Testimonials

"It felt like this gathering was a concrete contribution to the creation of new kinds of Jewish communities needed for our times. More than just a passing pleasure (pleasurable as indeed it was), it felt like this gathering was building a vision of what it could mean to live as a Jew that is in dialogue with the real questions of the future we are inheriting, and it felt like it was establishing a ground for relationships in our region through which we can begin to realize it. This really matters, and the gathering really mattered for me."

-2025 participant

"I found myself deeply moved several times during my time at MU, whether it was dipping shabbes candles, unwrapping a dye project that used kitchen scraps, or tying tzitzit. Creating the objects that frame my weekly Jewish life from materials that my teachers are in deep relationship with and could share with me was more grounding than I could have possible imagined. I feel more connected to the items that make up ritual Jewish life and also the skills that create those objects and that those skills and objects also link back to my ancestors who have been using and refining these skills for generations."

-2025 participant

"Melacha U’vracha was nothing short of magical. For many years I have felt disconnected from Judaism and Jewish community— especially as a staunch anti-Zionist. I am Black and Jewish and have spent most of my life feeling ostracized at worst and on the outskirts at best within my Jewish community. MU created a space for me to open my wounds and begin to heal and reconnect with Judaism, not only in a spiritual way, but also culturally and ritualistically. The focus on earth skills, folk craft, and healthy relationship with the earth were some of the most impactful. This focus brought me closer to my culture, ancestors, and to a Jewish spirituality that feels kismet to my soul. It was also special to have my first Mikvah alongside some of the most incredible people I've met. I dove deeper into my spiritual healing in a Jewish community who WANTED me there and desired my fullness. That is something I’ve sadly never experienced in Jewish community. MU functioned as a space to return home to a culture, people and value system that I have long been wandering to find. It was incredible to meet other Jews of color, though far less than wanted, and share stories, mindsets and more. I look forward to MU growing and creating even more explicit space for Jews of color (Mizrahi and Sephardic) especially black Jews."

-2025 participant

"During a time of change, unmooredness, and grief in my life, MU was such a beautiful space to find connection to people with similar values and interests, to find healing through song, ancestral connection, community, and nature, to process collective grief over Gaza, and to find new ways to connect to Judaism.

As an artist whose work is inspired by Jewish ritual and custom, it was so enriching to be able to gain a variety of new skills based in ancestral practices, and to share meaningful, heartfelt discussion with others on topics that are at the root of my practice. I am so grateful to be taking this new knowledge into my current work, and to have new friends to turn to for collaboration.

I left MU feeling deeply nourished, with a fresh sense of excitement and possibility for connection in my own life and hopeful for what Judaism can look like."

-2025 participant

"Attending Melacha U'Vracha was such a transformative Jewish experience for me. For the first time, I could really imagine what kind of village my biblical ancestors might have lived in. Practicing the Melachot and then pausing as a community on shabbat was incredible. I really felt like our whole village was pausing to honor hashem. It felt so connecting, grounding, and revolutionary (to cease from work in such a village). Praying to hashem while facing the mountains gave new meaning to the words of Kabbalat shabbat. Upon returning to my home shul, I felt like I was looking at prayers with new eyes since at Melacha U'Vracha, I had such a visceral experience of praising hashem with shouts of shofar, and experiencing the wonders of creation. I really felt like I had a taste of what the prayer authors were trying to get at (and a taste of what life was like for my ancestors in the biblical society in which those prayers were set)."

-2025 participant