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Observant Jewish community in Sunderland to create center for Torah learning, living and farming

SUNDERLAND — A kosher, organic farming community in Sunderland is moving forward with plans to create a center for Torah learning, living and farming.

Hidden behind a giant white dome and several homes on Route 116 in Sunderland is 70 acres of land a mixture of farmland with a barn, wetlands, forests, meadows, fresh water streams and ponds that was purchased last year by the Jewish farming community Eretz Ha’Chaim, which is Hebrew for “the living land.”

Eretz Ha’Chaim is one of a few of kosher, organic farms in the United States, but is believed to soon be the only Orthodox co-housing community outside of Israel.

“It all began with an original intention of homesteading,” said Tamar Helfen. “The first key to homesteading is learning how to live off the land.”

Farming one’s own kosher food removes one’s doubt or question about whether the food is truly kosher.
At Eretz Ha’Chaim, on any given day, Tuvia Helfen, an observant Jewish farmer, will be planting and harvesting vegetables and herbs, clearing parts of the land for a park area, caring for the 13 chickens and Vermont farmer Shmuel Simenowitz’s three horses that live on the property, and giving tours to visitors with his wife, Tamar, and their 1-year-old son, Shalom Tzvi.

In late July, campers from Tikvah, the special needs program at Camp Ramah in Palmer, visited Eretz Ha’Chaim to help harvest vegetables and learn more about kosher organic farming.

“We wanted to bring the campers here for an educational program. They get to see where radishes and tomatoes come from,” explained Howard Blas, director of the Tikvah Program at Camp Ramah. “It’s nice for our kids to see that you can be Jewish and a farmer.”

Eretz Ha’Chaim’s resident farmer Tuvia Helfen spent a couple of years working as a farming apprentice in New Mexico and Vermont. He also rented his own acreage and created his own farm while living in New Mexico. His wife also has experience with farming she studied at the Hawaiian Institute of Tropical Agriculture and worked on a farm in Hawaii.

Soon they will have their own apprentices as interns from Israel come to work on the land.

The Helfens, who moved to Sunderland in September 2002 from Morristown, N.J., are one of about seven families who have come to the Five College area to eventually live at Eretz Ha’Chaim.

“We held a similar vision to other people who were involved in the project living in a rural community, doing outreach within this setting,” Tamar Helfen explained. “This was an area in which we had skills and experience.”

The kosher organic farm has been producing food greens, beans, potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, parsley, zucchini, eggplant, squash, radishes for Eretz Ha’Chaim families, restaurants, health food stores and the greater community. The community supported agriculture (CSA) program allows people to buy shares of the produce in the beginning of the year, and pick up a fresh batch of vegetables from Eretz Ha’Chaim each week.

Plans are underway to construct a cooperative housing project for Shabbat- observant “farmilies” and those in the process of becoming Shabbat-observant. Currently, 13 single-family homes can be built on the property, and Eretz HaChaim hopes 20-30 family co-housing village can be built.

In proximity to the housing project, Eretz Ha’Chaim plans to build a Torah Education Center, which will house a synagogue, kitchen and dining room, auditorium and classrooms in order to provide a setting for lectures, Shabbatons, summer sessions and family programming. It will also include a preschool and a cooperative home-schooling center for local families.

“We spent a lot of time over the winter designing and working with our developer/coach, Scott Nielson, to create an efficient property plan,” Tamar Helfen explained.

“We are going to start building within the next two years,” she added.

Tamar Helfen will be teaching this fall at The Children’s Torah Center, a new Jewish preschool in South Amherst.

When not farming, Tuvia Helfen also cooks for Bais Chaya Mushka of Amherst, the Women’s Institute of Higher Learning, where the Helfens live.

Eretz Ha’Chaim is looking for more families, and Tamar Helfen noted that those who become members do not have to be farmers; they can use their talents and skills to aid the cooperative in other ways, from education and computer work to membership and event planning.

The mission of Eretz Ha’Chaim is to provide hands-on Jewish educational experiences for people of all ages with creative and innovative programming, with a special emphasis on environmental education based on the Torah principles.

In an effort to reach out the greater community, each year, Eretz HaChaim holds a Jewish farm festival each year. This year, the Third Jewish Annual Farm Festival is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 14, from 1-5 p.m., rain or shine.

Organizers are expanding the festival this year. Activities will include favorites such as horse-drawn hay rides, petting zoo, harvesting and planting, challah braiding, arts-and-crafts, storytelling, Jewish music performances and Judaic book and toy sales. New additions will be shofar making; Jewish scribal arts; the exhibition and sale of international and local Judaic art, woodwork and glass; outdoor games and sports for children; nature trails; quilting and spinning.

Kosher, natural and healthy refreshments will be available throughout the festival, as well as souvenirs of Eretz HaChaim. For more information, visit the Web site http://www.thelivingland.org, or call Rabbi Chaim Adelman at (413) 549-4094, Yocheved Adelman at (413) 549-8749, or Eretz HaChaim at (413) 549-8404.

For more information about Eretz Ha’Chaim or to arrange a visit, call Eretz Ha’Chaim at (413) 549-8404.

Comments? Email tracy.sullivan@jewishledger.com