Chavaya: A Jewish Festival of Soul, Song, and Community — Right Here in Our Backyard

This August, something beautiful is happening just up the road from us.

From August 13–16, 2026, in nearby Duvall, a new gathering is emerging: CHAVAYA — A Jewish Transformational Festival.

It is a weekend of music, dance, learning, Shabbat, and connection. A space to step outside of our daily rhythms and enter into something more spacious, more embodied, more alive.

And I am honored to share that I will be there as one of the workshop leaders.

What is Chavaya?

Chavaya means experience.

Not just learning about Judaism.

Not just showing up.

But living it—with our bodies, our voices, our relationships, and our souls.

This festival brings together:

• Jewish musicians and song leaders

• Rabbis and teachers

• Spiritual facilitators and artists

• Seekers of all kinds

  All with a shared intention: to create a Judaism that is deeply rooted and fully alive

• Soulful Jewish music and singing

• Movement and embodied practice

• Text study and spiritual exploration

• Shabbat in community under the open sky

• Song circles, workshops, and spontaneous moments of connection

This is not a conference.

It’s not a retreat in the traditional sense.

It’s something more like a temporary sacred village.

We are living in a time when many of us are asking:

• Where do I belong?

• How do I stay rooted in Jewish life in a complicated world?

• How do I connect—to myself, to others, to something larger?

Experiences like Chavaya remind us:

Judaism is not only something we inherit.

It is something we create, together, in real time.

In song.

In conversation.

In presence.

At Kol Ami, we often talk about being:

“A Center for Jewish Life.”

Part of that vision is knowing that Jewish life does not only happen inside our walls.

It unfolds:

• in parks

• in homes

• in shared meals

• and sometimes, in gatherings like this one

Where people come together across communities to explore what Jewish life can be.

If this speaks to you—even a little—I encourage you to learn more.

You don’t need to be “a festival person.”

You don’t need to know anyone.

You don’t need to have it all figured out.

Just come with curiosity.

I would love to see familiar Kol Ami faces there, and to share this experience with you.

Visit: www.chavayafestival.com

A final word

Elul, the month leading up to the High Holidays, is a time of return.

A time to soften.

To listen.

To remember who we are.

Chavaya begins right at that threshold.

Perhaps it is one way we can begin that journey—

not alone, but together.