Jews have a history of exodus from plague-ridden lands to promised ones, a tradition renewed by the recent pandemic, but with a twist. Some of us left permanently for an idyllic place we’d already been visiting for years—the Berkshires.

The narrow mountainous band of Western Massachusetts stretching from Connecticut to Vermont has long been a weekend getaway and summer resort for urbanites looking to escape to the country without leaving culture behind. The Berkshires—also the name of the surrounding county—is anchored by Great Barrington in the South, Pittsfield in the middle and North Adams in the North. 

Staring out his window at Arrowhead, his home in Pittsfield, writer Herman Melville saw the white peak of Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts, and got the inspiration for his famous white whale. Authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edith Wharton lived in neighboring Lenox. Then there are the music and theater icons like Leonard Bernstein, who conducted at Tanglewood in Lenox for decades, right up to James Taylor, who still lives in the area and performs at Tanglewood most summers. 

Only Bernstein from this illustrious list was Jewish, but the Berkshires have long been a haven for a disproportionate number of Jewish visitors, audiences and patrons.

The county today supports the independent Berkshire Minyan as well as six synagogues—three Reform (Hevreh of Southern Berkshire, Temple Anshe Amunim and Congregation Beth Israel); one Reconstructionist (Congregation Ahavath Sholom); one Conservative (Congregation Knesset Israel); and a Chabad center. Anshe Amunim, Beth Israel and Knesset Israel trace their roots to the latter half of the 19th century, when Jews began settling in the Berkshires in numbers.

Dara Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires and a lifelong Berkshires resident, puts the current Jewish population at 3,500—out of the more than 125,000 in the area—but estimates that the number swells by an additional 2,500 over the summer. What has changed since the pandemic, according to Kaufman and multiple synagogue leaders, is the number of Jews who have made the move permanent.

Rabbi Levi Volovik of Chabad of the Berkshires said his congregation has grown by 20 percent since Covid. Hevreh’s Rabbi Jodie Gordon said her synagogue’s religious school has added 15 new families since 2020 to its base of about 40 with school-age children.

A number of these “newish and Jewish” arrivals (the name of a Federation meet-and-greet event) have added to the quality of life in the region as leaders of some of its cultural powerhouses. For example, at Pittsfield’s Barrington Stage Company, the board president, artistic director and development director are all Jewish.

Alan Paul came to the Berkshires in 2023 to become the company’s artistic director. “I like producing theater that celebrates Jewish themes and culture,” he said, adding that it’s difficult to find American musical theater that doesn’t have Jewish artists’ fingerprints, even if the work isn’t explicitly Jewish. That includes La Cage aux Folles with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and book by Harvey Fierstein, which Barrington Stage Company will put on this summer.

If classic theater is your thing, The Comedy of Errors will be on the boards at Shakespeare & Company this summer. Sheila Bandyopadhyay has been the director of training at the company’s renowned Center for Actor Training since 2021. According to her, the breathing techniques she teaches there could have a practical Jewish application. 

“They would certainly help a b’nei mitzvah kid chant their Torah and Haftarah portions,” she said with a laugh, thinking back to her own bat mitzvah.

And then there’s the culture around food. Rafi Bildner, restaurateur and fourth-generation foodie whose great-grandfather founded the Kings supermarket chain, spent childhood summers at his family’s home abutting October Mountain State Forest. The gregarious chef has a V’ahavta tattoo, meaning love in Hebrew, on his left bicep, which is fitting because he definitely loves what he does—making pizza.

Bildner is in the process of transforming the former John Andrews restaurant in Egremont, in the western Berkshires, into Hilltown Hot Pies, where he will serve his signature pies—including one inspired by the Iraqi Jewish dish sabich. That pizza brings together fresh greens, hardboiled egg, eggplant and over two dozen other ingredients on a circle of dough.

In a former life, Bildner led bicycle tours all over the world, but thinks some of the best biking he’s done is closer to home. “What’s amazing about the Berkshires,” he said, is “you could be in a town, and then you’re really out there in the woods within a very short period of time.”

Bildner is also an avid fly fisherman who said one of the top spots for trout is on the Housatonic River, under the covered bridge in Sheffield’s Thom Reed UFO Monument Park. As its name implies, the park is one of the weirdest tourist destinations in the Berkshires; it is the site where Reed and his family supposedly encountered a UFO in 1969.

If you don’t catch a fish or a glimpse of alien life, you can at least grab a bite at the Great Barrington Bagel Company & Deli, a favorite of families whose kids attend the nearby Union for Reform Judaism-affiliated Camp Eisner. Indeed, many Jews were introduced to the Berkshires through Eisner or the area’s other Reform movement camp, Camp Crane Lake in Stockbridge.

During the pandemic, Camp Half Moon in Monterey became part of the international network of Israeli-founded Kimama summer camps, which fuse traditional American camp values with Israeli culture and character. Kimama owner and CEO Avishay Nachon looked at over 30 campgrounds within two and a half hours of the New York City metro area before seeing Half Moon on Lake Buel. In a word, he said of the 100-year-old campsite, it had “ruach”—which in Hebrew is a combination of spirit, energy and atmosphere. He bought the 33-acre property in 2021.

This summer, Kimama will bring 30 kids who were either kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 or whose siblings were to Camp Half Moon on full scholarship. 

No discussion of nature and culture in the Berkshires is complete without Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), which overlooks Stockbridge Bowl in Lenox. The Tanglewood lawn becomes the backyard of the Berkshires every summer. This summer, in addition to Stravinsky, Strauss and Brahms, Roger Daltrey of classic British rock band The Who, The Pretenders and, for a 50th year, James Taylor will be performing.

Tanglewood is also a focal point for several Berkshires synagogues. Hevreh plans to host its annual Tanglewood Shabbat on August 9, and Anshe Amunim will hold Havdalah there on July 13 and August 24.

Anshe Amunim member Danny Meyers relishes the nature-culture nexus of the Tanglewood experience. “I love the fact that you can go hiking or kayaking on Stockbridge Bowl and then pack up your picnic dinner, take your chairs and go to Tanglewood and hear the BSO,” said the Pittsfield resident, who relocated with his family from New Jersey in 2020. “It’s a combination you can’t find in too many other places in the world.” 

A description that applies equally to the Berkshires as a whole. 

Pittsfield

Pittsfield, the Berkshires “big city,” has some of the best theater in the area. In addition to Barrington Stage Company, the Berkshire Theatre Group puts on many of its performances in the gilded turn-of-the-century Colonial concert hall. The Festival of New Jewish Plays will run at the Colonial from August 15 to 17.

The Berkshire Museum is a cabinet of curiosities whose eclectic collection extends to artwork, a small aquarium and live amphibian and reptile exhibits. The museum also houses the Feigenbaum Hall of Innovation, named for the philanthropic brothers who supported many Berkshires’ cultural institutions in life and whose foundation continues to do so after their death, including a lecture series in their mother‘s memory at their former congregation, Anshe Amunim. The series will host journalist and author John Heilemann on August 25.

In addition to Melville’s home at Arrowhead, the Berkshire Athenaeum—Pittsfield’s public library—houses first editions of the author’s works, letters, paintings and artifacts. One of the more interesting items is a small olive wood cross Melville kept on his desk that he brought back from his trip to the Holy Land in 1856-1857. The word Jerusalem is etched on the cross in Hebrew but is missing the second “yod.”

Great Barrington

The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center has some of the most varied programming in the region: theater, standup comedy, dance, film and more. The late Lola Jaffee, another great Jewish Berkshires philanthropist, led a restoration of the 119-year-old theater to its former grandeur, including its vintage 1930s marquee. The Mahaiwe is a short walk from the Railroad Street and Main Street shops and restaurants and the newly reopened Triplex Cinema, a community-supported nonprofit theater.

The Great Barrington Public Theater, housed in the Daniel Performing Arts Center on the campus of Bard College at Simon’s Rock, will stage Canadian-Israeli-American Oren Safdie’s Survival of the Unfit from July 6 to 21.

Lenox

Before soaking up some culture at Tanglewood or Shakespeare & Company, take in the nature on a walk in Bullard Woods abutting Stockbridge Bowl. Or catch some great views of the lake from the famous Kripalu yoga retreat center or from Olivia’s Overlook, a scenic spot bisecting several popular hiking trails.

The house and gardens at Edith Wharton’s The Mount offer both nature and culture. Nearby, downtown Lenox is ideal for shopping and dining. In the center of town, stop by Concepts of Art on Church Street for distinctive Judaica, fine art and jewelry, and The Bookstore & Get Lit Wine Bar on nearby Housatonic Street for a new read and drink.

Williamstown/North Adams 

Williams College sits on a bucolic campus that encompasses the Williams College Museum of Art, where a number of the works were gifted by the Jewish collector Sigmund R. Balka, and the renowned Williamstown Theater Festival. Rachel Bloom, co-creator and star of the television series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Reboot, will stage her one-woman Death, Let Me Do My Show at the festival from July 5 to 14.

Just off campus is The Clark Art Institute, whose holdings include the works of Colonial-era Jewish silversmith Myer Myers and his partner Benjamin Halsted as well Jewish Impressionist Camille Pissarro.

A short drive east on Route 2 from Williamstown leads to one of the biggest and best contemporary art museums anywhere—Mass MoCA in North Adams.

Amherst

While technically not in the Berkshires, the Yiddish Book Center is a mecca of Yiddish language and culture and is only an hour’s drive away. Its permanent exhibit, “Yiddish: A Global Culture,” tells the story of modern Yiddish culture through hundreds of rare objects, family heirlooms, photographs, music and videos. For klezmer and other music lovers, Yidstock: The Festival of New Yiddish Music, is back for its 12th year from July 11 to 14. 

The center recently announced plans to relocate to its campus a 126-year-old, 25-foot-long synagogue mural that was rediscovered in an attic apartment in North Adams. The pastel crayon artwork, which features two lions flanking the Ten Commandments and a set of American flags, stood over the Ark of Congregation Beth Israel’s original sanctuary before it was covered up and forgotten for decades.\

Start your planning at the official website for the Berkshires. For a listing of cultural events, check out The Rogovoy Report, curated by local Jewish journalist and author Seth Rogovoy. 

For Jewish events year-round, research the Community Calendar of the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires and its newspaper, the Berkshire Jewish Voice. In warmer months, the federation’s annual Berkshire Jewish Summer is an indispensable guide. 

Kosher travelers should consult Chabad of the Berkshires. Additionally, a new kosher catering company, 518 Kosher, plans to offer kosher dinners-to-go for Shabbat pickup from Congregation Knesset Israel in Pittsfield all summer. Knesset Israel also hosts the Berkshire Jewish Film Festival in Lenox annually in July and August.

Members of the 96-year-old Berkshire Hills Chapter of Hadassah meet for mah jongg events, lunch programs and a book club, among other activities.

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Avi Dresner is a screenwriter, documentary filmmaker and winner of two Rockower Awards from the American Jewish Press Association. He lives in the Berkshires with his family.