Dear Friends,

Rabbi Dan and Zoë Goldblatt were honored to be on the Planning and Leadership team for the 2026 Grief and Growing at Camp Newman retreat, along with Director Liora Brosbe, Assistant Director Yael Galinson, Abra Greenspan of A Healing Legacy, and Liz Orlin of Sinai Memorial Chapel.

Grief and Growing is a legacy weekend retreat program held by the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center for over 25 years, that ended when the BAJHC had to close its doors in 2022. Zoë served as a BAJHC-trained staff member at the final three retreats run by the BAJHC and Rabbi Dan was a participant in 2018, following the loss of his wife Yael in 2016. Dan and Zoë both experienced firsthand the community and the healing that is possible at such a carefully-planned and lovingly held grief retreat.

At the February 2026 retreat, Rabbi Dan, Rabbi Chaya Gusfield, Zoë Goldblatt and Jonathan Ferris formed the Spiritual Care team, leading Shabbat services and creating a series of Healing Circle rituals. Rabbi Dan and Zoë also led various small group workshops including “Sibling Loss,” “Losing a Parent to Dementia,” and “Coping with Loss on the Holidays.”

Grief and Growing is available to anyone in the Jewish community (you do not have to be Jewish, just comfortable in a Jewish setting and framework)  mourning the death of a close loved one anytime between six months to several years or more. If you or someone you know might be interested in attending the next Grief and Growing at Newman weekend retreat in February 2027, please fill out the interest form.

In addition to Grief and Growing, AriYael has been working towards two new collaborative projects with Shomer Collective, both of which will be announced soon.

AriYael has been designated as a source of wisdom and learning for Shomer Collective’s Jewish End of Life Doula Meetups since 2023. The professional relationship has flourished through the common desire to support and mentor Death Doulas who serve Jewish clients.

Our partnership with Sinai Memorial

The San Francisco Bay Area’s nonprofit Jewish Funeral Home continues to strengthen our partnership through working together on Grief and Growing at Camp Newman, through our participation in the wonderful Sinai Memorial “Day of Learning” events, and other community events such as an upcoming panel discussion on the role psychedelics can play in supporting people in therapeutic ways around issues of mortality and grief.

Our community of folks interested in connecting over the intersection of Jewish spiritual practice with exploration of psychedelics

for the purposes of ancestral connection, generational healing and personal insight has continued to grow. We hosted a Portal to Passover retreat in March, and are hosting an ongoing discussion group for Jewish clergy and lay leaders to provide peer support and mentorship. For more on why we care about this topic, please see this recent opinion piece published by our colleague in the J. Jewish News of California.

Shalom u’Vracha,

Zoë Goldblatt & Rabbi Dan Goldblatt

This missive was sent out in our recent newsletter. Please consider signing up for our emails to stay connected. Sign up here