Page 17 - C.A.L.L. #37 - Winter 2013/2014

despondent - over the inherent lack of intention and substance. Yet I could not
give up my search. I was compelled to address the insistent demand I felt
within - to belong to something bigger than myself; to define who I was in the
context of something greater than my individual experience alone.

Despite finding a handful of secular intentional communities that seemed
absolutely perfect for our family, when I seriously considered our ultimate life
in one of them, I realized a non-Jewish community could not serve our purpose
of social sustainability. We would not be able to participate fully or
authentically in community life without the aspects that define a Jewish
community and resonate so profoundly for us. Regular communal prayer, shared
holidays and life cycle events, acknowledgment of Shabbat, awareness and
consideration of kashrut, and the collective consciousness of almost four
thousand years of shared history are all imperative to me.

Finally, last year, when a seasonal job was advertised with Teva, the Jewish
environmental education program, at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat
Center, I knew we had to seize the opportunity.

Isabella Freedman is first and foremost a retreat center, hosting
transformative theme-based Jewish retreats and rentals. But for those lucky
enough to find themselves a position there, as staff of the retreat center or
Teva, or as participants in the Adamah farming fellowship, it also serves as a
Jewish intentional community. It is a short-term, cyclical community in that
most people stay seasonally, for three to four months at a time. There are
approximately fifty people living and participating on-site at any given time,
most of whom are single and between the ages of twenty to thirty. Communal

meals provide the setting for powerful relationship-building opportunities.

Yishai interviewed for the position and was offered the job. We were met with
some raised eyebrows and questioning expressions from family and
friends. Were we crazy? How would we survive on so little? Where would we
live? There was no on-site housing available for families. No Jewish day school
for our five year old. No regular synagogue services. Only three other families
with children.

By moving to Isabella Freedman, we have chosen a lifestyle based on
ideals. Despite some very real obstacles, we are more content and fulfilled than
we ever have been as a family. Our children are growing up in a social
environment much larger than we alone can provide. They have many aunts and

uncles that love them, teach them, discipline them, and watch over them. The

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