Youth Program Mentors
Meet Your Mentors
About Youth Mentors
Wilderness Torah youth mentors are the heart and soul of our work in youth programs. Each mentor brings passion, years of experience and their own unique perspective. Whenever possible, we do our best to create a diverse mentor team that can represent the various identities in the group. Mentors are trained in our award winning curriculum and spend many hours planning and debriefing with each other and the Youth Programs Director. Most importantly, our mentors care deeply about the youth and the unique work that Wilderness Torah does. They are committed and passionate about sharing Jewish connection and nature-connection with the next generation of Jewish youth.
2023-24 Youth Mentors
Sarah Elise (they&she) just 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 well over a decade. 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.
As a rising Kohenet, Sarah Elise is tying together their deep love of Jewish tradition, awareness of the natural world, and the power of collective song.
As an educator, Sarah Elise weaves movement, music, art, writing, and questioning to instill a sense of wonder and empowerment in her students. Recognizing the agency and humanity of each of her students, they create learning communities who support and trust each other, and who ask deep questions. She cannot wait to meet the Eitzim group this year! This will be her 3rd year as a B’hootz mentor.
Alex [He/They] has honed his role as a Jewish ecological educator and facilitator with the Jewish Farm School, the Teva Education Center, Eden Village West, and the Jewish Farmer Network, and is excited to bring to Wilderness Torah his passion for weaving the ethos of land-based Judaism with place-based interrelationship in this beautiful corner of the Diaspora. Alex brings to their mentorship a spirit of respect, care, and collaboration, and delights in witnessing and supporting processes of transformation and growth.
Alex was raised among the pine forests of southeastern Lenapehoking, ancestral and present Lenape territory, also known as South Jersey, in a reform Ashkenazi family. When not on trail with a group of young folks, you can probably find Alex in or near the ocean, likely freediving, paddleboarding, or revering the communities among the tide pools. They also love to be in the kitchen, cooking, baking, preserving, fermenting, making medicine, and making ice cream, which is also medicine.
Sarah Moss Yanuck (ze/zir/zirs & she/her/hers) is an educator, facilitator, and songleader in Jewish and secular spaces. Born and raised in Durham and Chapel Hill, NC, ze came of age in Philadelphia, PA, and moved to Oakland in 2022. Since 2014, Sarah Moss has taught in K-12 classrooms, racial literacy courses for adults, Hebrew Schools, and outdoor Jewish education programs, including Wilderness Torah’s B’Hootz program. Sarah Moss has long held a love of outdoor learning, Jewish ritual, and spending time with tweens, and she is thrilled to be co-mentoring this first-year cohort of B’Naiture.
Sam (aka Shmuli) has been an educator for 10 years. Originally from Los Angeles, they received a teaching credential from Cal State University Northridge in 2022 before moving to the Bay Area. When not at Wilderness Torah gatherings, Sam can be found teaching kids about organic farming and animal stewardship, or giving workshops to people of all ages on cheesemaking, candle dipping, and herbal tea blending.
Sam (he/they) is a seasoned wilderness guide and rites of passage mentor, having spent hundreds of days in the backcountry working in the worlds of adult wilderness therapy, adolescent and young adult rites of passage and mentorship, ritual leadership, and socio-emotional connection. Sam originates from the neighborhood creek beds and small historic towns of Eastern Pennsylvania, where he was raised culturally and secularly Jewish, always with a deep craving for tradition and connection that was missing in his family’s relationship with Judaism and community. He moved to Chicago to study theatre and global health, where they spent many semesters getting to know the cultures and land of countries across the world. He has moved throughout the rural West with a personal commitment to the wildness and love in his soul, and an Earthly commitment to bringing humans to themselves, to community, and to the Land. Sam’s experience comes through powerful mentorship and training through the School of Lost Borders, Somatic Experiencing International, and the many non-human beings on this land.
Sam has been an avid dancer since infancy, as well as a lover of theatre, music, and art. These days he finds himself spending his time out in nature on adventures, runs, or hitbodeduts, and always finding ways to immerse himself with joy and friendship and authentic community. To learn more, you can check out their website www.rootedrites.com .
Raq (they/them) is an educator, basket weaver, and organizer and are excited to bring lots of nature crafts and hands-on activities to the B’Hootz program. Raq is also passionate about the under-appreciated Jewish holidays, diasporic jewish-plant connections, and the Jewish-Indigenous solidarity.
Growing up in the Philadelphia Area, Raq attended URJ Camp Harlam where they started to form their spiritual Jewish connection, outdoors. After graduating from Olin College of Engineering, where they focused on hands-on learning and maker education, they moved to the Bay Area to deepen their connection to Judaism through the Urban Adamah fellowship.
Amazed by how the Jewish calendar aligns with the seasons in the Bay Area, they dove deeper into to the earth-based Jewish community here, weaving connections between people and organizations, and deepening their relationships with the different plants and seasons here. Now they organize with Jews on Ohlone Land to bring together Jews living in Lisjan Territory in learning to live as good guests on this land and in solidarity with the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.
