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| Tuesday, July 03, 2007 |
Culinary Corner: Of faith and farming
Some Jewish college kids want to be doctors or lawyers. Others just want to be organic farmers, and a new program is giving them the chance.
From our July/August 2007 issue
For many young adults, traditional career paths that involve offices and boardrooms don’t connect deeply enough with the rhythms of nature or the spiritual life they seek within the Jewish community.
The Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, Connecticut, supports people searching for connection to their religion through sustainable, environment living with the Adamah Jewish Fellowship. The center has been running the program twice a year for three months since 2003 (Summer: May 27 - September 3; Fall: September 9 - December 9, 2007). Approximately 30 to 70 young adults apply each season, out of which 14 are chosen. During the three months, participants are taught organic farming and sustainable eco-agriculture. Educational seminars are taught by the Adamah staff as well as visiting educators. And the best part is there’s no cost to participate in the program.
“Adamah is a renewal of Jewish agriculture and earth-based traditions,” says Shamu Fenyvesi Sadeh, Adamah’s program director. “It’s not a return, but a reinterpretation that makes ways of old relevant for today. We give our fellows a grounding in an intentional Jewish spiritual community that focuses on sustainability.”
The three months spent at the Adamah program is a kibbutz-style, total immersion crash course in Jewish education and farming. A typical day begins at 6 am with the Service of the Heart that includes meditation and prayers. At 7 am there’s breakfast and chores that include goat milking. After the morning meal, fellows work in one of the gardens (there are several ranging from a few hundred square feet to a quarter-acre) or tend goats, chickens, or bees in “ways that reflect our highest Jewish ethics,” says Sadeh. By 12:30 they break for a kosher lunch, much of the ingredients gleaned from the program’s gardens. Later in the day there is “Avodat Bayit” (Service of the Home), then an educational seminar. Dinner is at 6:30. The day concludes at 9 pm with a community meeting. The 14 fellows rough it on tent platforms in the woods on the five-acre grounds of the retreat center, or double up in rooms at the Adamah House.
Josh Rosenstein, who is a member of the Adamah staff, says people attracted to the program are looking for a way to combine their passions and ideals for sustainable living with a home in the Jewish community. “Our work deals with recycling and other agricultural goals with ba’al tashchit, the Biblical concept not to waste. The two come together naturally in the program.”
The alumni interviewed for this story agreed with Rosenstein’s comments, adding that their experiences were life changing and gave each a family that continues to support their goals.
Alumnus Aitan Mizrahi was “blessed with” the Adamah program in 2004. Mizrahi owns the Adva Dairy, a farm with just five goats (his goal is 50) that is situated a half-mile from the center. His operation produces organic milk, artisanal cheeses, and yogurt. Mizrahi is the pasture manager at the Adamah center as well. “I was searching for something where I would be involved with food, that would provide skills and craft and combine my strong commitment to Judaism. I found that at Adamah. The program infused my life with spirituality and a higher creative source. I feel continuity with Abraham and Jacob who guided large herds of goats and flocks of sheep. That’s how I connect with Judaism, too.”
Sarah Appleby, another 2004 alumnus of the program, summed it up this way: “Adamah opened my eyes to the fact that the Jewish community is a vibrant part of the agricultural community. It’s an actual movement.”
Stay in touch with Adamah's farmers on their blog at www.jcarrot.org/adamah.
-- Text by Tina Barry / Photo by Josh Rosenstein
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