Meeting the Dart
"Said the river: imagine everything you can imagine, then keep on going." - Mary Oliver
What does the river have to teach us? And if we don’t get in, how can we possibly find out?
Join us for a very special day on the River Dart, in deep connection & conversation with the ecologies of this watershed, by canoeing their sacred waters, immersing in them & walking their banks. We will meet this River and the creatures and beings who live in and amongst it, as kin, listening to the pull of the tides, the flow of the weathers and the story the river wants to tell. We do not yet know what this story might be and where the river might take us but we do know its mysteries will be magnificent and we will all be changed by our meeting.
The Living Mountain: A Radical Jewish Nature-Connection Retreat
Our lineage is suffused with wild tales. Our ancestors knew themselves as kin to the breathing earth & the rhythms of jewish time supported deep connection to the earth. But empire & dispossession has uprooted us from our lineages as a land-based people. How do we reconnect with this birthright? How do we cultivate ecological belonging in ways that affirm our jewishness & reject nationalism? How to retrieve & re-imagine jewish ways of liberated connection to land?
This offering will explore radical nature-connection through a Jewish lens, learning from some of the most inspiring and renowned nature-connection facilitators & educators from the Jewish world and beyond, exploring tracking, bird-language, land justice & the ecologies of doykeit/hereness. This training will take place deep in the mountains of Wales with a ceremonial nature-vigil at the culmination of our retreat to prepare us for Shavuot.
Radical Farm Camp 2024
Radical Farm Camp is back! Join us again this summer for a 5 day immersion in ‘Radical Jewish Farming’ where we will get our hands in the soil, cook delicious farm to table feasts, learn about jewish land justice & build community on the land.
We will learn practical organic food growing skills through hands on experience in a working market garden. We will trace Jewish histories of food and farming, engaging in ancestral practices of growing and preparing food, cooking together and enjoying delicious farm to table feasts. We will explore the Torah of a Jewish land justice & the radical potentials of soil as solidarity and how we might get involved in land justice struggles in the UK today. We will wake early to pray & sing in community, We will experience a proper ‘Farmer’s Shabbat’, resting together at the culmination of our retreat. We will build kindred & supportive community.
The Land Justice Sessions with Miknaf Ha'aretz & Friends
What is ‘land justice’ & how might it offer a revolutionary re-imagining of our world?
Like the mycelial networks that weave between, beyond, through, with and around us, issues of land justice intersect and inter-weave with all other issues for ecological and social justice.
In our latest virtual series, we want to examine these tendrils of connection, exploring the entwinement between our struggles and solidarities with peoples across the world and across time. We will explore the abolitionist roots of land justice, Palestinian liberation, the Kurdish struggle, revolutionary shepherding and its link with migrant justice, & how the Right to Roam movement & wider UK land justice movement are bringing about this vision in the UK and re-imagining the commons as a treasury for all.
The Wild Jewish Year 2023 (In-person)
We are beyond excited to share details about our upcoming in-person programming for ‘The Wild Jewish Year’.
We will be gathering across Britain’s wild places, from the River Dart, to the Wye Valley to deep South Devon. We will drink in the Torah of the lands and the waters, sing by the fire under starry skies, learning from each other & the lands we are on through radical nature-connection practices, earth-based Jewish spirituality, regenerative agriculture, re-wilding and land justice.
Each offering will be unique in content and context with different access considerations. You are welcome to apply for all programs or individual ones, they are stand-alone.
Riverlation: Receiving the Torah of the River Dart
Thursday 25th May 2pm - Saturday 27th May 2pm
River Dart, Devon - Meeting at Point Field Campsite, Sharpham (10 mins taxi from Totnes station, or 1-2 hour walk along the River!)
The Torah was revealed on a mountaintop in deep wilderness. This wilderness is still speaking, still revealing the Majesties of Mystery.
Are we listening?
Join us this Shavuot as we receive the Torah of the River Dart. Spending our days in deep connection & conversation with the ecologies of this watershed, by canoeing their sacred waters, mikveh-ing (ritually immersing) in them, camping at their sides & walking their banks.
We will meet this River and the creatures and beings who live in and amongst it, as kin. We will meet each other as kin, finding our ways back to our place in the wild web of things, honouring this ancient festival of revelation by listening deeply to the wilds within and around us, listening for what wants to be revealed in this time.
We will listen to the pull of the tides, the flow of the weathers and follow the story the river wants to tell. We do not yet know what this story might be* and where the river might take us but we do know its mysteries will be magnificent and we will all be changed by our meeting.
We can't wait to journey with you!
Application close on Sunday 23rd April! Places are limited and we will confirm yours as soon as possible, but please do not book travel until we have...
*We will also be supported by experienced local river guides!
Price : £150 / £200 / £250. This price includes canoe hire & guide, all meals during the retreat, programming costs, camp site, cook & camp-site holder. We are trying to keep costs as low as possible - we really encourage you to pay as much as you can afford. We are also trying to raise some funding for bursary places for those who don't have the means, if you are able to offer an additional donation to support this retreat, please let us know below! Equally, if you need additional financial support in order for you to attend, please indicate below.
Access needs: This experience involves canoeing, camping under the stars in a basic campsite setting and some walking along the river. We would love to support your access needs at this event, where possible. Please get in touch to check in about this.
*POSTPONED* Aly Hapert (Virtual Gig)
We're so excited to announce our upcoming Virtual Gig with Aly Halpert (@alhalpal), an evening of live music for healing and collective liberation, happening on Zoom on Thursday 30th March, 19:30 - 21:00 GMT (14:30 - 16:00 ET / 11:30 - 13:00 PT).
The Wild Jewish Year 2023-4 (Virtual Journey)
We will journey together through the Jewish year, cycling through ancient earth-based Jewish ritual & practice & exploring the wisdom connected to each of the Jewish months, as they meet the lands we are currently living on. Through poetry, song, wild-craft, foraging, food-growing & medicine-making, we will ground deeper in the places we call home, enriching our knowings of the sacred cycles of Jewish time while cultivating deeper intimacy with the lands we are on. Our enquiry will be grounded in deepening connection to the particular bio-regions we live in, as a diasporist practice, a practice of hereness. And, for us, this must include honouring our multi-rooted heritage & identity & making space for that in the places we are.
The Diaspora Sessions
“Diasporism takes root in the Jewish Socialist Labor Bund’s principle of doikayt—hereness—the right to be, and to fight for justice, wherever we are… Hereness demands that we learn our local histories and resurrect hidden ones of our own. Hereness means we refuse to disappear into the interiority of our liturgy, and equally refuse to stop being Jews in public. Hereness forces us to consider critically our relationship with class and its ordering of our world. Hereness is weird and materialist and queer and fun and angry, and best of all it’s already happening.” - Melanie Kaye Kantrowitz
Tracing a journey through ancient Jewish texts & histories through to contemporary co-liberation struggles, these sessions will delve into this hereness and explore the possibilities of a Jewish identity beyond nationalism & assimilation. We want to explore what it means to affirm & embrace a belonging and connection to the lands we are on now, cultivating a Jewish identity that is both multi-rooted & committed to cross-diasporic solidarity.
Singing in the Dark: A Miknaf Chanukah Fundraiser
Here we are, in the dark times, edging towards the longest night of the year, a quarter of the way through Kislev, the Hebrew month of dreams. Kislev's Torah is about what can be revealed from the murkey depths - dreams for instance, the extraordinary brilliance of funghi.... The dark a blanket and an invitation, allowing us to dream deeper, to incubate, to rest. And of course to gather with loved ones and to sing round fire and candlelight.
Well, we have an invitation for you... On the 22nd December, on the fifth night of Chanukah, we will be gathering community close for a virtual night of song and story. We will be joined by some very special guests from across these isles, including renowned storyteller Kohenet Rachel Rose Reid, wonderful Klezmer musicians Ruth Nicholson and Maya & Benjamin Brown, Yiddishist and rising Kohenet Annie Cohen, Yiddish singer and song collector Rachel Weston, and more TBC!
Hakhel: Sukkot Retreat
The end of the Shmita year is upon us. What do we take from this ancient rest year into the next Shmita cycle? How might be celebrate Sukkot through a lense of wise Torah, deep nature-connection, and radical-diasporism?
