This event has passed.

Let My People Sing!

Name: Let My People Sing!
Start: 2026-08-06T15:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-08-09T13:00:00-04:00
Location: Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center

August 6 @ 3:00 pm - August 9 @ 1:00 pm EDT

Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center (Falls Village, CT) + Google Map

2026 Summer Retreat

Let My People Sing! is a four-day gathering centered on Jewish communal singing for healing and liberation.

More Information

Retreat Details

Let My People Sing! is a cultural project expanding the ancient and transformative practice of Jewish communal singing.

This immersive experience is structured around Shabbat and features song-based programming led by our fabulous lead and featured teachers, participant-led workshops, community sings, multiple prayer options, and a participatory concert on Saturday night.

We gather in multi-racial, multicultural and genderful Jewish community, uplifting songs and leaders historically and ongoingly pushed to the margins. Together, we transmit and reclaim diasporic Jewish singing traditions, celebrate original music emerging from our communities, and create heart-centered gatherings where we can all be leaders and learners of song.

Lottery Sign Up & Registration

In an attempt to make the registration process more equitable and less stressful this year, we will be using a lottery system.

The lottery sign up period is now closed, but you can still sign up for the waitlist!

2026 Subsidized Pricing Model & Rates

We understand that the retreat is already preventively expensive for many. As such we set registration fees at a lower price point than the true cost of each room (which includes housing, food, and programming). However, in order to offer this rate, we have to fundraise approximately $30,000 before, during and after the retreat to make up the difference. Paying the true cost of your registration, will allow Let My People Sing! more capacity to put on programming throughout the year.

Below, we will list the subsidized rate that you will see on the registration page, and the true costs of each room option, as well as the difference. If you are in a financial place to cover the full cost, we ask that you add the difference as an additional donation when you check out.

Room Type	Subsidized Rate (2026 Registration Pricing)	True Cost	Price Difference (to add as an additional donation if able)
Standard Room (private bathroom) Single Occupancy	$1,535	$1,995	$460
Standard Room (private bathroom) Multiple Occupancy	$960	$1,250	$290
Basic Room (shared full bathroom between two rooms) Single Occupancy	$1,200	$1,560	$360
Basic Room (shared full bathroom between two rooms) Multiple Occupancy	$750	$975	$225
Dormitory Style (shared half bathroom between two rooms) Multiple Occupancy	$620	$805	$185
Camping	$515	$670	$155
Commuting	$505	$655	$150
Child (5-12 yrs old)	$290	$380	$90
Toddler (2-4 yrs old)	$140	$180	$40
Infant (under 2 yrs old)	$0	$0	$0

2026 Registration Pricing

Standard Room (Private bathroom): $960 per adult in double occupancy | $1,535 single occupancy
Basic Room (Shared full bathroom between two rooms): $750 per adult in double occupancy | $1,200 single occupancy
Dormitory Style (shared half bathroom between two rooms) multiple occupancy: $620
Camping: $515
Commuting: $505
Child (5-12 years old): $290
Toddler (2-4 years old): $140
Infant: (Under 2 years old): $0

Financial Assistance

The financial assistance application period is now closed.

Isabella Freedman and Let My People Sing! are teaming up to provide financial assistance for participants. Anyone is welcome to apply for financial assistance, and we will do our best to offer what we can. Due to limited funding, we are first prioritizing financial assistance for people who are BIJOCSM (Black, Indigenous, Jews of Color, Sephardim, and Mizrahim), trans women, trans femmes, raised poor and working class, without a financial safety net, and disabled.

We will be in touch during the second or third week of February to let you know if we can offer financial assistance before we begin sending out general lottery registration links in March.

**Help make this summer’s retreat more financially accessible to more people by donating to the Fina ncial Assistance Fund! All donations will go directly towards subsidizing registration costs.** to come sing! And, in alignment with our values of intergenerationality and uplifting those who are historically and ongoingly marginalized in Jewish community, we are working to prioritize the participation of BIJOCSM (Black, Indigenous, Jews of Color, Sephardim, Mizrahim), trans women, trans femmes, disabled people, raised poor or working class folks, elders, teens and families with young children.

>> DONATE TO THE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FUND

Cancellation Policy

There is no refund for arriving late or departing early from any retreat. The refund amount is based on how far in advance we receive the cancelation request prior to the start date. For retreats at Isabella Freedman, the cancellation policy is:

31 days or more – fully refundable less a $75 fee
15-30 days prior – 50% refundable
14 days or less – not refundable

If you are sick with a communicable disease such as Covid-19 and are unable to attend, you may receive a credit (less $75) valid through the end of the of the following calendar year towards a future retreat at either Isabella Freedman or Pearlstone. You must provide medical documentation attesting to your illness in order to receive this credit. We suggest obtaining travel insurance for such situations.

Isabella Freedman reserves the right to cancel any program at any time. This includes cancellations due to inclement weather if, in our judgment, we are unable to operate safely. In the event of such a cancellation, a full refund will be issued. If the retreat proceeds as scheduled, no refund will be offered.

LMPS! Staff and Teaching Team

Neta Elkayam

Lead Teacher

Multidisciplinary artist and musician Neta Elkayam has gained recognition worldwide as a performer of North African music. Leading ensembles across Morocco, Europe, Jerusalem, and New Orleans. She blends Andalusian, chaabi, and Amazigh traditions with pop, electronic music, and jazz, and frequently appears as a guest orchestral soloist. Rooted in deep archival and vinyl research and a long-standing collaboration with musical director Amit Hai Cohen, her work maintains a clear, self- driven voice that reaches back to ancestral memory through music and unwritten history. Her recognitions include the ACUM Music Prize (2017), the Sami Michael Award for Social Equality (2019), the Moroccan Salam Contemporary Arts Forum Prize (2021),the American Sephardi Federation’s Pomegranate Award (2022), and the TMM Prize Trophée Marocains du Monde. On screen, she appears in Kamal Hachkar’s “In Your Eyes I See My Country” and Keren Yedaya’s “Mami” (Ophir Best Actress nominee). She is currently a Visiting Artist-in-Residence at Xavier University in New Orleans.

Amit Hai Cohen

Lead Teacher

Musician, visual maker, and self-taught curator, Amit Hai Cohen works on the Jerusalem-Morocco axis, creating rich universes with mixed identities, languages, and aesthetics through his highly multidisciplinary creative process. He composes music for film and dance, including works like “King David” (2023) and 'Oil on Water,' for which he co-wrote the script and he has created several films such as "Stop the Evacuation'' and the musical “To Box with God'' (2021), along with numerous video clips and other visual projects. Amit has produced numerous international musical projects, including ‘Abiadi’ and the electro-atlas show Arénas,collaborating with artists from the North African scene such as Moktar Gania, Karim Ziad and Kabareh Cheikhats. In 2019, he curated "Ziara”, the Jerusalem Biennale's flagship exhibit featuring works by top contemporary Moroccan artists from around the world. Since then, he has been creating content for museums, including a recent contribution to the permanent exhibit of the ׳Tower of David׳ . Amit, along with his life and stage partner Neta Elkayam, starred in director Kamal Hachkar'sdocumentary film ‘In Your Eyes I See my Country’ (2019), which explores their early careers. In 2019, they were awarded the Erez Biton Prize for ‘Originality, Courage, and Breakthrough’. In 2022, Amit and Neta collaborated to create ‘Hilula,’ a multidisciplinary opera.

MJ Gilbert

Lead Teacher

MJ Gilbert has been singing, leading, and composing Jewish music her entire life, from the youth choir at her childhood congregation in Milwaukee WI, to her mentorship with Debbie Friedman as a teenager, her work as an educator and song leader for NFTY in the 80’s, and her re-emergence into Jewish song (after a long hiatus) in the last 7 years, leading prayer and song at Shir Tikvah in Minneapolis MN. Jewish music has saved her life repeatedly, and believes in the power of our musical traditions, in all their depth and diversity, help us make shelter, and to move us to action. After a long career as a social worker and educator, she is now in her third year in the Rabbinic program at Hebrew College in Boston.

Rachel Chang

Featured Teacher

Rachel Chang is a queer mixed-race Chinese-American Jew, and a musician, song leader, and educator. Drawing from the many communities and lineages that have shaped her, Rachel is deeply interested in how music can foster both spaces of belonging as well as senses of belonging, including as the director of A Queer Nigun Project, as the ritual director of the LUNAR Collective, and as a musical leader across a range of communities. She has been pulled toward music for as long as she can remember, finding voice in it, finding power in it, learning to channel it to move energy and shape moments.

rabbi dr. koach baruch frazier

Program Faculty

rabbi dr. koach baruch (kb) frazier, is a transformer, heartbeat of movements, healer, musician, founder of the Black Trans Torah Club, co-founder of the Tzedek Lab, and co-founder of Black Folks Beit Midrash. A collaborative leader, rooted in tradition, curiosity and love, Koach strives to dismantle racism, actualize liberation and transform lives both sonically and spiritually.

Rabbi Mónica Gomery

Program Faculty

Rabbi Mónica Gomery is a lover of poetry and song, which share a common root in Hebrew. She is a co-founder of Let My People Sing! and now serves on the clergy team of Kol Tzedek synagogue in Philadelphia, where she stewards the community's culture of prayer and music. She was ordained in 2017 at Hebrew College, and has taught Torah and arts through SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, Ritualwell, Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, Brooklyn Poets, Jewtina y Co, and other organizations. She is the co-creator of P'tach Libi: A Siddur for Shabbat and Festival Mornings, and the author of three books of poems.

Anat Halevy Hochberg

Program Faculty

Anat Halevy Hochberg (she/her) is a musician, teacher, and ritual leader based in Boston. Her passions include leading song, empowering others to raise their voices, and working to reclaim the Yemeni melodies of her heritage. She has taught and led ritual at Let My People Sing!, Eden Village Camp, Hadar’s Rising Song Intensive, and Linke Fligl. She co-produced Tishrei: the end is the beginning and Elul: Songs for Turning, and her debut album How can I keep (from) singing? was released in 2020. Her upcoming album of Yemeni Jewish song, Ahavat Hadassah, will be released late 2026. Learn more about her work at anathalevyhochberg.com @anatmuse

Batya Levine

Co-Director & Co-Founder, Program Faculty

Batya (they/she) uses song as a tool for cultivating healing and resilience in their work as a communal song leader, musician, shaliach tzibur (Jewish prayer leader) and cultural organizer. They believe in the liberatory power of song to untie what is bound within us, and sustain us as we build a more just and beautiful world. Batya offers song, ritual, and workshops in a variety of communities, and composes original music made of Ashkenazi yearning, queer heart-medicine, and emunah (faith/trust). They are a recording artist, teacher, and alumni of Rising Song Institute’s programs. Batya released their second album, Yivarechecha, this year with Rising Song Records. They are a lover of the ocean, living room dance parties, and puns. Batya is honored to be doing the cultural organizing work of their dreams with LMPS! Learn more about their music at www.batyalevine.com

Margot Seigle

Co-Director & Co-Founder

Margot (they/them) is a community builder, cultural organizer and music maker who believes in the power of song to heal and transform. Margot is a co-founder of Linke Fligl and Let My People Sing! who loves Shabbos, direct communication and slow cooking meat. They come from a lineage of Eastern European Jews who assimilated into whiteness in the Chicago suburbs. After a decade of living in the Hudson Valley on occupied Schagticoke / Mohican land they are now based in Minneapolis, MN. They are thrilled to be ushering in this next chapter of LMPS!

Serena Adlerstein

Development Director

Serena (they/them) is a deep lover of Jewish communal singing and a regular attendee of local backyard song circles. Prior to Let My People Sing! Serena was a co-founder and Co-Director of Never Again Action, a Jewish-led solidarity group fighting to end the persecution, detention and deportation of immigrants in the United States. They live on Tiwa territory, also called Albuquerque, NM where they spend as much time as possible outside in the mountains, along the river and in hot springs.

Program Highlights

Song Session & Intensives

Sessions are led by a wide array of song leaders using a variety of formats. Some include histories and stories; others are just about singing the songs themselves. No instruments are used on Shabbat unless otherwise noted.

Shabbat Services & Practice

Shabbat services are offered Friday night and Saturday morning, with multiple prayer options including Traditional Egalitarian and Creative services. Creative services often use instruments and amplification and will be noted as such on the schedule.

To keep this space accessible to people with varying relationships to halachic observance, we ask everyone to refrain from using electronics in public space on shabbat, unless it is for access reasons or in case of emergency. We will not use amplification in full group space on Shabbat, but there will be one session per slot that uses amplification, and it will be noted as such on the schedule. We aim to not have sessions with instruments on shabbat, but if there is one, we will indicate it as such on the schedule. There are always multiple options to choose from.

Community Sing

Let My People Sing!’s format for sharing and learning songs in community. A space for leading, teaching, singing and sharing.

Participatory Havdallah, Concert & Dance Party

Following Havdallah on Saturday night, the concert features the teaching team and Let My People Sing! staff sharing songs we’ve sung throughout the weekend. We will sing and then dance into the night!

Jewish Outdoor, Food & Environmental Fun!

Make pickles, explore the woods, and take a tour of the farm alongside our Adamah fellows.

Sample Schedule | Get a taste of Let My People Sing! with this video.

Accessibility, COVID-19, and Community Guidelines

Accessibility: Please see our Accessibility Document for more information. You may also go to our Guest Information page to learn more about Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center.

COVID-19 Protocols :Please read our COVID-19 Protocols carefully as the COVID-19 protocols for Let My People Sing! are different than those for other retreats at Isabella Freedman. Following the protocols will be required for all participants.

Community Guidelines: We’ve created Community Guidelines for this summer’s gathering. We ask that all participants read and agree to the guidelines before registering for this retreat.

For more information about accommodations, dining, transportation, and campus amenities, please visit our Guest Information and FAQ page.

Guest Information & FAQs

Details

Start: August 6 @ 3:00 pm EDT
End: August 9 @ 1:00 pm EDT
Event Categories: Isabella Freedman, Retreats

Venue

Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center
116 Johnson Rd
Falls Village, CT 06031 United States
Phone +18608245991