In Joy shall you go out, and in peace shall you be led. The mountains shall burst before you into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

-Isaiah 55:12

Multi-day backpacking programs, base camping, and travel adventures provide exciting challenges and opportunities for personal empowerment. Participants hike, backpack, rock climb, canoe, whitewater river raft, learn wilderness and survival skills, prepare their own meals, and share responsibility for all aspects of outdoor communal living. Throughout, they explore personal strengths and boundaries, and emerge more confident and self-aware.

In the wilderness your possessions cannot surround you. Your preconceptions cannot protect you . . . You see the world as if for the first time.

- Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, Honey From the Rock

Each group creates a close and interdependent community, working together to meet group challenges and celebrating the gifts and opportunities of each day. Participants learn how a community can multiply the value of individuals' strengths. This experience is used to discuss Jewish visions of community and interpersonal relations. As well, the skills acquired will inform future work in the group's more permanent, local communities.

We thank You.for your miracles that are with us each day, and for Your wonders and goodness which are with us every moment evening, morning, and noon.

- Siddur, Amidah Prayer

Jewish Life and Thought

Yitziah programs strive to enable participants to expand their conceptions of "Jewish," and to help renew the ecological wisdom inherent in Judaism. The outdoor setting sheds new light on tefila (prayer), meditation and text study. Spirituality infuses all of the activities to create a rich and meaningful program.

Prayer and Shabbat practices are determined by the needs and customs of the group. When participants' religious backgrounds or customs vary, the diversity of the participants' practice provides an opportunity to celebrate the richness of our Jewish heritage.

Backpacking provides wonderful opportunities to explore the wonders of Creation and realize moments of radical amazement. Courses include activities which sensitize participants to the rhythms of the natural world. Tree and flower identification, bird watching, animal tracking, wild edibles, and astronomy are just a few of the possibilities. Innovative education tools such as music, story telling, drama, or creative writing facilitate the learning. The daily decisions of outdoor life and immersion in the beauty of Creation also confronts participants with questions of our responsibility to the environment.

The length of the program can be tailored to each groups' needs, anywhere from a weekend to three weeks. The standard course is five days.

Programs take place in National Parks and Forests. Please call to find the closest site to your area.

All food is kosher, vegetarian and we can accommodate most other dietary needs. We strive to buy food with the least environmental impact.

At least one member of the staff on each course will be a certified Wilderness First Responder, trained to handle medical emergencies in remote locations.

An average level of fitness is sufficient to participate, and no prior experience is required.