Meet the Team That Makes the Magic Happen
Wilderness Torah Staff
Itamar Cohn has joined the Wilderness Torah team with a deep passion for empowering youth through initiatory experiences in the wild. He is inspired and excited to add reconnection with ancestral earth-based wisdom and practices to this work.
Itamar spent 10 years with Outward Bound California as Lead Instructor, Course Director, and Trainer. In his last position, he served as Head of Pedagogy and Instruction for a sustainability education startup in Israel called Halom Hadash (New Dream).
In a previous life, Itamar co-founded the EcoME Center, an educational center in the West Bank, bringing together Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals to practice and research connections between personal, social, and environmental peacework and sustainability. Since 2013 he has been part of creating an Ecovillage in the North of Israel, called Adama, where he has lived with his wife, Ilana, and where his daughter, Sequoia Levia, was born in a humble yurt.
Itamar holds a Bachelor’s in Outdoor Education from Trinity University College, Wales, and a Master’s in Peace and Conflict Management from Haifa University, Israel.
Halley has been in the field of marketing for over seventeen years, and has been supporting the growth of Wilderness Torah’s marketing team for the last eight.
She wears many hats including project manager, copy writer, content creator, branding consultant, and business coach for solo entrepreneurs. She has worked on campaigns for large corporations like Adobe, HP, and Sony, as well as supported Jewish non-profits in the Bay Area including Jewish Studio Project, Urban Adamah, and Moishe House.
What she loves about marketing in Jewish non-profits is helping innovative Jewish creators to build impactful program messaging that reaches the right people to creates the healing and transformation that the world needs right tnow.
After being a part of the Wilderness Torah community for many years in the Bay Area, she moved to Berlin to pursue her dream of living in Europe, and now is settled in Portland, Oregon with her husband and son Henry. She loves going to music festivals, dancing, singing, and rituals for healing and manifesting a more beautiful world.
Rick is a nature-loving parent raising a Jewish toddler on Ohlone land in the East Bay. Rick comes to Wilderness Torah with years of experience providing communications and administrative support for non-profits, political campaigns, and legal aid organizations. He is passionate about climate justice, consensus-based community engagement, and the better worlds that are possible beyond the existing paradigm.
Outside of Wilderness Torah, Rick is busy gardening, hiking, watching and writing about film, and listening to a truly ludicrous amount of jazz with his daughter every day. He holds a BA in English and philosophy from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Eli Witkin is a playful and experienced educator. He spent the last ten years making his way through wilderness education, experiential programing, and classroom teaching. Whether hosting a monthly Rosh Chodesh Kumzits, guiding children through the woods, or teaching teens Hebrew Calligraphy, with Eli, curiosity and spirituality are always at the forefront. He believes that all humans are born curious, with the innate ability to learn the natural way – through wonder and exploration.
Eli first fell in love with Torah at age ten and has been studying ever since. Five years ago he helped co-found the farm at Gann Academy. There a new type of Torah began to grow, a part of what he likes to call “the great remembering.” Now Eli has a passion for bringing our ancient tradition, kept for thousands of years in books, alive once again into an embodied relationship with nature and land.
As a lover of learning, Eli holds a random array of certifications including degrees in Geology, Economics, Education, and Experiential Education. More than anything else, he is most proud that former students sometimes reach out just to have coffee.
Sarah Elise (they&she) loves getting outside and getting their hands dirty! She earned an MS in Ecological Teaching and Learning from Lesley University, and has worked as an environmental educator in numerous contexts for close to 20 years. Living the majority of their life in New England, Sarah Elise developed a deep love of the turning of the seasons and all that they offer. Sarah Elise grew up in a Conservative Jewish household, and her personal spiritual practice has always been deeply tied to the natural turning of the year.
Sarah Elise has been with the Wilderness Torah Youth programs since she started as a B’Hootz mentor in 2019. It has been their joy and pleasure to serve as a mentor for B’Hootz, B’Naiture, and Shomrim over the years. Being a part of Wilderness Torah Youth Programs has brought them a deep sense of self, a stronger connection to HaShem, and an intimacy with the nature of the greater Bay Area. They are thrilled to be continuing on as a B’Naiture and Shomrim mentor this year, and she is especially excited to be stepping into her new role as Youth Programs Manager.
Board Members
Jared is a business owner and long time lover of earth-based Jewish spirituality, dating back to his time growing up as a Labor Zionist and working on Kibbutz in the 1970’s. Jared believes that Wilderness Torah’s mission of connecting Jews to the more than human world in authentically indigenously Jewish ways is absolutely crucial. He is delighted to be able to contribute to the organization as he returns to the board as the treasurer. Jared is semi retired. He blogs and teaches earth based Torah at earthbasedjudaism.org and is currently also the treasurer and past president of the Board for the Albert Einstein Academy in Wilmington, DE.
Adam N. Cummings is an entrepreneur based in Mill Valley, focusing on wellness and human dignity. With an extensive background in how human change occurs in complex social contexts, he works with early-stage companies to effectively brand and monetize the ways people make meaningful change in their lives. As Chairman of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Adam oversaw significant investment in health, the arts and environment, to effect social and economic justice. In his continuing role as foundation trustee, he is focussed on disrupting intergenerational trauma that has resulted in systemic oppression, and emotional and physical trauma. In his work on gender equality, he partners with leading advocates in the arts and public health. To address seemingly intractable social problems and business challenges, Adam believes passionately in creating experiences where experiential learning brings change to hearts and minds. He keeps body and soul together through dancing, swimming, biking, and meditating.
With a background in environmental law and environmental justice advocacy, Caitlin has worked for a decade in fundraising, organizational development, and strategic planning for social impact organizations. As the Director of Development for Namati, a global legal empowerment organization, she oversees fundraising efforts towards an $8M annual budget. Previously, she built and directed a legal advocacy network linking pro bono lawyers with grassroots environmental justice activists. Caitlin received her B.A. from Stanford University and her J.D. with an environmental law certificate from UC Berkeley School of Law.
Rabbi Dan Goldblatt has been the spiritual leader of Beth Chaim Congregation in Danville, CA, for 26 years. He was ordained by Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi through ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. He is a Past President of OHALAH: Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal and has served on the Board of Directors of ALEPH. Rabbi Dan currently serves as Co-Chair of the Rabbinic Advisory Council of Shalom Bayit: Ending Domestic Violence in Jewish Homes. He is a leader of I-SRV – the Interfaith of the San Ramon Valley – and multi-faith work has been a vital part of his rabbinate. He co-founded a number of environmental and social justice organizations including Bay COEJL, the regional chapter of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, and Faith Works, a Contra Costa County Clergy-Labor organization to support migrant strawberry workers. He is a member of the latest cohort of Rabbis Without Borders, a CLAL initiative. In 2019, he co-founded the AriYael Jewish Healing Center and is working to turn this dream into a reality. He also has a passion for Sacred Storytelling and is readying a book for publication, “Miracles Happen: Stories That Break Open the Heart.”
Thank You To Our Past Board Members:
Adam Berman
Adam Weisberg
Adrienne Gembala (SF Fed 2016-17 Board Fellow)
Brian Williams
Deborah Newbrun
Heidi Winig
Jim Gilbert
Jon Rosenfield
Lisa Schachter-Brooks
Mike Bodkin
Randy Goldstein
Rebecca Redstone
Sam Goldman
Seth Leslie
Shira Weissman
Susie Aaron
Terry Cumes
Simcha Schwartz
Ellie Schindelman
Jared Gellert
Leah Katz Ahmadi
Marina Eybelman
Wilderness Torah Co-Founders
Rabbi Zelig is a ritualist, mentor, and teacher who stokes the fire of evolving Jewish traditions that meet the needs of people and our precious planet. A leader in the earth-based Judaism movement for nearly three decades, he co-founded Wilderness Torah with a vision for a thriving, earth-based Judaism and served in leadership for 18 years.
He currently lives in Occidental, CA, West Sonoma County, near the Sonoma Coast. He loves serving his local community. He travels nationally and internationally for lifecycle ceremonies and rabbi-in-service offerings. He work on Zoom for life cycle ceremony preparation, spiritual mentoring, and other rabbinic services.
You can find out more about his work and hiring him at his website: Regenerative Rabbinics.
Previous to founding Wilderness Torah, she worked for ten years in environmental and social justice advocacy. Julie’s a Certified Co-Active Coach and has a bachelor’s degree in environmental policy and ecology from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources. She lives in Bend, OR with her family and spends a lot of time playing outside.
Adam Edell is an alumnus of Adamah at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center with Zelig Golden. Shortly after moving to the Bay Area in 2006, he launched a site for Hazon’s national CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, which led to the first Sukkot on the Farm. Adam was also chair of the Sukkot on the Farm Festival planning committee in 2009 and 2010.
Adam is a garden-based nutrition educator for children and adults. Adam’s profound joys come from witnessing the connections people make to themselves, each other, and the Earth, as they constantly seek new meaning in Jewish ritual.
Dr. Jonathan Rosenfield works to protect aquatic ecosystems, endangered species, and freshwater sources as a Conservation Biologist for The Bay Institute and president of SalmonAID. He is a Wilderness First Responder and a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School’s Outdoor Educator training program. He integrates his passion for wilderness and living systems with his evolving spiritual practice.
Jon helped found and define Wilderness Torah and for two years played an integral role in creating Wilderness Torah programs and building the organization. Jon graduated from Cornell University and holds a PhD in biology from the University of New Mexico.
