Jews in the Woods
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Jews in the Woods is an informal Shabbaton meeting that began in New England in 1997 and is currently held twice each year. It is also referred to as Fruity Jews or Fruity Jews in the Woods.
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[edit] History
The group was founded by Dan Zimmerman, Dan Smokler, and Sasha Polakow-Suransky, three high school friends that attended Dartmouth College, Yale University, and Brown University respectively. JITW has come to be known for its serene, wooded locations, intense praying and singing, and the musical, lyrical and terpsichorean geniuses who frequent its gatherings. It has been described as both neo-hasidic[1] and post-denominational[2]. The original gathering in 1997 was relatively small, consisting of friends that the three founders had made at their universities, and on two Israel summer programs: Nesiya, and the Bronfman Youth Fellowship in Israel. The following year, word had spread, and there were over 100 attendees from the North East and beyond. Following this event, the organizers decided that they needed to limit the size of the gatherings for the sake of intimacy; consequently, future gatherings hosted between 60 and 70 people. In 2000 and in 2001, the JitW gathering was held at 9 Mountain retreat center in Plainfield, MA. Most of the original Jews in the Woods organizers graduated from college in 2001, and the informal group disbanded. The folks went on to start many minyanim elsewhere, but JitW took a hiatus.
Two years later, in the Spring of 2003, Ben Bregman from Brown University, who had been at the pre-hiatus gatherings, decided to organize a return to the woods. During the planning of this fifth retreat some important changes occurred. Jews in the Woods began to be organized in a more egalitarian, transparent way with a tangle of e-mails. This gathering was small and intimate, consisting of approximately 25 people, but included many of the folks who helped with the rebirth including Yona Gorelick, Ari Johnson, Zach Teutsch, Lev Nelson, and Rachel Stone.
Johnson and Teutsch organized the sixth JitW gathering and then the seventh and eighth, the latter with the addition of Julia Appel to the planning team. As electronic tools including a wiki and a yahoogroup listserve became available, JitW organizers took advantage of the increased connectivity they provided and replaced the constantly changing list of e-mails with a listserv. As with the fith gathering, the process of making the JitW community more egalitarian is still ongoing and there will always be more inclusivity to aspire towards, but innovations developed for these Jews in the Woods gatherings were significant and have impacted the larger Jewish community. The process evolved to include pluralism as a key value. The three-part davening space, known as a meshlitzah or tri-chitzah, was introduced as were a variety of compromises designed to make the community increasingly inclusive. The shabbatonim began to be held more often - once a semester - and grew from approximately 20 to over a hundred. Word spread. Many neat projects sprung out of the community as a result of its emphasis on possibility and its impact is beginning to be seen on the young American Jewish community.
With numbers growing by over 125% each time, after much communal discussion, gatherings 9 and 10 in the spring of 2005 became the first time multiple JitW shabbatonim were organized in a single semester. The northern one was organized by Baruch Stone and Benj Kamm, and the southerly one was organized by Julia Appel and Sam Petsonk. Both were smaller and afforded an easier entry into the community. The spring of 2006 saw the first gathering in Israel. Coordinated by Julia Appel and Joe Gindi, "Yehudim BaMidbar" introduced the JitW experience to an older group of Anglo Jews learning in Israel, many of whom were working toward degrees in Jewish communal leadership. As JitW gatherings continue to spread, further innovation is likely. It is also likely that the experience of JitW will spread beyond its current concentration in Israel and the East Coast.
JITW has grown dramatically, and while still unofficial, has acquired a following at university Hillels around the country, and has served as the inspiration for the Kavod Social Justice House[3]. The group has received attention from various bloggers [1], especially for their use of a wiki in organization and decision-making. In Mah Rabu'sseries on Hilchot Pluralism Jews in the Woods is heralded for popularizing the three-sectioned prayer system. Jews in the Woods was also recently profiled in the major US Jewish newspaper, The Forward, in an article devoted to the issues surrounding boundaries and community.
[edit] The Gatherings
| Year | Organizer(s) | Number of Attendees | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 (Fall) | Dan Smokler | 35 | CT (the woods) |
| 1998 (Fall) | Dan Smokler | 120 | CT (a retreat center in the woods) |
| 2000 (Spring) | Dan Smokler | 60-70 | 9 Mountain (MA) |
| 2001 (Spring) | Dan Smokler | 60-70 | 9 Mountain (MA) |
| 2003 (Spring) | Ben Bregman & Joe Gindi | 25 | near 9 Mountain (MA) |
| 2003 (Fall) | Ari Johnson & Zach Teutsch | ~65 | The Hafenreffer (RI) |
| 2004 (Spring - Pesach) | Ari Johnson & Zach Teutsch | ~75 | 9 Mountain and Earthdance (MA) |
| 2004 (Fall) | Ari Johnson, Zach Teutsch, Julia Appel | ~130 | Earthdance (MA) |
| 2005 (Spring) NORTH | Benj Kamm & Baruch Stone | ~70 | The Hafenreffer (RI) |
| 2005 (Spring) SOUTH | Julia Appel & Sam Petsonk | 40 | Pearlstone Retreat Center (MD) |
| 2005 (Fall) | Ilana Streit & Jason Pollens | ~110 | Elat Chayyim (NY) |
| 2006 (Spring) | Lev & Adin Nelson | ~70 | Camp Harlam (PA) |
| 2006 (Spring) | Julia Appel and Joe Gindi | 45 | Hetz B'sheket (Negev, Israel) |
| 2006 (Fall) MID-ATLANTIC | Adin Nelson & Beverly Lerner | ~30 | Camp Milldale (MD) |
| 2006 (Fall) NEW ENGLAND | Shulamit Izen & Molly Zeff | 100 | Camp Winadu (MA) |
| 2007 (Spring) | Abby Friedman & Emily Fishman | 100 | Camp Ashokan (NY) |
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.matzat.org.il/wallstumbledown.html
- ^ http://forward.com/main/article.php?ref=kamenetz200407071100
- ^ http://www.kavodhouse.com/
