortable making up what and how we sing--opening ourselves the thrill of channeling creative source in the present--in a grounded versus reactive way. *How to improvise together--illuminating the invisible layers jazz players use to create collective sound, thanks to Bobby McFerrin's Circle Song model, and building our sensitivity to one sound created by all. *Moving outside our range of normal to allow ourselves unexpected sounds-exploring the instrument that is each of us.
18 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 22-25, 2019
Saturday, August 24 Cultivating Intimacy with the Profound Mundane Gazebo Camille Robertson What is the song for right now? I ask myself this question often – while doing household chores, moving through bedtime rituals, celebrating a small success, connecting with a friend, participating in spontaneous ceremony, feeling bored, agitated, excited, playful, loving… If I listen, I can often locate a melody, and likely some words, that help me to engage with whatever I'm doing with more awareness, depth, presence, gratitude, and intention. This practice offers me a way to experience the weaving of time through the profound, the mundane, and the profound mundane more pleasurably, more easefully, more richly, and more joyously. In this workshop I'll share a few of the short, adaptable "songs for right now" that I've written to keep myself company, to remind me of my purpose and my aliveness, to embrace bits of wisdom I've encountered, and to transform grief, pain, or discomfort into something meaningful. We'll play with listening – with our minds, our hearts, our bodies, and our spirits – for the songs ripe for this workshop-moment, for new words that resonate, and for anything within or around us that becomes louder or clearer, softer or more beautiful, in the process. 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 5779, 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 and cultural organizing project in Millerton, NY, we have been deep in this exploration through farming, praying and gathering on the land we tend and invite you to learn with us through song.
A Workshop in Judeo Arab Song Red Yurt Laura Lassy Townsend Learn songs in Judeo Arab, Ladino and Hebrew from the folk and liturgical Andalusian repertoires of Morocco and Algeria. During this workshop, we will cover Shabbat songs that borrow from Arabic and Ladino folk music, we’ll learn a traditional Moroccan Piyut for the high holidays and jam on a rhythmic North African popular song. Join us for an immersion in Judeo-Arab sounds. 6:45-7:45 pm Dinner Tent 7:30-7:45 pm Ma’ariv Orthodox Red Yurt Traditional Egalitarian Synagogue 7:45-8:45 pm Community Sing Back* Tent *Please clear your tables first 8:00-9:00 pm Camp Teva Programming Arts and Crafts 9:00 pm Havdallah Bonfire Pit 9:30 pm Participatory Concert Library Featuring Lead Teachers, Featured Teachers & LMPS Core Team
Please wear your name badge throughout the retreat! • 19
Sunday, August 25 7:30-8:30 am Yoga Beige Yurt
A Taste of Yemenite Song Library Anat Hochberg Come for an introductory exploration of Jewish Yemenite song culture. We'll learn some history of Yemenite Jews, culture, and Yemenite migration to Israel; listen to recordings of traditional song and modern interpreters; and of course, sing together.
Avodat Lev with Adamah Alum Fire Pit Shacharit Orthodox Red Yurt
Broken Images: Piecing Together New Traditions Through Song Red Yurt Arielle Rivera Korman Writings against idolatry, idol-worshippers, and non-Jews broadly speaking are immensely common throughout the Jewish tradition. They can be used to isolate the Jewish community and set us apart from non-Jewish allies, comrades, communities, and even ourselves. I set out on a songwriting journey to reframe these perspectives. Mishnah Avodah Zara includes plenty of decrees on the kinds of idols not permitted. It also includes this: [For] one who finds broken images: behold, these are permitted. In this session, we’ll learn the songs I came up with in my exploration and open up discussion about ways to rework texts and the broken places in our tradition.
Traditional Egalitarian Synagogue 8:00-9:00 am Breakfast Dining Hall 9:00-11:30 am Camp Teva Programming Arts and Crafts 9:00-11:30 am Gan Adamah Beige Yurt 9:15-10:15 am Song Session 4 A Queer Nigun Project Circle (Allies Welcome!) Synagogue Rena Branson A Queer Nigun Project leads monthly healing spaces for queer-identified folks to sing nigunim (wordless spiritual tunes), and also leads circles for nigun singing in jails. This circle at LMPS is open to everyone! The project began with a desire to make mystical Chassidish melodies accessible to people who might not have the opportunity to enter or feel comfortable in Chassidish spaces, or even in Jewish spaces more broadly. The circles have expanded to share contemporary melodies as well, often centering nigunim composed by queer musicians. We'll start the circle with a grounding breathing exercise, teach a few specific tunes, and then open the floor for anyone to share a nigun that moves them. If you'd like to lead a nigun but have trouble calling one to mind, you can look up A Queer Nigun Project Soundcloud for examples online!
High Holiday Ashkenazi Liturgy Gazebo Gavriel Meir-Levi The High Holiday Ashkenazi Liturgy can be scary and intimidating… until you get to know it! Join us for an intimate meeting with some of the most revered prayers of the Ashkenazi Liturgical cannon. We will explore the musical “sensibility” of the Ashkenazi High Holiday Liturgy, including Kol Nidre, songleading strategies to heighten the experience with the congregation, the musical language of Unetana Tokef, the Ten Martyrs prayer, and a discussion of choosing non-liturgical tunes in a liturgical setting. We will be singing melodies from multiple contemporary composers including Carlebach during this session, and we can also discuss using (or not using) tunes by composers who's actions were harmful to individuals. 10:30-12:30 pm Community Sing & Closing Circle Library 12:30 -1:00 pm Lunch Tent
Thanks for joining us for Let My People Sing! 20 • Let My People Sing! • Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center • August 22-25, 2019
Meet the Lead Teachers Rahel Musleah, through the vivid prism of her family’s story, introduces audiences to the distinctive heritage of the Jews of India and Iraq. The seventh generation of a Calcutta family, she traces her roots to seventeenthcentury Baghdad. Her multimedia visual, song, and story presentations and Shabbat programming featuring Baghdadi-Indian tropes and melodies offer a rare and intimate view of a rich culture little-known to most. Rahel is an award-winning journalist, author, singer, speaker, and educator. She also leads tours of Jewish India informed by her distinctive “insider’s” perspective. Her next tours are scheduled for November 7-20, 2019 and February 13-26, 2020. Rahel is a graduate of Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She sings with New York’s Zamir Chorale and enjoys Israeli dancing. She lives in Roslyn Heights, NY, and is passing down the legacy of the Indian Jewish community to her two children, Shira and Shoshana. Visit her websites: rahelsjewishindia.com, and explorejewishindia.com. Anat Halevy Hochberg is a Brooklyn-based musician, teacher, and ritual leader. Anat grounds her practice as a ba’al tefila (prayer leader) in her study of traditional Jewish text and connection with the Earth and the Divine. She is influenced by her training as a classical musician, earth-based experiential Jewish ritual and education, and family and community traditions (from Israel, Poland, Hungary, Yemen, Boston, and beyond). Anat has a passion for leading song and seeks to empower and back others in raising their voices. Anat performs as a solo artist and with collaborators, and has recently recorded with artists such as Joey Weisenberg, Miriam Marges, and George Mordecai. She recently completed two years of study at Yeshivat Hadar and was a Fellow in the Rising Song Institute. Learn more about her work at anathalevyhochberg.com.
Naftali Ejdelman, a native Yiddish speaker and lifelong teacher, uses Yiddish education as a way to connect people to each other and to their roots. He currently teaches Yiddish and runs a Yiddish Havura in Northampton, MA and teaches middle school math at the Lubavicher Yeshiva Academy in Longmeadow, MA. Naftali will be sharing Yiddish songs from his great-aunt and great grandmother, both of whom were renowned Yiddish singers. 2019 FEATURED TEACHER Arielle Rivera Korman played violin for Simchat Torah for the first time in the second grade (those hakafot don’t feel any less endless now that she is an adult.) Jewish music has always been a part of the air she breathes. She remembers standing in the middle of her living room as a child discovering that she could belt out the niggun-inspired parts of Fiddler on the Roof most successfully when in character, adopting an over-the-top cantorial-ness. She has since changed her singing vibe quite a bit, but after a l’chaim or two, who knows what might come out? For the past few years, Arielle has been writing her own Jewish melodies and songs, sharing several at Kehilat Romemu where she is a periodic davening leader. A violinist, singer-songwriter, and visual artist, Arielle finds home as a cultural organizer at JFREJ (Jews for Racial and Economic Justice). She is also a co-founder of the JOC (Jews of Color) Torah Academy and an active member of Ugnayan Youth for Justice and Social Change. She has taught at the National Havurah Committee’s Summer Institute, tutors b’nai mitzvah students, and recently has begun facilitating trainings to combat antisemitism. Arielle is currently pursuing a PhD. in Religion (Jewish Studies) at Columbia University.
Please wear your name badge throughout the retreat! • 21
Meet the Planning Team Margot Seigle is a community builder & cultural organizer who co-runs Linke Fligl (left wing in yiddish), a queer Jewish chicken farm and cultural organizing project . They are also a co-owner at Random Harvest Market, where they help to uplift food producers historically marginalized in the food system and to bring to life the community space. They fill their time outside of work making music & magic, creating art, running around the woods, support-parenting & shabbat-ing with dear friends. Margot hails from the midwest and currently lives in the Hudson Valley on occupied Schagticoke land, but calls the Jewish diaspora home. Margot deeply believes in the liberatory potential of song and is so grateful to realize this longing through the Let My People Sing! retreats. Batya Levine grew up singing Ashkenazi tunes of joy and yearning in a Modern Orthodox home, where she learned the power of song as prayer. She plays guitar, mandolin, and wooden tables, though voice is her primary instrument. Batya leads prayer and song in a variety of communities, including Isabella Freedman, Linke Fligl, SVARA, and Kavod Boston. She is committed to the project of living and reclaiming a traditional Judaism that is deeply rooted, ever growing, accessible and liberatory for all those who wish to dwell and play in its branches. Coming from a long lineage of Jewish musicians, she is dedicated to using music as a tool for healing and transformation. Batya will be spending the next year in residency at the Rising Song Institute, where she will delve deeper into the study of Jewish music. She will be recording an album of original songs, some of which have already traveled from living rooms to prayer spaces and street protests across the Jewish diaspora. You can listen to some of her music at soundcloud.com/batyalevine. Noam Vered 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. Noam is the rabbinic intern at Nehar Shalom in Jamaica Plain, MA as they complete their final year of rabbinical school at Hebrew College in Boston. They believe in cultivating singing as a spiritual and meditative practice; one that can be a non-hierarchical collective experience for people to create intentional sacred space with their voices. They play drum, fingerstyle guitar,
mandolin, jawharp, and oud, and they sing nigunim, folk songs, laments, and nusach (liturgical modes) from multiple Jewish traditions. Noam started ‘Der Yiddish Tekhines Proyekt’, a project where new melodies are pared with excerpts of old Yiddish women’s prayers so that communities can revive them into use today. They are currently involved with an oral history project through UWM called Uncovering Radical Milwaukee, where students are interviewing Jewish elders from the labor movement who worked for civil rights locally, along with elders from various backgrounds who are themselves and/or worked in solidarity with American Indian tribes in Northern Wisconsin fighting against state-sanctioned discrimination. Noam is a circle keeper in Restorative Practices, and has acted as a chaplain for incarcerated and previously incarcerated individuals fighting for survival and healing. In the steps of their ancestors, Noam is dedicated to working for a world without prisons and borders! Mónica Gomery is the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors and was raised by her Venezuelan Ashkenazi family in Boston and Caracas. She was ordained by the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in June 2017, and currently builds queer Jewish community as the Associate Director of National Learning at SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, and builds the songful Jewish left as the Music Director of Kol Tzedek Synagogue in Philadelphia. 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 is deeply grateful to the vibrant singing community at Let My People Sing! which has enlivened in her the lost voices of her ancestors. Ilana Lerman 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 22-25, 2019
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. The word Hazon means “vision.” Our vision is of a vibrant, healthy Jewish community, in which to be Jewish is necessarily to help create a 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 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. Visit hazon.org/tamarfund to make a gift. You can also go to the donation box near Guest Services in the main building. Thank you!
donate today. thank you!
Main Office
P H I L
L A K E
Entrance
Red Yurt
Parking
Basketball Court
Chestnut
n Road
Johnso
Kaplan Family Farm (incl. Orchards & Chickens)
Staff Housing
Beebe Hill Road Red Trailhead
May
Patio
Gazebo
Playground
Program Offices
Library
Lakeside Trailhead
M I R I A M
Follow gravel road to Blue & Yellow Trailheads
L A K E
Fire Circle
Book Store & Guest Services
Scheuer
Weinberg
Maple
Synagogue
Greenhouse
CHECK-IN
Great Hall
Arts & Crafts
MAIN BUILDING
Dining Hall
Dining Tent
Pool
Entrance to Garden
Cob Oven
Johnson Road
Kfar
Blue Heron Cedar
Beige Yurt
Mikveh, Swimming & Boat Dock
Pine
Tent Camping Area
d Roa
Parking
= Eruv
© DON MANNES 2011
Lakeside and Yellow Trailheads
Elm
Kaufmann
son
John
Goats & Barnyard
Staff Housing
Driveway to Cultural Center
Emergencies only, please. You must dial 9 before making any call on our land line phones.
Isabella Freedman Emergency #: 860-453-3963