Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center
Hazon's Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center sits on 400 acres of forest and meadows in the foothills of the southern Berkshires. Today, Isabella Freedman hosts organizational retreats, Hazon-run Jewish spiritual and environmental retreats, and private Jewish celebrations such as Jewish weddings and B'nai Mitzvah. Over 30 Jewish organizations spanning the denominational spectrum hold retreats at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, in addition to secular organizations. Isabella Freedman also hosts families across Jewish denominations for their popular Jewish holiday vacation programs, such as their yearly Passover, Shavuot, and "Sukkahfest" (Sukkot) retreats.
History
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, what was then Camp Isabella 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 Isabella Freedman opened its doors year-round.
In 1994, Isabella 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. In 2004 the Jewish environmental organization Hazon launched its New York Jewish Environmental Bike Ride from Isabella Freedman, and the organization has since hosted most of its annual fundraising bike rides from the site. In 2006 Freedman announced the planned merger of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center and the Elat Chayyim Jewish Retreat Center. Six years later Isabella Freedman announced its planned merger with Hazon, and in 2014 the merger was completed. Adamah, Elat Chayyim, and the Teva Learning Center, all based at Isabella Freedman, also merged with Hazon in 2014.
The history of Isabella Freedman is a history of evolution and re-imagination. The needs of the Jewish community, and of the wider world, have evolved and changed since its founding, but Isabella Freedman has long prided itself as a place of transformative experiences, thought-leadership, and capacity-building. It has worked to function as a place of rest, regeneration, and renewal since its founding and to expose people to new ideas and strengthen institutions for at least the last twenty years.
Commitment to Sustainability and the JOFEE Movement
As a Hazon-run organization emphasizing the spiritual and transformative properties of nature immersion, Isabella Freedman is committed to environmentally conscious facility management and the promotion of environmental stewardship. In addition to the many practices that allow Isabella Freedman to conserve energy and water, limit its use of toxic chemicals, and reduce waste (such as its campus-wide composting system), Isabella Freedman offers sustainability tours of its campus and environmentally-focused educational workshops. The Isabella Freedman Farm encompasses 10 acres of fields, orchards, and pasture and grows over forty varieties of vegetables, twenty five varieties of cut flowers, and a diverse mix of herbs and fruits. The herbs, flowers, and produce provide the kitchen with local, seasonal ingredients and are also sold through the farm's CSA program. The farm is certified organic, and the Adamah fellows who maintain it practice sustainable growing methods such as crop rotation, cover cropping, composting, drip irrigation, creating habitat for pollinators, and growing diverse mixes of annual and perennial flowers. Isabella Freedman's trip of goats aid in farm maintenance and provide the milk for its cheese-making workshops, and its flock of chickens help break down the compost heap and provide eggs for the dining hall. Its emphasis on food sustainability allows Isabella Freedman to serve as one of the main bases for the growing JOFEE (Jewish Outdoor Food, farming, and Environmental Education) movement, a field Hazon and other Jewish environmental organizations are continuing to develop.
References
Official website
Coordinates: 41°56′24″N 73°20′49″W / 41.9401°N 73.347°W