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Berkshires

Rabbi Levi and Sara Volovik came to western Massachusetts in 2003, and inaugurated the new Chabad of the Berkshires building in July 2025. (JTA Photo)
August 9, 2025, 2:01 am
The new Borscht Belt? More Jewish professionals are making the Berkshires a summer home
A new Chabad house is the latest sign of a metamorphosis in western Massachusetts as Jews are increasingly drawn to this modern, highbrow version of the Catskills
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Alexa Rae Ibarra immersed in the lake at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires to complete her conversion to Judaism. (Courtesy of Ibarra via JTA)
August 2, 2020, 2:12 am
With many US ritual baths closed, converts go to Jewish summer camp for a dunk
Due to ongoing COVID-19 crisis, camps are shuttered and there are no kids in sight, so 15 Jews by choice immersed themselves in Camp Ramah’s lake to finalize their conversions
By Josefin Dolsten
Violinist Yevgeny Kutik performs at Temple Emanuel in Newton, Massachusetts, on December 16, 2016 (Leah Kleiman)
February 18, 2017, 4:37 am
‘Refugee’ violinist blends Russian-Jewish roots with modern tones
Yevgeny Kutik’s family fled the USSR’s institutionalized anti-Semitism with a suitcase of sheet music when he was 5. Now he tours the free world with a century-old violin
By Matt Lebovic
An ultra-orthodox child on a ropes course at Jiminy Peak in August 2015. (JTA/Uriel Heilman)
August 23, 2015, 2:09 am
There’s ultra-Orthodox in them thar hills
In August, the zip lines, ropes courses and alpine slides of Jiminy Peak fill with the tri-state’s black-hatted masses as the Western Massachusetts’ resort becomes a religious Jew’s summer paradise
By Uriel Heilman
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