This past December, the B'Nai Tzedek Retreat was held in Western Mass. Funded by the Harold Greenspoon foundation, the weekend took place at the beautiful Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center   and served to connect Jewish teens in Western Massachusetts who care about improving the world.

Exclusive seminars on Tzedakah, investing and making your money grow, spotlighting, innovative Jewish organizations that are doing great work, making an impact on our Jewish community by making major money decisions were just a few of the highlights. Read on below for some feedback from participants

"I came to the retreat expecting to learn how to make money and invest it. I left with something completely different. The workshops were built around the idea that I was going to have the money anyway and taught me how to give it away. We talked about casting a vote with every dollar spent and planning out the organizations we wanted to give to--not simply giving money to anybody who asked for it. The forty or so kids were some of the nicest I've ever met, and were extremely supportive and intelligent in all the exercises and the talent contest. I had an amazing time, and I'm definitely coming back next year."
--Aaron Clayton-Dunn, Amherst, MA

"I attended the B'nai Tzedek retreat last year, the first year of its existence. I had a nice time, there were interesting activities, delicious food, and very fun people. This year, my experience was different. Every activity provoked interesting discussion where people really thought deeply and gave their answers. In the first year there was one question in an activity 'Why are you here? Parents? Friends? Philanthropy? Etc.'. Many people answered parents, friends, food, or the free sweatshirt. This year I was surprised when people were spouting out things like "I'm realizing that I can have a significant impact on the world and want to investigate better ways to do that. Was this the same retreat I went on last year? I saw an extreme change in the attitude of the members of B'nai Tzedek. People of course were happy to escape to a beautiful location with wonderful people for the weekend, but at the same time everyone was really genuinely interested in making social change in this world. This made everything so much better and more interesting. I feel like I came away as a more intelligent and thoughtful person, and really learned a lot from everyone there. This is a really unique group of people who usually adds something important to the conversation. The retreat seemed like it meant something to most people who attended. Everyone went away with something new (even if that may just have been a sweatshirt)."
-- Adam Simkin, Northampton, MA

For more information, check out B'nai Tzedek HERE.