TorahTrek Guides Track Participants

 

Rabbi Stephen Booth-Nadav received Reconstructionist Rabbinical College ordination in 1994 and spent 14 years in the congregational rabbinate, through 2009.  He discovered his love of joining Judaism and wilderness at a 1995 gathering of rabbis and native spiritual leaders on the Navajo Reservation.  He co-created and ran a Bar/Bat Mitzvah adventure retreat program for his Denver congregation with Rabbi Jamie Korngold (aka “Adventure Rabbi”) for seven years, and is adjunct staff at Adventure Rabbi.

Steve completed the “Mindfulness Leadership Training Program” at Elat Chayyim Jewish Spiritual Retreat Center, and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality 2-year training program for rabbis.

As TorahTrek Program Officer, he brings his deep knowledge and experience in congregational life and contemplative arts  to his work in outdoor, Jewish education.

Currently Rabbi Steve is the rabbi of Har Mishpacha in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and is the founder of “Wisdom House Denver: A Resource Center for Multifaith Dialogue and Spiritual Inquiry.”  He also runs a Jewish Meditation practice group at the Mizel Museum in Denver, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

Dov d’Eustachio is working and teaching in New Orleans, LA. She grew up in rural Mississippi, where she was the president of the local youth group (NFTY) during her senior year of high school and was very involved in the URJ camping system. During college, she started working with Hillel at Goucher College in Baltimore, MD, organizing social justice programing. The summer of her freshman year she attended the BCI Summer Institute in southern California, where she participated in the young artists program, a kibbutz-like environment with a focus on wilderness and mysticism. Her junior year of college, she studied at the Pardes Institute for a summer semester while taking Ulpan Alef at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In New Orleans she taught the Bagrut program for teens, focusing on writing creatively through midrashim. After participating in a four month WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) program in Italy, she is currently working towards creating a more sustainable lifestyle in New Orleans through gardening, composting and recycling. Future plans include investing in a farm space big enough to hold workshops on sustainable living as it relates to Spirituality.  She holds a weekly Shabbat gathering at her house with good food and wonderful people.  

Getzel Davis is a fourth year rabbinical student at Hebrew College and a freelance Jewish environmental educator. After completing the Adamah program in Summer 2006, Getzel discovered his passion for Jewish Environmental work and has since then has regularly taught classes on the subject.  He has worked extensively with the Teva Learning Alliance over the past four years as an educator, the editor of their Siddur Companion, and as an trainer for adult educators.  This past summer, Getzel was the spiritual director at Eden Village, a Jewish farming camp.  Getzel is also the Jewish contributor to Interfaith Appalachia’s forthcoming curriculum for environmental service learning and the editor of Torah Trek’s E-journal on wilderness spirituality.  Presently Getzel is the rabbinic intern at Boston Synagogue, a pluralistic community in downtown Boston.

Rabbi Owen Gottlieb was ordained at HUC-JIR in New York in 2010.  He draws his exciting approaches to Jewish learning from the wilderness, arts, media, and popular culture.  He is currently a Jim Joseph Fellow and PhD Candidate at NYU in Education and Jewish Studies.  He is the Founder and Director of ConverJent.org.

Gottlieb is a Teva Learning Center certified Jewish and Environmental Educator, and has participated in Adventure Rabbi guide training with Rabbi Jamie Korngold.  He was featured along with Rabbi Mike Comins, Rabbi Jaimie Korngold, and Rabbi Kevin Kleinman in the Reform Judaism Magazine article: “Wilderness Awakening: Our biblical ancestors first experienced God in the wilderness. What did they know that we need to rediscover?”

Gottlieb’s unusual path to the rabbinate has included writing screen and teleplays for Paramount and Universal Studios, working in software development, and teaching modern dance and hip hop to teens in the Negev desert in Israel.  He has initiated new approaches to Jewish education such as using an Israeli television soap-opera to teach modern Hebrew to American 7th graders.  At NYU he is specializing in Digital Media and Games for Learning.

In 2008, Gottlieb was awarded HUC’s Rabbi Richard J. Jacobs Prize for creativity in worship.  In addition to traditional Jewish prayer forms, he has lead services including Hebrew chant, drum corps, and the use of yoga and Tai Chi-inspired movement in prayer.

Owen is a co-editor of The Gender Gap:  A Congregational Guide for Beginning the Conversation about Men’s Involvement in Synagogue Life and a contributing author to The Still Small Voice:  Reflections on Being a Jewish Man.  His new article on Digital Media and Jewish Education will appear in the Spring, 2011 issue of the CCAR Journal:  The Reform Jewish Quarterly.  He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College; an M.A. from University of Southern California, School of Cinema-Television; and an M.A.H.L from HUC-JIR.   He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West and the International Game Developers Association.

Rather than attending Shabbat services, Greg Hersh grew up spending his weekends with his family exploring the forests of Connecticut.  Coming from a secular background, Greg has been through many twists and turns on his path toward becoming a rabbi.  Greg earned his Bachelors degree from George Washington University in 2008, double majoring in Philosophy and Religion.  It was in college, while he was a practicing Buddhist, that the thought of becoming a rabbi was born in him.  Sensing the commonalities between Buddhism and Judaism, Greg set out to further bridge the gaps between Eastern and Western thought.  After college, Greg traveled to Southeast Asia where he taught English, lived in a Buddhist monastery, backpacked around, and explored the philosophies of the East.  The following year was spent in Jerusalem learning Hebrew and applying to the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he currently studies.  In the summer of 2011, Greg participated in Tom Brown’s Tracker School in New Jersey, which filled him with useful survival information, a deeper understanding of Native American philosophy, and an intractable love of the wilderness.  Since attending Tracker School, it has been Greg’s Shabbat practice to return to Nature and commune with it.  Greg hopes to integrate his passions of Eastern philosophy, the bliss of nature and Jewish tradition/wisdom into his life-path.

Oriana Kahn Hurwit: A fifth generation American, Oriana grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A year after graduating from Tulane University with a degree in psychology, she moved to Israel, intending to be there for a “Year Abroad”. Her time there was extended again and again, until eventually she made aliyah in 1983, making Israel her home for 22 years.

While there, Oriana worked in educational frameworks for overseas students, both with short-term summer programs and as the Coordinator for the One Year Program at Ben Gurion University. Oriana received a Masters in Social Work through Hebrew University in Jerusalem and  Yeshiva University in New York, and has held positions in a variety of settings with various populations: troubled youth, mental health clinics, welfare offices, families of victims of terror, battered women and new immigrants, among others.

Since returning to the U.S. with her husband in 2002, Oriana has lived in Eugene, Oregon. She is involved in the local Jewish Community and sits on a variety of synagogue committees and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Federation.

Josh Kleyman: Originally trained during his graduate studies as a naturalist and educator in the mountain west, Josh implemented these ideals by connecting students to nature in a small boarding school in upstate New York.  During this time, he ran a Living Machine ©, co-directed the Sampson Environmental Center, taught e nvironmental science, and engaged a small cohort of Jewish students in active Jewish living and connecting to nature. Josh moved to Grand Teton National Park in 2006 as a faculty member of Teton Science Schools’ Graduate Program, training adults as environmental educators and naturalists.

Recently, Josh became the Coordinator of Teton Science Schools Kelly Campus, where he focuses his work on connecting people t o nature and place through field education. He is active in the Jackson Hole Jewish Community, serving as Vice President of the board of directors, teaching Bet Sefer, and helping to facilitate various services and study sessions in this small and vibrant Jewish community he calls home.  Josh explores spirituality and expresses his passion through community, wilderness, education and Judaism. The confluence of these ideals occur as often as possible, as illustrated in Josh’s co-creation and facilitation an adult education seminar with a visiting Rabbi from California entitled, Creation Out Of Destruction: A Jewish And Ecological Approach To Self-Renewal – a day spent with community exploring fire ecology, hiking, canoeing, and discussing ideas of renewal and the Jewish New Year.

Wilderness and Judaism form the two continual and core threads to Josh’s personal and professional commitments; the Institute for Jewish Wilderness Spirituality represents the joining together of these passions.

Josh Lake founded Outdoor Jewish Adventures (see link to website below), a company specializing in outdoor experiences, education and adventures for Jewish clientele.  Josh’s education includes a Master’s Degree in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary, completion of the Informal Jewish Education seminar at Brandies University, Wilderness First Responder (WFR) Certification from the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), and many years of hiking and outdoor experiences.

From canoeing the Allagash (Maine) and Colorado (Utah) Rivers to hiking the 17,700-foot Throng La Pass (Nepal), Josh has learned as much on the trail as in his formal education.  Josh has spent the last 13 years leading outdoor excursions for Jewish clientele across the United States, Canada, Israel, England and even the wilds of New York City and Los Angeles. Josh’s passions are outdoor education and connecting people to spiritual and soulful experiences through outdoor adventures.  www.OutdoorJewishAdventures.com

Elana Rosen-Brown is a cantorial and rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where she is a School of Sacred Music Fellow. Her longstanding love of the outdoors began on backpacking trips in Vermont as a young girl and was solidified during participation in the National Outdoor Leadership School’s Semester in the Rockies in 2000. Ever since that life-changing trip, Elana has sought outdoor adventures from Malawi, to India, to Korea and beyond…to her current residence in New York City. Elana graduated summa cum laude from Middlebury College with a degree in History and Secondary Education in 2004. Upon graduation, she worked as a high school history teacher in Vermont as well as an English teacher in Seoul, Korea. During these years Elana explored the field of Jewish environmental education, participating in the Adamah Jewish Environmental Fellowship, Hazon bike rides and programming, Teva Learning Center seminars, and Simchat Shlomo’s Eco-Jewish beit midrash in Jerusalem. After living for two years in Israel, Elana worked as a tour educator for NFTY in Israel summer programs. Additionally, Elana has served as a student cantor for Temple Beth David in Cheshire, CT, Jewish Center of Northwest Jersey, and Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles. She looks forward to a cantorate/rabbinate that combines her loves of wilderness, contemplative practice, and Judaism. 

Ruhi Sophia Rubenstein is completing her first year of studies towards ordination at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Before enrolling at RRC, she worked for Teva Learning Center as an educator and administrator for 2 years. She currently serves on their Advisory Co uncil, and is the Rabbinic Intern for GreenFaith, a non-profit, interfaith environmental organization based in New Jersey. During the summer, Ruhi Sophia runs the Teva (nature) program at the overnight camp of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation in the Poconos.

Daniel Schaefer is passionate about Jewish learning, teaching, and being in nature. He feels blessed to combine all three with TorahTrek.  Daniel works at Wilderness Torah and has 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.

As he continues on his journey with TorahTrek and into rabbinical school next year, Daniel looks forward to integrating lessons of nature connection, spirituality, and tzedakah into his work and studies.

Samuel Singer grew up exploring the high desert in Yerington, Nevada. Study for a B.A. in Physics and Astronomy took him to Hampshire College and the deciduous forests of the east coast, where he discovered his love for outdoor science education. With a Masters in Science Education – Environment & Natural Resources by way of the Teton Science Schools and the University of Wyoming, Samuel began exploring mindfulness in outdoor education.  He is examining how explicit and implicit language about mindfulness affects the experiences of participants in outdoor education programs. Currently a Graduate Program faculty member at the Teton Science Schools, Samuel’s particular interest in the intersection and connectedness of nature and spirituality are leading him to prepare for his PhD dissertation next year at the University of Wyoming in Laramie.

Rebecca Stern currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Her connection to the outdoors began as a young child, hiking in Maine with her family, and her deep love of Judaism was inspired by experiences at day school and Camp Ramah.  After college, Rebecca worked at Nature’s Classroom, an outdoor environmental education center in Western MA; next, as a middle school science teacher for three years; and then in the Education Department at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where she worked with teachers to explore the connection between plants and the school curriculum.

A 2003 graduate of Wellesley College, Rebecca is currently finishing her Master’s degree in Science Education at Teachers College, Columbia, after which she is planning to teach Biology.  Her two biggest passions are Judaism and the outdoors, and she is excited to continue to deepen her connection between the two.

Sopie Vener grew up basking in the sunshine of San Diego.  While on Shnat Netzer, the worldwide Reform movement’s gap year program, Sophie participated in Kibbutz Lotan’s Green Apprenticeship (GA).  Lotan exposed her to the world of alternative living and Jewish environmentalism.  She brought her new enthusiasm for sustainable agriculture and ecological communities to Camp Newman’s Operation Kibbutz Yarok.  Sophie currently resides with fellow cohort member, Persephone, on Camp Newman’s property, working to develop the dream of a kibbutz mini farm for Camp Newman.

Toby Joy Zelt is Associate Director of TorahTrek and living in Los Angeles, California. She studied philosophy, psychology, and women’s studies at Towson University in Maryland, where she is currently completing two masters degrees, in Administration in Jewish Education and Jewish Studies (concentration in rabbinics).  She has studied and practiced Judaism and Jewish education in natural settings with the Teva Learning Center, TorahTrek and Rabbi Mike Comins, Jamie Korngold “Adventure Rabbi,” and Kayam Farm, among others.  Toby has worked in a variety of Jewish educational settings, both formal and informal: day schools, religious schools, service learning programs, Rosh Hodesh girls group, and camps.  She also enjoys the exciting work of ropes/challenge course facilitation.

Toby is passionate about teaching wilderness spiritual practices to others, leading students in meaningful experiences in the natural world, and facilitating personal and communal transformation. She is an enthusiastic and inspiring student-centered Jewish educator, dedicated to making a difference in participant/student’s lives.

In her free time, Toby enjoys Ecstatic dance, Chi Gong, backpacking, cycling, meditative retreats, sumi-e painting, and hiking.  Most recently, she completed a 5 month North American camping trip in which she and her dogs visited some of the most beautiful and remote wilderness areas in North America.