Board of Directors

Mark Jacobs, President

Mark X. Jacobs curre ntly serves as a Mediator and Program Manager at the Meridian Institute, where he designs and facilitates collaborative processes that help diverse parties identify critical issues, build relationships and trust, construct innovative solutions, and implement durable decisions. Mark is currently focused on multistakeholder efforts to address challenges at the intersection of agriculture, environment, sustainable practice, and public policy. As the Founding Executive Director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) from 1994 to 2003, Mark played a leadership role in engaging the American Jewish community in environmental education, action, and advocacy. He has served on the advisory boards of many Jewish and multi-faith environmental initiatives, and is the author of many articles, chapters, and educational materials on Judaism and the environment. Mark has an MA in International Relations and a Graduate Certificate in Development Studies from Yale University, as well as a BA in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He lives in Berkeley with his partner of 15 years, Daniel Barash, and enjoys growing and cooking fresh food.

Adam Weisberg, Vice-President

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.

Tanir Ami, Treasurer

Tanir is currently the CEO of Community Health Clinic Ole in Napa County. Clinic Ole is a Federally Qualified Health Center providing comprehensive health services to 22,000 individuals at eight diff erent sites. Prior to that she served as Executive Director for the Community Clinic Consortium, a non-profit organization supporting four member clinics with 23 sites.  She served as Executive Director there for four years, advocating to ensure clinics have the required resources to provide a wide array of healthcare services to patients with diverse backgrounds and unique needs. Tanir has also served as Program Officer at the Center for HealthCare Access at Blue Shield of California Foundation.  Tanir spent four years there establishing and administering a grant making program that increased access to health care for low-income families in California.  She holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley, Haas School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Women’s Studies and Latin American Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Corey Block, Secretary

A 25-year resident of San Francisco, Corey Block has spent almost a decade as a farmer, educator, organizer and activist around urban food justice and access issues in the greater Bay Area.  In 2003, Block founded Sustaining Ourselves Locally (SOL), a grassroots,community-based urban farming collective and educational center in East Oakland.  With a degree in Earth and Environmental Science from Wesleyan University, and a certificate as an Alameda County Master Gardener, Block has taught, supervised, mentored and farm-to-school-coordinated at such venerable institutions as Slide Ranch, the San Francisco Arboretum, the Presidio of San Francisco and Project Eat.  She received a certificate in Ecological Horticulture from the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS)
at UC Santa Cruz, and subsequently served there as a 2nd-year apprentice and assistant site manager.  Block is currently the Urban Farm Coordinator for the Treasure Island Job Corps Center, establishing a 1-acre educational farm and associated vocational training program.  She is thrilled to be a part of such an exciting, meaningful and innovative program as Urban Adamah!

Randy Goldstein

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.  

David Berman

David Beman is an actor currently residing in Los Angeles. His numerous credits include Desperate Housewives, Drop Dead Divas, and Heroes. He has spent the last eleven years on the CBS drama, CSI portraying Coroner, David Phillips. He is proud to be a member of the Urban Adamah Board of Directors.

Eric Antebi

Eric Antebi is a core member of Fenton’s Environment Team. He has led work with clients including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and Tipping Point Community. Before coming to Fenton, Antebi was the national press secretary for the Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization, where he served as a national spokesperson and played a key role in developing and executing communications strategy on a wide range of issues from global warming to protecting parkland.

Previously, Antebi worked as director for conservation policy and advocacy for the Appalachian Mountain Club, based in Boston, Massachusetts, where he helped to design winning strategies to safeguard millions of acres of undeveloped forestland for future generations and to boost federal funds for land conservation. He is a graduate of Brown University and currently lives on the island of Alameda with his wife and two sons.

Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman

Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman is the Executive Director of Berkeley Hillel. Before coming to Berkeley Hillel he served as the Director of Hillel at the University of Colorado at Boulder, upon completing his Rabbinic Studies at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. Adam grew up in Los Angeles, went to Jewish Day School for 10 years and then went to public high school. He attended the University of Rhode Island where he studied Accounting and Management Information Systems. While at URI he started a student run coffee house called 193 degrees. Upon completion of college he began work for Arthur Andersen as a business consultant. After working for Arthur Andersen he spent 5 years in Rabbinical School which then led him to the Hillel world. Throughout his time in Boulder and at Berkeley he has worked in creating a vibrant, diverse and welcoming community to all the Jewish students on campus. Last year he was the recipient of the Hillel International’s Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence award. Adam lives in Berkeley with his wife Elana and two sons Yair and Nevo.

Susan Steiner Saal
For over twenty years Susan Steiner Saal has maintained an active connection to serving the local community. Susan’s volunteer activities include serving agencies such as Hospice, The Jewish Home for the Aged, Jewish Family and Children’s Services and the Jewish Community Federation through various advisory committees. Currently Susan serves on the boards of the Palo Alto Jewish Community Center and the San Francisco Coalition of Agencies Serving the Elderly (CASE).

Susan is also co-founder of SilverRide, LLC. SilverRide was established in 2006 to enable seniors to have a more connected dignified and independent lifestyle after their “driving retirement”. The company serves hundreds of clients in the San Francisco Bay Area with lifestyle transportation and related services and does hundreds of hours of volunteer driving for the community each year. Prior to starting SilverRide Susan spent five years in Strategic Management Consulting with Deloitte Consulting where she developed expertise in strategic planning, organizational effectiveness, facilitation and team management.
Susan holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Florida and an M.B.A. with an emphasis in Healthcare Management from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. Susan and her husband Nate reside happily in Palo Alto with their 4 year old son Jared and their 2 year old daughter Dalia.

Adam Berman

Adam Berman is the founder and Executive Director of Urban Adamah. His full bio can be found here.

 

 

 

 

Advisory Board

Adina Allen, Adamah Alumni, Rabbinical Student, Hebrew College
Rachel Brodie, Executive Director, Jewish Milestones
Zelig Golden, Co-Executive Director, Wilderness Torah
Jane Gottesman
Saul Kaiserman, Director Lifelong Learning, Temple Emanu-El, New York
Nina Kaufman, Senior Program Officer, American Jewish World Service
Josh Langenthal, Board President, JCC of the East Bay
Rabbi Chai Levy, Rabbi, Kol Shofar
Oren Massey, Director of Jewish Life and Learning, UJA Federation East Bay
Deb Massey, Director of Education, Temple Beth El
Howard Metzenberg, Internet Strategist, Board Member, Hazon
Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield, Director, The Jewish Greening Fellowship
Nigel Savage, Executive Director, Hazon
Willow Rosenthal, Founder and former Executive Director, City Slicker Farms
Shamu Sadeh, Director, Adamah Fellowship (Connecticut)
Ari Wallach, Synthesis Corp.