It’s Muddy on the Margins: Jewish Community Farms as a Locus for the Innovation and Expression of Judaism in the United States

• In Event: New ways of thinking about Jewish engagement and belonging

Abstract

In 2004, Shamu Sadeh started a farm, Adamah, at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. Since then, thousands of American Jews have experienced the earth-based Judaism practiced Adamah and the other fourteen Jewish community farms it inspired. In this paper, I argue that Jewish community farms have become a site for American Jews to enact their values and reconnect with aspects of Jewish tradition that they have not found in denominational life. Driven by concerns about environmental degradation, climate, change, industrial agriculture, animal welfare, food insecurity, and labor conditions these Jews have created alternative spaces, practices, and Jewish identities. I have termed this phenomenon “free-range Judaism” because these Jews have embraced their boundlessness. I will utilize interviews, printed materials, and experiences I gathered as an ethnographer working on these farms to discuss free-range Judaism and consider the implications of this and other Judaisms that exist on the margins of mainstream denominational life.

The Jewish community farms I study embrace their roles as alternative Jewish institutions. For example, Pearlstone Center in Reisterstown, MD is located just fifteen minutes from the main building of the Baltimore Jewish Community Center. However, Pearlstone Executive Director Jakir Manela explained that this short drive takes people through about five minutes of cornfields, which gives Pearlstone the feel of being far away. Jakir sees this distance as one of the key elements that makes Pearlstone what it is. He says that their location is a “priceless gift” that allows them “to be the innovator, the incubator, the experimental, the living laboratory for what Jewish life can be” (Manela, August 2015). Jakir describes the Judaism practiced at Pearlstone as subversive, hands on, young, and earth based (Manela, August 2015). Pearlstone’s location allows Jews who may otherwise be marginalized to express and experiment with their Judaism. Likewise, this network of fifteen Jewish community farms helps American Jews connect with their environment, their food system, and a community of Jews that transcend the boundaries of denominational life.

Author

• Adrienne Krone, Allegheny College