Staff

Maggid Zelig Golden, Founding Co-Director

A community Maggid, wilderness guide, youth mentor, environmental educator and attorney, Zelig brings over a decade of visionary leadership to the Jewish environmental movement. To help connect people and community to their highest purpose, Zelig develops and guides programs such as the Jewish Vision Quest, B’naiture, and Wilderness Torah’s annual cycle of land-based pilgrimage festivals. A former member of the Hazon Board of Directors, he co-chaired Hazon’s 2008 Food Conference. Zelig derives much inspiration from his 2006 season farming, teaching and pickling at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center’s Adamah program; as well as his years as a Colorado Outward Bound instructor, an Alaskan back country park ranger and a life-long explorer of wild places. Until recently, he worked as an environmental attorney for the Center for Food Safety to protect our food and farms. Zelig holds a B.S. in ecology from the University of Washington and a J.D. from the Berkeley School of Law. He received smicha from Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi as Maggid, Gabbai, and Mentor of Torah on Lag B’Omer 5771. He teaches at his home congregation, Chochmat HaLev, in Berkeley, CA.

Julie Wolk, Founding Co-Director

A born organizer, community builder, and event planner, Julie manages Wilderness Torah’s finances, operations, Pilgrimage Festival program and leadership development. Julie’s passion and gifts lie in creating experiences where people connect, learn, grow, and shine. Julie worked in the environmental and social justice advocacy world at the Rainforest Action Network, Fenton Communications, and USPIRG as an organizer, campaign director, media specialist, and lobbyist for nearly ten years before co-founding Wilderness Torah. She has a long history of outdoor Jewish experiences from years of Jewish summer camp to working at a plant nursery on a kibbutz in northern Israel and a degree in environmental policy and ecology from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment. She’s traveled from Costa Rica to Vietnam hiking and exploring, but is most excited about getting to know her California home through hiking and identifying plants in the East Bay hills. Because of her own connection to Judaism and a desire to make it relevant, inclusive, and alive, and her deep love for the natural world, she is committed to creating experiences where people can reconnect with Judaism and the earth.

Sarai Shapiro, Program Coordinator

Sarai Shapiro is dedicated to creating culture that connects people, the earth, and spirit. She coordinates Wilderness Torah’s programs, especially the land-based festivals. Prior to joining Wilderness Torah, Sarai was a resident and retreat manager at Elat Chayyim Retreat Center in the Catskill mountains of New York and then worked in the world of both Jewish, and non-Jewish Nature-based education for 4 years, including the Teva Learning Center. She has co-created nature-based girls programs with Wild Earth and the Vermont Wilderness School, created a Girl’s Rosh Chodesh Group, and directed the Coming-of-Age B’nai Mitzvah and Behira Teen Programs at Kallah since 2007. She is a founding board member of Eden ViIlage Camp and a group leader for Jewish Funds for Social Justice and the Jewish Farm School. In her younger years she was a community organizer in urban areas. Her passions include bringing creative projects into the world, spending time outdoors, working with young and teenage girls, rites-of-passage and initiation into adulthood, making music and spiritual art. Sarai is a certified yoga instructor and has a certificate in Herbal Medicine from the California School of Herbal studies. She loves to serve and drink herbal teas of all kinds.

Daniel Schaefer, Administrative Assistant

Daniel is passionate about Jewish learning, telling stories of transformation, and being in nature. He feels blessed to combine all three with Wilderness Torah. Daniel manages Wilderness Torah’s website, communications, and general administration. Prior to joining Wilderness Torah, Daniel worked as a writer, entrepreneur, and outdoor educator. He is an alum of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps and the PresenTense Institute in Jerusalem. He loves to backpack through national parks and his favorite state park is Big Basin.

 Danny Farkas, Infrastructure Coordinator.  

Danny was born in Dallas, Texas. As a member of the year-round staff at Camp Tamarack in Michigan, Danny led workshops in group dynamics and leadership development and helped to build challenge courses and rock climbing structures. Danny has always had a passion for the outdoors, Jewish education, and leadership development. In 2006 Danny moved to Orange County, CA. During two years of work as a youth director and teacher he received awards for improvement and excellence in youth group leadership and programming. While attending the American Jewish University, Danny created a curriculum based on leadership and community development using Jewish teachings, stories, and texts combined with adventure education activities. In 2011 Danny received a B.A. in Jewish studies and communication from AJU. Danny taught Hebrew and helped to run the youth groups at Temple Aliyah and Valley Beth Shalom in the San Fernando Valley. Danny worked for Camp Ramah in Malibu, during the summer of 2009 as a member of the outdoors staff and in 2010 as the Tikkun Olam coordinator. He started a community garden and initiated a compost collection program for the camp. His skills as a leader stem from extensive work as an adventure educator, teacher, and director. Danny’s finds inspiration in praying with his hands while creating projects, leading camping trips for Jewish teens and families, and being a community leader.

Ariela Ronay-Jinich, B’hootz Program Manager and Lead Educator

Ariela is the Program Manager and Lead Educator for B’Hootz, a children’s Jewish nature program offered by Wilderness Torah. Ariela has worked as an educator for the Teva Learning Center – North America’s premier Jewish environmental education institute, implementing Jewish environmental curriculum among hundreds of students, families, and Jewish institutions on the East Coast.  In California, Ariela worked as Garden Coordinator for Camp Tawonga and teacher at Gan Shalom Preschool for several years implementing Jewish environmental curriculum for grades pre-K to college.  She spent a year in Israel learning Torah and other traditional texts, focusing on those relevant to ecology and earth-based Judaism through the Eco-Activist Beit Midrash in Jerusalem.  She now works as Education Director at Edah, an innovative Hebrew immersion after-school program, and Torat HaLev, Chochmat HaLev’s new religious school program in Berkeley.  She has a Bachelor’s degree in Education from Brown University, Early Childhood Education credits, and more than eight years of experience with Jewish text-based learning, curriculum design, pedagogical training, and free play in nature to guide her as a teacher.

Co-Founders

Adam Edell is an alum of Adamah, the Jewish Environmental Fellowship at the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center.  It was there that he was convinced by Adamahniks like Zelig Golden to move to the Bay Area after their fellowship ended in the summer of 2006.  Shortly after moving to Oakland that year, he started the Chochmat HaLev site of Hazon’s national CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program which eventually became a springboard for the first Sukkot on the Farm.  As a garden-based nutrition educator,  Adam teaches elementary school children all the way up to adults the principles of ecological awareness, healthy eating, self-reliance, and community economics.  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. Adam was also the chair of the Sukkot on the Farm Festival planning committee in 2009 and 2010.

Dr. Jonathan Rosenfield works to protect aquatic ecosystems, endangered species, and freshwater sources as a Conservation Biologist for The Bay Institute of San Francisco and as a co-founder of the SalmonAID foundation.  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 to found and define Wilderness Torah and for two years played an integral role in creating and executing  Wilderness Torah’s pilgrimage festivals and visioning the organization’s future development.

Advisory Board

Adam Berman is the Executive Director of Urban Adamah, the Jewish Sustainability Corps. He served for seven years as the Executive Director of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, a spiritually vibrant, socially progressive, multigenerational retreat center and community in the Connecticut Berkshires. Adam is also founded ADAMAH: The Jewish Environmental Fellowship, a three month leadership training program for Jewish young adults that integrates Jewish learning and living with sustainable agriculture, green living skills, teaching and contemplative spiritual practice. For three years, Adam served as the Director of the Teva Learning Center. He holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A in Environmental Studies from Brown University.

Deborah Newbrun is Hazon’s Bay Area Director. Having grown up hiking and backpacking in San Francisco, Marin, the East Bay Hills and Yosemite, Deborah started her career as a National Park Service Ranger and Naturalist for several Bay Area Environmental Education organizations. She brought her naturalist and Jewish life together when she spent 25 years running Camp Tawonga, where she helped to build a residential camp with a national reputation for its environmental ethic, its Jewish leadership and staff training, and its cutting-edge camp and family programs. As a Jewish educator, program innovator and naturalist, Deborah is known for infusing Jewish spirituality and big Jewish ideas into her work. She has served on the faculty of many Jewish educational, teacher and leadership training programs. She is co-author of Spirit In Nature: Teaching Judaism and Ecology on the Trail, holds a BA in American Studies and Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and a teaching credential from the University of California, Berkeley. Deborah lives in San Francisco with her two sons.

Michael Bodkin, M.S. has been the Executive Director of Rites of Passage since 1987. His first Vision Quest was with Steven and Meredith Foster, then the co-directors of Rites of Passage, in March 1980. Trained by the Fosters and certified as a Vision Quest Guide in 1982, he shortly thereafter led his first program for the organization. His leadership of Rites of Passage includes directing a training program for guide-trainees. Michael has been a California licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 1978 and has over 30 years experience working with youth, couples and families in counseling and wilderness programs. A strong interest in men’s work has led to his guiding a number of men’s Vision Quests. He’s also served on the Advisory Council of the Wilderness Guides Council.  In 1991 Michael moved to an intentional community in Northern California, where he practices his passions of organic gardening and bluegrass music, and continues to learn about the third part of the rite of passage, returning to your people.

Randy Goldstein has spent his entire career working in the fields of energy and the environment with a wide variety of energy sources and technologies – most recently,
he was a co-founder, Director and CEO of OptiSolar Inc.  He has a BA in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and a MS in Energy Management and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania.  His first experience in local food was at Habonim Camp Tavor, where he participated in the growing of some of the camp’s food. He has also spent time in Kibbutzim in Israel.   As a supporter of Hazon, he is an active participant in the Hazon’s Israel and California bike rides. He has a small garden in his backyard, and learned his lesson about Zucchinis the hard way this past summer.  Randy is enjoying building community and reconnecting with nature in a more direct way though Wilderness Torah.

Adam Weisberg is Interim Director of the Diller Teen Initiatives.  Prior to that Adam served as Camp Tawonga’s executive director from 2008-2011 and as Berkeley Hillel’s executive director from 2000-2008.  Additionally, Adam has worked in a variety of roles in the Jewish community including work with the Council of Jewish Federations in New York, the Jewish Agency in Israel and two years working with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Bulgaria.  Prior to all that, Adam worked for seven summers as a counselor, kitchen steward, CIT advisor, and unit head at, you guessed it, Camp Tawonga.  What goes around comes around, and in this case that has made Adam feel like one very lucky guy. Adam is married to Rachel Brodie.  They have two daughters, Sophia and Ariella, truly lovely girls in just about every way. Word.

Heidi Winig has been involved personally and professionally in the Jewish Community for as long as she can remember!  Heidi is a skilled Jewish educator, facilitator and group leader.  She has developed and led Jewish Service Learning Programs for American Jewish World Service in Africa and Central America since 2000, and guided Israel trips for most of her 20s.  Through her work with AJWS she has had the opportunity to examine crucial Jewish social justice, service learning and poverty reduction issues such as community empowerment vs. top down approaches, understanding power and privilege, and designing projects for long term sustainability and community capacity building. She holds Masters degrees in Public Health and in Education.  As a health educator, Heidi specializes in adolescent and reproductive health and has worked both internationally and domestically to educate young people about their bodies and staying healthy physically and emotionally.

Lisa Schachter-Brooks has been directing Costa Rican Adventures, an educational eco-tour operator for students, families and groups since 1998.  After spending two years guiding groups, collaborating with local organizations and projects on the Southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and founding the Punta Mona Center for Sustainable Living and Education with brother Stephen, she moved her base of operations to the SF Bay Area.  She is particularly excited about programs that combine the richness of environmental education in the lush yet fragile environments of the tropical rainforests with the cultural and spiritual richness of Judaism.

Terry Cumes has launched and managed several businesses over the last six years, dedicated to helping students work, study, and volunteer overseas. Prior to this, Terry was European General Manager for Backroads, the world’s leading Active Travel Company. Based in France for three years, Terry oversaw Backroads’ operations in 15 countries and supervised a global team of European and American staff. Terry also remains very involved with his family’s yoga retreat center in the Peruvian Andes. In addition to organizing spiritual retreats to Peru, he has consulted for ecotourism nonprofits in Central America, and led business groups to South Africa, where he was born. His initial work experience was as a management consultant in Mexico and Brazil. Terry completed his MBA at Stanford with a focus in Global Management and entrepreneurship. His undergraduate degree is in Political Economics and Spanish/Portuguese from UC Berkeley. When not trying to learn a new word in a foreign language, Terry spends his time doing yoga, cycling, and rock climbing.

Sam Goldman is the California Program Director at the Conservation Lands Foundation where he works with and funds non-profit organizations that focus on protecting the lands, waters, and heritage of rural California.  Sam has been an active volunteer for Wilderness Torah for three years. He has been involved with the core community, festival planning, and helping to launch the newly formed resources and diversity committees. Sam has taught for Nehirim, the Jewish LGBT spirituality organization and brings to his classes Wilderness Torah-style teachings on nature awareness and Judaism.  Sam is also on the LGBT Advisory Board for the San Francisco Jewish Federation. Sam grew up attending Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis Missouri and is a former Hillel president at Bates College. Sam is a member of the Wexner Heritage Program, a two-year Jewish leadership and Jewish study program for community leaders.

Rebecca Redstone specializes in organizational systems design. She has expertise in helping businesses and teams align their vision of success with effective strategies to realize it. Rebecca works with her clients to develop a clear definition of who they are and what they do. She facilitates their establishment of systems, processes and standards to execute their vision and shows them how to capture best practices in effective knowledge management systems. Rebecca and her family have been attending Wilderness Torah events for the past five years. In her ongoing commitment to the success of Wilderness Torah she provides coaching and advice to the founders and the organization.