: (c)havurahs or (c)havurot or (c)havuroth) is a small group of like-minded Jews who assemble to facilitate Shabbat and holiday prayer services and share communal experiences such as life-cycle events or learning.
During this period, groups of young rabbis, academics, and political activists founded experimental chavurot for prayer and study, in reaction to what they perceived as an over-institutionalized and unspiritual North American Jewish establishment.
[2] As the Havurah movement expanded in the 1970s, these groups blended religious rituals with secular activities, meeting outside of traditional temple settings and without the formal guidance of rabbis.
[3][4][5] Initially some of these groups, like the Boston-area Havurat Shalom,[3][6] attempted to function as full-fledged rural communes after the model of their secular counterparts.
Although the leadership and ritual privileges were initially men-only,[7] as in Orthodox Jewish practice, second-wave feminism soon led to the full integration of women in these communities.