Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center

Originally incorporated in 1893 as the Jewish Working Girls Vacation Society, the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center was established as a summer camp offering Jewish working women, primarily immigrants in the New York garment industry, an affordable vacation. The camp paid for their vacation and reimbursed campers for lost wages. In 1936, the agency’s name was changed to Camp Isabella Freedman in honor of the philanthropist and board member.

In 1956, Camp Freedman moved to its current location in Falls Village, Connecticut and instituted residential programs for Jewish senior adults, which have continued every summer since. In the early 1990s, Camp Freedman opened its doors year-round. Today, over 30 Jewish organizations spanning the denominational spectrum hold retreats at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center.

In 1994, Freedman developed the Teva Learning Center with Surprise Lake Camp, an innovative experiential learning program for Jewish elementary school students that combines ecology, Jewish spirituality, and environmental activism. In 2003, Isabella Freedman launched ADAMAH: The Jewish Environmental Fellowship, a leadership training program in which young adults live communally and engage in a hands-on curriculum that integrates organic farming and sustainable living skills with Jewish learning and living. The Hazon New York Jewish Environmental Bike Ride started from the IFJRC from 2004-2007. On February 16, 2006 Freedman announced the planned merger of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center and the Elat Chayyim Jewish Retreat Center.

In 2005, the Kohenet Institute, based at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, was founded by Rabbi Jill Hammer and Holly Shere.[1] It offers a two-year course of study to women who are then ordained as Jewish priestesses.[2][3] “Kohenet” is a feminine variation on “kohan,” meaning priest.[4] The Kohenet Institute's training involves earth-based spiritual practices that they believe harken back to pre–rabbinic Judaism; a time when, according to Kohenet’s founders, women took on many more (and much more powerful) spiritual leadership roles than are commonly taken by women today.[5] A Jewish priestess may, according to Kohenet, act as a rabbi, but the two roles are not the same.[6] On July 19, 2009, 11 women received smicha (ordination) as kohanot, becoming Kohenet's first priestess ordainees.[7] This group is not regarded as a form of Judaism by any denomination of the Jewish community. Rather, it is understood as Semitic Neopaganism, part of a wide trend of neo-pagans and Wiccans attempting to reconstruct the old religious traditions of the Semitic peoples.

References

  1. ↑ http://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/14/2006/kohenet-hebrew-priestess-institute
  2. ↑ http://www.kohenet.org/institute/
  3. ↑ http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/68940/jewish-american-priestess-kohenet-institute-ordains-women-for-a-new-jewish-/
  4. ↑ http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/68940/jewish-american-priestess-kohenet-institute-ordains-women-for-a-new-jewish-/
  5. ↑ http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/68940/jewish-american-priestess-kohenet-institute-ordains-women-for-a-new-jewish-/
  6. ↑ http://www.kohenet.org/institute/
  7. ↑ http://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/14/2006/kohenet-hebrew-priestess-institute

Official website

Coordinates: 41°56′24″N 73°20′49″W / 41.9401°N 73.347°W / 41.9401; -73.347

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