| The Jewish Renewal Community of the Monterey Peninsula |
| Jewish Renewal |
Jewish Renewal
Background on Jewish Renewal:
Jewish Renewal is a worldwide, transdenominational movement grounded in Judaism’s
prophetic and mystical traditions. The movement endeavors to reinvigorate Judaism with
mystical, musical and meditative practices drawn from a variety of traditional and non-
traditional Jewish and non-Jewish sources.
Jewish Renewal brings Jewish mysticism in theory and practice into an egalitarian worship
framework for both men and women. Renewal Jews often add ecstatic practices to facilitate
deep prayer and connection such as meditation, chant and dance to traditional worship.
Renewal Judaism borrows freely and openly from Buddhism, Sufism and other faiths.
The Jewish Renewal Movement was founded by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, who was
trained and ordained in the Hasidic movement. Reb Zalman, as he is affectionately known,
broke with Orthodox Judaism in the 1960s. He was strongly influenced by Sufism and
Buddhism, even translating and adapting some prayers into Hebrew and into a Jewish
Renewal spiritual practice.
In 1993, R. Zalman and others founded ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, which serves
as a loose confederation of like-minded community groups. Since the 1990s, Jewish Renewal
has grown throughout much of the United States and more recently to communities in Canada,
Latin America, Europe and Israel. The expanding Jewish Renewal umbrella now includes not
only the ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal but also the Shalom institute dedicated to
social justice, the rabbinical association OHaLaH, and increasingly formalized and recognized
rabbinic, rabbinic pastor and cantorial ordination programs that today are accepted by the
National Council of Seminaries. In our community, Rabbis Jeff Schulman and Leah Novick
are graduates of this rabbinic program.
Background and History of Kavanat HaLev:
Kavanat HaLev was founded in 2008 as an authorized satellite of Chadeish Yameinu, the
Jewish Renewal community of Santa Cruz, by a group of approximately 10 Monterey-area
residents continuing a tradition begun by Rabbi Leah Novick when she instituted a community
“Shabbat in Carmel.” The group, which includes two ordained rabbis, met monthly in
members’ homes. More recently, this small community began to broaden its reach to include
Jews and anyone else for whom this story of prayer and connection has resonance.
Kavanat HaLev
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