Join us in starting up The Homestead! The Homestead (a registered Israeli non-profit) will be a Jewish urban farm and home-based community center. Fusing together the values and practices of both Judaism and permaculture, The Homestead will be a super-sustainable, modern, urban home that also upholds ancient Jewish agricultural practices and mitzvot. We’ll host everything from farm to-table Shabbat/holiday meals and programming, to gardening/permaculture classes, to mind-body wellness gatherings like yoga and kabbalistic meditation, to DIY homesteading workshops (like making your own Shabbat candles out of beeswax and fermenting your own kiddush wine), and really epic, not- your-average Torah classes — all taught by talented and inspiring leaders and educators in our community. Dedicated to providing a joyous space for people to celebrate and share in soulful rituals, experiential education, and wilderness spirituality, The Homestead aims to encourage individuals to dig deep in the rich soil of the Jewish tradition and sow the seeds for meaningful, engaged Jewish life.
The Homestead has three major goals:
(1) To build a new kind of community in Jerusalem, one that is brought together by a shared love of spirituality and earth-based Judaism.
(2) To be a part of the green movement in Jerusalem by creating an educational urban farm.
(3) To use this space to bring all different types of people together — from religious to secular, from Anglo to Israeli, from young to old, and everything in between.
With the funds that we raise, we will literally be able to build The Homestead from the ground up. The funds will be going towards (1) subsidizing rent, so that we can afford a big enough space in the heart of the city, (2) a hosting stipend for Shabbats and various weekly events, (3) start-up costs for the garden, the home, and workshop supplies, and (4) subsidizing workshops.
While our start-up costs are significant, our goal is to have The Homestead run in a self-sufficient, sustainable fashion after the first year. Our immediate sources of income will include workshops, events, classes, a store (also available online), monthly memberships, Birthright / tourist Shabbat experiences, and a weekly farm stand. However, within 6-12 months, we plan to expand to also offer a Homestead “CSA,” gardening after-school electives for children, a permaculture design certification course, edible landscape design for the public, as well as rental of the space for private events.
This is just the beginning for The Homestead.
HOLY MOLY! Since the matching campaign started yesterday, we raised $2500 (which is really $5000) !!!!!!!! We’re SO EXCITED. In our LAST DAY of the campaign, we have just about $700 left to go to meet our goal!!!! LET’S DO THIS!
MATCHING DONATIONS LAST 48 HOURS!!!! // We are in the last 48 hours of our crowdfunding campaign, and we have a private donor who has pledged to MATCH EVERY DOLLAR we raise in these last two days!!!!!!!!!! We have only $2600 left to go AND we CAN go over!!! Please help us reach our goal!!!!!! Share this page on social media, email like crazy, and donate what you can!! Let’s do this!! Here is a short link for you to share on social media if you prefer http://bit.ly/2bGn7NP
UP UP AND UP
Dearest Family, Friends, and Fellow Homesteaders,
Guess what!? WE FOUND THE PLACE FOR THE HOMESTEAD!!!! Hallelujah!! It’s our dream place! We will be located in the heart of Nachalaot, which is a charming and funk-tastic old neighborhood of Jerusalem, located right next to the shuk. Our place is spacious, with several rooms to function as a full-on community center. We have a store/workshop space, a classroom, a big indoor living room to host in the winter, a guest room (come and visit!), and…. an epic roof, with a 360 degree view of Jerusalem! This spot is LOADED with vertical space, so we are working right now on a design for a beautiful living wall which will cover the railings of the roof and all the other outdoor vertical space we have (which is a lot). We will be able to grow A LOT of food, and host A LOT of people, and we are going to have A LOT of fun doing it! And, to top it all off, guess how you say “homesteads” in Hebrew…. “NACHALAOT”! Incredible!
Our lives have completely transformed in a matter of a few weeks. And this would never have happened without you. We are eternally grateful for your support, excitement, and belief in us and in this dream. We still have 8 days and about $10,000 more to go with this campaign. Let’s see what we can do! And please continue to help us by spreading the word!
All our love,
Marissa and Roee
P.S. Here’s a video about our new neighborhood, Nachlaot (at 1:59 there’s a shot of our street!) http://www.israel21c.org/postcard-from-israel-nachlaot/
We are so excited, ecstatic, delighted to announce that The Homestead is more than halfway funded in just ten days! It is truly incredible that we have raised $20,000 through the support of our personal community, and we are beyond touched by your belief in us to do this beautiful work.
The feedback we have received from our community in Jerusalem has been astounding! We have been meeting with movers and shakers, building connections with influential individuals, and exploring partnership opportunities with organizations that play in our space in Jerusalem. Currently, we are searching for the right space to build up The Homestead, and we hope that we will find the perfect place soon!
We are at the stage in our campaign where we want to spread the word and get this campaign to reach all the four corners of the earth, so that we can reach our funding goal, and we could use your help! Please share this campaign on your social media platforms — and tag us in it, tag The Homestead, tag your friends. Send this campaign privately to friends, to people you know at relevant organizations, and paste it on the wall of relevant Facebook groups.
We can’t thank you enough for your support already! The momentum we have gained is epic, and we couldn’t do this without you! Now, together, let’s reach our goal of $40,000 in these last two weeks of the campaign.
Here’s the link to the campaign, share away!
http://www.jewcer.org/project/thehomesteadjerusalem