Meet the Team That Makes the Magic Happen
Wilderness Torah Staff
Zelig’s vision for a thriving, earth-based Jewish tradition developed out of a lifetime of nature connection, Jewish leadership, and commitment to environmental advocacy. Zelig invokes mentorship, facilitation, and ceremonial tools to guide an annual cycle of land-based festivals, nature-based rites of passage, and mentorship for emerging leaders.
Zelig received rabbinic ordination from ALEPH, Alliance for Jewish Renewal, supported by the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and was previously ordained Maggid by Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi ztz”l. He holds a Masters in Jewish Studies from the Graduate Theological Union. He previously worked as an environmental lawyer protecting food and farms and has long guided groups into the wilderness.
Check out his teachings here.
Robert joins Wilderness Torah to help lead marketing and communications. Robert brings 15 years of experience in marketing, content strategy, and communications for various organizations.
As a native Texan, his passion for earth-based Judaism began in 2004 while participating in the Adamah Fellowship program in Connecticut. Since then he has worked in several Jewish agricultural settings, from Georgia to Israel to Massachusetts. During that time Robert served as a long-standing advisory board member of the Jewish Farm School.
Today he resides with his wife and three children in Western Massachusetts, where he produces pasture-raised kosher poultry in his spare time. Robert holds a BA in English from Boston University and an MBA from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass.
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.
She has a degree in eco-psychology from the Naropa Institute and has a certification in early childhood education.
Melita has recorded and co-produced several albums for both children and adults, all of which are streamable online, and is also the founding member of the popular Bay Area band for kids, Octopretzel. Melita produced two albums with collaborator and fellow Jewish song-leader Isaac Zones, both of which were widely distributed by the PJ Library, and won a Parents Choice award for children under 5.
Melita is also the mother of an awesome 17 year old girl named Leilah Meadow. She is excited to be the new Programs Manager for Tots and Families at Wilderness Torah.
Halley has been in the field of marketing for over fifteen years, and has been supporting the growth of Wilderness Torah’s marketing team for the last five.
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 is that it’s all about understanding people and helping them solve their problem . It’s about finding a common language that resonates with real-world challenges, so that brands and people connect and make an impact.
After being a part of the Wilderness Torah community for many years in the Bay Area, she recently moved to Berlin to pursue her dream of living in Europe. She loves going to music festivals, dancing in clubs, learning about personal growth, entrepreneurship, and making music.
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.
Alex Voynow is an educator, facilitator, and guide raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia and currently based in the Santa Cruz mountains, on ancestral and present Awaswas and Aptos land. Through community building, earth connection, and a commitment to accountability and regeneration, Alex supports others through processes of liberation and collective healing. As a rites of passage guide, nature connection mentor, community historian, and community organizer, Alex gets to live his passion of practicing village building via inner and outer ecological healing.
In addition to his role as Teen Programs Coordinator, Alex is a mentor for both the B’Naiture and Shomrim programs. Previously, Alex was a guide for Rite of Passage Journeys, a JOFEE Fellow and program manager at the Jewish Farm School, wilderness director at Eden Village West summer camp, outdoor educator at the Teva education center, and mentor for Wilderness Torah’s B’Hootz program. Besides creating beautiful, earthen jewish worlds for our future generations, Alexloves to cook, free dive, and revel in the beauty of coastal California’s human and beyond-human ecosystems.
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
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.
