Statewide Jewish Teen Retreat  May 20-21 Brattleboro, VT 

An overnight experience that creates social connections while pushing teens to explore and develop character traits inspired by the tradition of counting the Omer.   These retreats are hands on: allowing connection through putting hands together!  We will canoe, cook and build a pizza oven with Backyard Bread while enjoying the social connections of a sleepover in Brattleboro.  

The Retreat runs from May 20th at  2:30 pm -  Sunday May 21st 1:30 pm. 

Upon registration, you will receive connections to carpools and van options, drop off and pick up information, and a packing list. 

This retreat is generously sponsored by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and part of the Jewish Communities of Vermont teen retreat program.   

For questions or concerns, please call  or text retreat coordinator  Melanie 8025039774 

Retreat Staff 

Melanie Grubman Retreat Director

Melanie is a trained Waldorf teacher and professional family educator who combines her expertise of bridging spirituality and developmentally appropriate education with community building techniques. Melanie is a trained Maggid ( Jewish storyteller ) and has directed family chavurah programs for Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley California and at Ohavi Zedek in Burlington, VT.  

Melanie received a BA in government from Wesleyan University and a M.ED with teaching licenses from Antioch University. She is the education director of Living Tree Alliance, a Jewish educational homestead and has been leading teen, youth and family workshops for the past 15 years.  She enjoys biking, building stone walls and adventuring with her  two sons Ezra and Judah. 

Itai Gai Program Assistant 

Itai Gal is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist playing the piano, guitar, accordion, and doumbek. They have a Masters' Degree in Jewish Education from Hebrew College and a Bachelor's Degree in Studio Composition from the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase. Itai has been teaching since 2007 including at Teva, Eden Village Camp, and the JCC of Newton. Their band Itai and the Ophanim has released one album and Itai is recording their second. You can listen to their music every day on Facebook Live. Itai's approach is to teach the practical musician skills needed to play in a band. Their students learn to improvise, learn by ear, listen to each other, and now also music technology. Itai loves to lead prayer, and is fluent in Hebrew. 

Rabbi Amita Jarmon Program Advisor 

Rabbi Jarmon is the Rabbi for the Brattleboro Area Jewish Community. She spent a year in Israel after high school and fell in love with the land and the people, returning several years later to become an Israeli citizen, studying physical therapy at Tel Aviv University. She worked for over a decade as a physical therapist in Philadelphia and Western Massachusetts before attending the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and becoming the full-time rabbi at a synagogue in coastal Maine.
Rabbi Amita has been active in projects with Rabbis for Human Rights, Seeds of Peace, and has served on the steering committee of the Sulha Peace Project, which brings Israelis and Palestinians together to share personal experiences and feelings that create bonds of empathy and affection.

Sam Coates-Finke  has been building and baking in wood-fired ovens since he was sixteen. Since returning to his hometown in Western Massachusetts to start Backyard Bread, he has specialized in Jewish baking and education. He is found baking hundreds of round challahs for Rosh Hashanah with volunteers, a thousand wood-fired donuts for Chanukah, and kosher matzah baked hot and fast with the live fire. He teaches baking Hebrew School at the Jewish Community of Amherst using a clay oven that the kids helped build.