The Shalom Story

Shalom Retreats were developed by Jerry and Elisabeth Jud, in 1969, as a process for exploring the transformative power of loving community. In 1976, Shalom Mountain Retreat and Study Center was established in the Catskill Mountains one hundred miles northwest of New York City. It was founded as a 'hope structure', calling people to live passionately and with compassion in the world.

The Shalom process is based on the principles of intentional loving. Here, we practice the skills of loving and learn that feelings of love follow when we see, hear, have good will toward and honor each other without judgment.

Shalom Mountain is a place of empowerment, inviting people to trust the process of their own life. The open space of loving community allows for healing and enables people on the inward journey of knowing oneself and the outward journey of creative expression in the world.

Shalom Mountain is dedicated to the process of transformation. All spiritual paths are honored. Disciplines for life journey (yoga, meditation, dreamwork, journal-writing, fasting, worship and the study of mythology and sacred literature) are taught to inspire and guide our individual journey.

We believe in life as journey and are dedicated to following faithfully the unfolding of our own lives in the process of individuation. Ultimately, each person is responsible for his/her own life. Each person must claim his/her own power to be and to act. We seek no disciples, but encourage you to become a dedicated disciple of your own life, to do the psychological work necessary to live fully into the soul's journey, the path that ultimately returns one to God.

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each person's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
      --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow