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Ethan and Natalie share their Beyond the Tent Retreat love story in this sweet and sentimental blog post! Read on to learn more about how they found Jewish community, why you should always talk to people next to you on buses, and what special guest will be signing their ketubah.
In June 2024, when I signed up for that summer’s Beyond the Tent Retreat (BTT), I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to fill my Jewish life with. I had been going to so many Jewish young professional happy hours but had not gotten to a point where I could clearly say where I fit in Jewish life as an adult. I thought maybe I wasn’t the right kind of Jew to show up to these spaces. The day before the application deadline, I met with Kari from GatherDC. She recommended this upcoming weekend retreat for Jewish adults learning how to make Judaism relevant and meaningful to them.
When I got to the Gather townhouse, I was excited to make some new friends and explore more opportunities for Jewish community and values. But, I was also afraid of being out of place or not knowledgeable enough about Judaism. I was curious about exploring Jewish life as a young man in the DMV – and it would be nice to find some new friends to explore it with – but I wasn’t feeling connected to Judaism itself. On the bus ride up, I sat next to a girl in my small group, Natalie Thomas. We talked a little about our Judaism and how she thought I should read Here All Along by Sarah Hurwitz, but mostly about what other books we were currently reading, and history podcasts, and her love of hosting.
Natalie, Ethan, and their small group at Beyond the Tent.
In the very first meeting at Pearlstone, we were all told to imagine a box. If this box contained your Judaism, what would be in that box?
In the moment, I answered that mine contained community, the holidays, and my family. Over the weekend, this answer became more specific: I wanted to add more intentionality to my holiday observance, to read more text and understand more history, to host Shabbat dinners and celebrate a day of rest, even in the midst of my busy tax seasons. My box started filling up with traditions and holidays and recipes and finally putting up the mezuzah my grandmother gifted me when I moved to my new apartment. A future with a full, Jewish home full of warmth and love and food and family and friends.
In the months after Beyond the Tent, I started coming to more Jewish events around DC, hosted for the first time, and engaged more with the holidays that year, even outside the High Holidays. I kept in touch with friends from that special, incredible weekend. And, four months after being in the same small group at BTT, Natalie and I finally admitted that we both had liked the other person the whole time, and started dating.
Now, we host Shabbat dinners once a month, Passover Seder, and a huge Shabbanukkah (Shabbat of Hanukkah, for the unfamiliar) dinner every year. We go to the holidays and my family’s break the fast together. We regularly swap books – sometimes Jewish texts, and sometimes the Twilight series or War and Peace.
I fell more and more in love with Natalie. As I was writing my speech to propose, I found my notes from Beyond the Tent and realized that everything we had built together in our Jewish community and home was everything I had pictured filling my box, my Jewish life.
On February 17, 2026, I asked Natalie to marry me, and she said yes!
In June 2027, we will have a wedding filled with Jewish traditions and Jewish joy. Gabe, our small group leader from Beyond the Tent, will be signing our Ketubah. And that will only be the beginning of the rest of our lives spent expanding and enriching our home and community.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog and on this website are solely those of the original authors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the organization GatherDC, the GatherDC staff, the GatherDC board, and/or any/all contributors to this site.
