One day a week, Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block gets to be unplugged and disconnected from the internet in observance of Shabbat.

“It’s a great reset,” he said.

But the Silver Spring resident and member of Tifereth Israel Congregation realized that his non-Jewish friends didn’t have this same luxury.

“My friends who don’t have that practice may have gone 15 years without having a break from their phone,” he said.

So, along with his wife, Kimelman-Block launched a technology-free weekend retreat on their southern Maryland farm. They’ve run two Radical Rest & Renewal retreats so far and have plans for a third in October.

Taking place from Friday afternoon to noon Sunday, the retreats are designed for participants to experience a slower, more relaxed and joyful way of life grounded in nature. The concept draws on the ancient Shabbat tradition, but participants don’t have to be Jewish.

“It’s open to everyone,” he said. “Kind of like [how] people go to meditation retreats or yoga retreats without necessarily being Buddhist or wanting to be Buddhist. This is our version of that.”

Kimelman-Block said one of his favorite aspects of what he does involves giving people the opportunity to experience Judaism in a context they may not typically associate with the faith.

“A lot of people associate Judaism with entering a sanctuary — ‘That’s where I do Jewish,’” he said. “I love the sanctuary. I love synagogues, but to me, Judaism is about what you do all the time throughout your life.”

One example of this, he said, is taking a small group to a farm and reflecting on things they’re struggling with — the “right” role of technology in our lives — through a Jewish lens.

“Part of it was learning more and more about the way that technology addiction is pervasive in our society, and I see it in myself,” Kimelman-Block said. “It was the realization that I had this outlet because of my Shabbat practice and [I] wanted to give people a simple on-ramp to having that experience.”

Kimelman-Block leads the eight to 10 participants in a text study of “The Sabbath,” written in 1951 by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

“It’s amazing how relevant it is to technology today, and it was written in the early 1950s, before most Americans even had a TV set in their house,” Kimelman-Block said. “What he’s describing is so relevant today: his idea of building a palace in time, the way that modern life can be dehumanizing and the way that Shabbat can be rehumanizing.”

The group also engages in Shabbat rituals including candle lighting, a communal dinner and Havdalah.

“People don’t always get a chance to slow down and break, and sometimes on our breaks, we’re going really fast, too, and our free time can also feel kind of hectic,” he said. “So I think there is a real hunger for this.”

A freelance rabbi, Kimelman-Block co-led High Holiday services and taught a class as a guest rabbi at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in the nation’s capital this year. Before that, he served as board president at Tifereth Israel.

Kimelman-Block was raised in a working-class town in upstate New York. Unhappy with the quality of the local public school, his parents — a Brooklyn son of Eastern European immigrants and an Iowan Quaker mother — sent him to the only alternative: a Catholic school.

He wasn’t especially connected to his Judaism until age 9, when his family joined the Reform synagogue in town. He attended religious school, became a bar mitzvah and participated in youth group activities.

“As I became older, I started wanting to learn more and practice more in terms of Judaism,” Kimelman-Block recalled. “I ended up spending a year in Israel between high school and college, and when I came back, started practicing more intensely.”

He kept Shomer Shabbos, found himself in more Conservative and Orthodox spaces, and underwent the traditional conversion process.

Kimelman-Block enjoys being in “do-it-yourself” Jewish spaces where participants can decide what Shabbat or other traditions look like for themselves. That inspired him to study more, which he did at Jewish Theological Seminary for the next six years.

“Another important piece for me was always the Jewish vision of a transformed world and building just and holy societies,” Kimelman-Block said. “That translated into working in organizations that inspired Jewish people to bring their Jewish identities towards movements for justice and civil rights in the world.”

The first part of his career was at PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, a nonprofit that leads teen programming around Judaism and activism.

Then, he worked alongside social justice leaders in the Jewish community and other faith communities through Bend the Arc: Jewish Action. Over his 14 years there, Kimelman-Block also represented the progressive Jewish organization to Congress and the White House, working to further racial and immigrant justice.

One of the highlights of his work was speaking out against the first Trump administration’s treatment of immigrant families in detention centers. Alongside a minister and an imam, Kimelman-Block used his voice in opposition at a demonstration outside the White House.

He is the founder and director of the Or Chadash Fellowship in Jewish Transformational Leadership, a program of the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable.

“There’s a tremendous amount of suffering and injustice in our society and in the world as a whole, and I believe that Judaism has a vision and a blueprint, as well as a command for us to alleviate some of that suffering,” Kimelman-Block said. “To me, it’s part of how I think about the obligations and commitments of living a committed Jewish life.”

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com