Kumi Justice Retreats

Kumi Justice Retreats is a retreat-based experience for 9-12^th graders from across the country to learn about social justice while building leadership skills and creating a multiracial Jewishly-diverse community of belonging.  

Participants learn skills to interrupt racism, antisemitism, and create inclusive Jewish communities in their own schools, youth groups, synagogues, and eventually college campuses. Each semester includes an in-person retreat, along with monthly virtual gatherings. 

Over the course of two in-person retreats and monthly community of practice zoom calls, teens in this program will hear from expert speakers in the field, have deep conversations related to their identities and experiences, and engage in workshops that teach how to turn their values into action. Together, they will contribute to the building of more inclusive communities and movements for justice as Jews.  

The Kumi Justice Retreat experience takes place over the course of two semesters. Kumi participants will learn the foundational knowledge of equity and justice work in the Fall semester at a beautiful camp in Wisconsin. In the Spring Semester, participants will travel to Atlanta, GA to learn directly from social justice leaders, engage in local justice organizations, and gain valuable insights into Jewish history and racial justice in the United States.

Program Details

Kumi is a retreat-based experience where teens from across the country come together to learn and build a pluralistic Jewish justice community.  Each semester, we run an in-person retreat with monthly virtual Community of Practice meetings to deepen learning. 

In the fall, Kumi: Foundation allows teens to learn foundational knowledge for exploring justice and equity from a Jewish lens. Teens also explore what it means to build anti-racist Jewish spaces and have meaningful conversations about identity. Alongside learning sessions, Kumi includes Jewish community-building, creative activities, Shabbat, and fun traditions like “Kumi Olympics.” (October 9–12, 2026 | Outside Chicago) 

In the spring, Kumi: Exploration invites Kumi alumni to use the history and present of an American city to make real-world connections to the topics they learned in Kumi: Foundation. This year, Kumi: Exploration will take place in Atlanta and will include visits to museums and historic racial justice sites, conversations with organizers and community leaders, opportunities to reflect on Judaism and social change, and time to explore the city together.  (March 12–15, 2027 | Atlanta)

One unique aspect of Kumi is our intentional community-building through two tracks: Jews of Color Empowerment and Anti-Racist Allies. In keeping with racial justice best-practices, these two tracks will be learning together and separately over the course of the experience to provide intentional and targeted support of their learning. Each semester-long hybrid experience will help Kumi participants get a strong shared foundation of anti-oppression theory and practice and also provide an opportunity to regularly reconnect to deepen their learning with their cohort.   

Questions? Contact Rebecca Ezersky, Senior Program Manager of Kumi.

Why do Kumi Justice Retreats?

Through Kumi Justice Retreats, teens will:

• Grow leadership skills in creating communities of belonging to bring back to your school, youth group, synagogues, and broader communities.
• Explore interlocking issues of identity, especially race, religion, ethnicity, and gender;  ​
• Build capacity to speak up and disrupt racism and antisemitism
• Develop the awareness, knowledge and skills to participate as proud Jews in diverse Jewish and Jewish/non-Jewish spaces ​
• Build belonging in a consciously multi-racial Jewish teen community​
• Prepare for life on today’s college campuses and beyond

The fee to participate in the full year of 2026-2027 Kumi Justice Retreats programming is highly subsidized at $750. The fee to participate in Kumi: Foundation only is $500. You must participate in Kumi: Foundation in order to join Kumi: Exploration*.

This fee includes: 

• Valuable leadership and anti-oppression skill-building within a community of young Jews 

• Room and board, food, and activities for the in-person retreats 

• Local transportation to/from the retreat center 

• Virtual community of practice sessions 

Travel is not included. Financial assistance is available, including travel subsidies. Financial resources should not be a barrier to participation, and requests for stipends can be made upon acceptance and registration. 

*In order to receive the discount for participating in both Retreats, you must pay $750 upon registration. 

Rebecca Ezersky (she/her), Kumi Senior Manager, supports Moving Traditions by empowering Jewish teens to deepen their understanding of justice, identity, and community through experiential learning. Rebecca believes that teens carry insight, curiosity, and courage to transform communities. Prior to Moving Traditions, she worked at Jewish Life at Duke as their Assistant Director for Student Engagement, where she oversaw student engagement strategy, managed student-facing communications, and advised student groups. Rebecca holds a Master of Public Administration and a B.S. in Public Policy from the University of Southern California. In her free time, Rebecca enjoys exploring local coffee shops, listening to live music, and watching competitive cooking shows.