Rabbi Philip Ohriner (he/him) – Board Chair

Philip Ohriner is the co-founder of Ma’alot Farms—a non-profit, regenerative farm providing produce and eggs to those facing  food insecurity in Silicon Valley. Prior to embracing an intentional, homesteading lifestyle, Philip served as a congregational rabbi for close to a decade. Philip is passionate about family, friendship, food, and community building. On the farm, Philip’s most treasured role is shepherding alongside his pack of livestock guardian dogs. Together, they protect and care for the flocks of poultry and herds of goats that provide Ma’alot Farms meat, cheese, eggs, butter, and milk, as well as the nutrients to regenerate our soil. When Philip isn’t with the herd you can find him powerlifting in the garage, usually with a dog “helping”.

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​chair@jewishfarmernetwork.org

Risa Alyson Cooper (she/her)

Risa Alyson Cooper is an outdoor educator, environmentalist, and urban homesteader. For 13 years, she served as the Founding Executive Director of Shoresh exploring Jewish traditions in the fields and forests of southern Ontario. She is a founding partner of Bela Farm, a 100-acre farm in Hillsburgh, Ontario that is being jointly stewarded by growers, artists, activists, and educators to develop creative responses to environmental crisis through integrative and regenerative agriculture. Risa currently lives in Toronto/Tkaronto with her partner, Mati, and their children, Ayda and Gavi. Risa believes that growing food sustainably is an expression of her deeply-rooted Jewish ethics and her favourite vegetable is the beet.

Hannah Henza (she/her)

Hannah Henza is a Jewish environmentalist with a lifelong commitment to sustainability and leaving the world better than she found it. Hannah currently serves as a Development Officer at VentureWell working to support start-ups and early-stage organizations. Prior to that she spent 5 years at Hazon: the Jewish Lab for Sustainability as a senior program manager. She has worked as an environmental educator and wilderness guide across the U.S. with nearly 15 years of experience in nonprofit program management and fundraising. She is an avid outdoors-woman and global explorer, spending as much time as she can outside with her husband Jack, and their two Siberian Huskies - Rocket and Kiva. 

Beth Jacobs (beth/they)

Beth is a queer and gender non-conforming white Ashkenazi Jew. They are an occasional farmer, a carnivorous plant lover, a reclaimer of Jewish ritual and song, and is devoted to joy. They got inspired to farm in 2011 while studying wildlife biology at University of California, Davis and participating in the Jewish Farm School spring break program when they began to put the Jewish and the agriculture pieces together. Their relationship to farming shifts and grows with each season. Beth is a Co-Director of JG3: Jacobs Grounded Guided Giving, a trans-feminist, anti-imperialist family collaboration building towards liberation in our lifetimes. They spend most of their work time redistributing wealth and organizing their class peers to grow their politics alongside their healing for a just and joyful world.

Marni Karlin (she/her)

With over two decades of private, non-profit, and government experience, Marni Karlin is a recognized leader passionate about creating a more sustainable agriculture system. She received her B.A. from The George Washington University, her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and a certificate in global organic leadership from the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements Organic Leadership Academy. Marni clerked on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals; practiced law; and was counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. She pivoted to agriculture as VP of Government Affairs and General Counsel for the Organic Trade Association; North American representative to the Global Organic Textile Standard; and USDA’s Senior Advisor on Organic and Emerging Markets, advising the Secretary on how to build a more resilient, climate-smart, and equitable food system. Currently, Marni consults on strategies for developing healthier food systems.

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Lily Chaleff

Lily Chaleff has worked in non-profit food justice work since 2015, spearheading food security networks, farm to school programming, urban ag growing sites, and equitable organizational structures. As a person raised in an assimilated American Jewish experience, she sees allyship work, especially to newly relocating communities seeking land and food access, and a part of our collective ancestral lineage work. Lily is an herbalist, loves to cook, and spend time in nature. She has farmed throughout the years and has a certificate in permaculture design. She is excited to bring her organizational skills, food and land systems knowledge, and energy for reclaiming the intersection of jewish practice and food systems to the board of the Jewish Farmer’s Network!

Steve Schwartz (he/him)

Steve is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative and the owner operator of New Carpati Farm in Petaluma, CA. He has over 25 years of professional leadership working with farmers and farm policy. Steve founded the Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative in 2012 and leads the Faithlands National Campaign. Steve served as founding Executive Director of California FarmLink, worked for the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, supported two California Legislators, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and consulted to California sustainable agricultural groups on two Farm Bills. New Carpati Farm continues his family’s unbroken line of farmers starting in Czechoslovakia until 1944 by producing mushrooms, berries, Kosher lamb and hosting Jewish agricultural festivals. He has two daughters in college.

Gavi Welbel (she/they)

Gavi is a young farmer and co-founder of Zumwalt Acres: A Regenerative Agriculture Community located in Sheldon, Illinois on unceded homeland of Kickapoo, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Potawatomi, Myaamia, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ peoples. They are passionate about environmental justice, their research in soil carbon sequestration, and baking sourdough bread.Gavi believes that the environmental and agrarian undertones of Jewish commandments and customs should not be seen as auxiliary, but necessary to fully understand and celebrate our tradition. She is excited to help build a future of Jewish farming that catalyzes a commitment from Jewish communities to tend to the earth, to address climate change, and to take care of one another.

Ben Weinberg 

Two threads have been consistent throughout Ben's life: technology and food. His career has been in technology startups as a product leader and founder. He's also spent years learning about growing food, from volunteering for diversified ag programs to participating in community agroforestry projects and replacing hundreds of invasive trees from his back yard with natives and fruit trees. Ben is drawn to unifying human experiences, whether it's exploring mortality or how food gets to our plates. In his free time, you can find him composting, cooking meals for friends, or playing in his garden.

Shamu Sadeh (he/him)

Shamu is the Director of Education at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, cultivating a place where people, plants, and farm animals can flourish. He is an environmental studies professor, Jewish educator, writer, organic gardener, and wilderness guide. He has taught environmental studies, ecology, and Judaic Studies at Portland State University, Berkshire Community College, Southern Vermont College, and the Wild Rockies Field Institute. Shamu holds an M.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Portland State University. Shamu has the 'yichus' for position as Adamah program director as his great grandparents and their ancestors were Hassidic farmers in Northeastern Hungary who rejoiced in the mystical and material aspects of composting. He grows, teaches, scavenges, composts and plays music with his wife and 3 kids in Falls Village, CT.