Jews in the Woods

Also referred to as Fruity Jews, or Fruity Jews in the woods, JITW is an informal Shabbaton meeting that began in New England in 1997 and is held about twice each year. The group was founded by Dan Zimmerman, Dan Smokler, and Sasha Pulkow-Suransky, three high school friends that attended Dartmouth College, Yale University, and Brown University respectively. JITW has come to be known for it serene, wooded locations, intense praying and singing, and musical, lyrical and terpsichorean geniuses who frequented its gatherings. It has been described as both neo-hasidic[1] and post-denominational[2]. The original gathering in 1997 was realtively small, consisting of friends that the three founders had made at their universities, and on two Israel summer programs: Nesiya, and Bronfoman Summer Seminar. 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, who had been at the pre-hiatus gatherings, decided to organize a return to the woods. The fifth gathering was organized by Ben Bregman and Joe Gindi of Brown University and Wesleyan University respectively. During the planning of this retreat some important changes occurred. Jews in the Woods began to be organized in a more egalitarian, transparent way using a makeshift listserv. The process also evolved to include pluralism as a key value. The three-part davening space, or meshlitzah, was introduced as were a variety of compromises designed to make the community increasingly inclusive. 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. As electronic tools including a wiki and a yahoogroup listserve became available, JitW organizers took advantage of the increased connectivity they provided. 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 shabbatonimbeagan 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 begining to be seen on the young American Jewish community.

Jews in the Woods gatherings 9 and 10 in the spring of 2005 were the first time multiple Jitw shabbatonim were organized in a single semester (one in the north, and one further south). Both were smaller and afforded an easier entry into the community. As JitW gatherings continue to spread, futher innovation is likely, as does the likelihood that the experience of JitW will spread beyond it’s 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 [4], especially for their use of a wiki in organization and decision-making. In [Mah Rabu's|http://mahrabu.blogspot.com]series on [Hilchot Pluralism|http://mahrabu.blogspot.com/2006/04/hilchot-pluralism-part-iii-macroscopic.html] 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|http://www.forward.com/] in an [article|http://www.forward.com/articles/grassroots-spirituality-as-jews-in-the-woods-grow/] devoted to the issues surrounding boundaries and community.