So what exactly is the Weekend Workshop?
They say curiosity can be dangerous and lead us to bad places — but in your case, curiosity is a healthy trait. The fact that you’re here right now is proof of it. So let’s start with a spoiler: this text isn’t meant to satisfy your curiosity — quite the opposite. The idea is that your curiosity gets resolved during the Weekend workshop. That’s part of what it’s about.
Tens of Thousands of Graduates Over More Than Twenty Years
The story of the Weekend Workshop began in 2003. The fact that even today — more than twenty years after the first Weekend — this engine keeps on running speaks for itself. Unlike other approaches to personal growth and empowerment that come from a more therapeutic mindset and require a long, exhausting process, the Weekend’s rationale is to perform a “restart” in a short period of time, as part of group work. This detail is worth pausing on: when you arrive at the workshop, your goal is self-improvement — but part of the process involves working alongside and encountering other people who came to go through a similar journey. A significant portion of what you “receive” is tied to what you “give” to others, because at the end of the day everything is grounded in the basic Jewish principle of “love your neighbor as yourself.” We may be individuals, but our lives are always part of a larger group — whether family or community. That may be the central key in the Weekend workshop: the interaction with other people is the workshop’s strongest engine. Ultimately, the workshop days are an opportunity to build relationships and walk away with many long-lasting friendships.
In this context, the accumulated experience speaks clearly, and to this day you can meet graduates from the earliest cohorts who will tell you — with a spark in their eyes — about how the workshop helped them discover and reinvent themselves professionally and personally. The interaction at the Weekend is in fact the workshop’s strongest engine. Ultimately, the workshop days are an opportunity to build relationships and walk away with many long-lasting friendships.
An Exclusive Community Built by Word of Mouth
One of the things that has characterized the Weekend Workshop since its earliest days — and still does today — is the profile of its participants. Almost by definition, the Weekend Workshop is intended for people who have, in many ways, “made it.” In other words: successful people with a track record — creators, media and science professionals, high-tech, advertising and business people. People who at first glance seem to lack nothing, and yet internally feel that something is holding them back or limiting them. They feel they could succeed more personally and professionally, or feel they could be more whole and fulfilled. In the early cohorts, participants were hand-picked, and it’s no coincidence that many graduates are well-known in their fields — and a significant number are recognized by the broader public for their work.
Once the Weekend began to take hold, it simply spread by word of mouth. Workshop graduates who recognized the value they received became ambassadors, and through word of mouth — and almost no marketing or advertising — cohorts filled up. (Registration usually involves a wait of several weeks, as the number of participants in the Weekend Workshop is limited and demand is high.)
When can you start?
Formally speaking, any adult aged 18 and above can participate in the Weekend Workshop. It’s not unusual for younger participants to attend, and there have been quite a few people in their eighties who went through the workshop and found great value in it. But the majority of participants are adults who come precisely at the peak of their careers. There’s something about reaching what seems like a destination — a point where natural growth appears to have run its course — that stirs new questions. That’s usually the stage at which the Weekend Workshop reveals itself as an effective, rattling yet pleasant way to restart your life and rediscover yourself.
Listen to Weekend Graduates
At this point, let’s give the floor to some of the workshop’s graduates. For example, advertising creative David Adelstein came to the Weekend precisely at the peak of his professional success. He describes the recognition and seeds of change that sprouted in him during the workshop: “Each person experiences something different at the workshop, because each person has a different painful point. What I came face to face with was that I had forgotten how to be human — toward the people around me and toward myself. I had no compassion for the people behind the results I demanded, and no compassion for myself or the prices I paid for those results. Suddenly I understood and felt that I was living beside my life, like a robot — not experiencing it, letting results be the only thing that told me who I am and what I’m worth.”
It’s important to note that the workshop is not a magic potion that instantly solves all problems. That’s truly not the case — ultimately, each person is required to do their own work and go through a process. But thanks to the Weekend, you can reach a moment of recognition and understand what change is needed. David Adelstein described the process he went through following the workshop: “The decision to move from robot to human being is not a one-day process. I gave myself a year dedicated to practicing my own authenticity. At the end of that year, I opened my own office.”
Journalist and editor Vered Ramon Rivlin described her Weekend experience: “I tried a light break from the real world. Three days. Afterwards, the armor peeled away, and what was left underneath was: vital, clean, childlike. Fresh out of the packaging, I remembered what I truly love — exactly the way children know. And like most of us, I’d managed to bury it over the years. You’d be amazed how the formula works like clockwork when you’re wrapped in warmth and love from people who melt you. Call it a trip — so be it.”
A Community of Networking and Joint Ventures
As you’ve probably gathered, each participant goes through a different process at the workshop. But from conversations with dozens of participants, we can identify some common themes and trends: positive thinking and consideration for others as a central guiding value; removing emotional armor and the willingness to expose and be exposed (based on the understanding that only in a vulnerable state can real change happen); stepping outside your comfort zone and thinking outside the box. All of these — along with many more surprises we’ll save for the Weekend — create a rich and contagious synergistic dynamic. The fact is, you’ll almost never find someone “disappointed by the Weekend,” and even people who didn’t necessarily make a dramatic life change after the workshop acknowledge its value.
This leads us to another interesting point: because it’s group dynamics, in every cohort and every group, direct bonds form between participants. Many business ventures, relationships, and social initiatives were born out of what started as a chance encounter at the workshop that created a strong and effective connection — as well as through the workshop’s alumni networks. In other words, the Weekend Workshop also turns out to be a networking engine and an arena where you can meet people and forge friendships. In the current era, which sometimes feels overly digital and synthetic, the Weekend once again provides a refreshing alternative.