Fellowship Overview

The Urban Adamah Fellowship is a three-month residential leadership-training program for young adults that integrates urban organic farming, direct social justice work and progressive Jewish living and learning. The fellowship curriculum is designed to equip fellows with the tools to become agents of positive change in their own lives and in their communities.

The Fellowship curriculum has four components that we call:

  1. Earth Service
  2. Community Service
  3. Service of the Heart
  4. Service of the Mind

Earth Service

Fellows spend much of their time learning and practicing sustainable agriculture on our one-acre farm in Berkeley. They are involved in all aspects of the food production cycle—including soil development, crop selection, farm design, greenhouse management, planting, organic pest control, harvesting and animal care (chickens, bees and worms). They also learn how to make value-added farm products via sustainable methods such as canning, pickling and fermentation. In addition, fellows visit other farms—both urban and rural—as part of their agricultural training. To see full full urban agriculture curriculum, please click here.

Community Service

Urban Adamah Fellows spend part of their time serving the communities of the East Bay. Community Service includes each of the following:

  • Environmental Justice Internships. Fellows spend one day per week working with local environmental justice organizations on projects relating to issues of poverty, food security and energy. Our summer 2012 partner organizations can be found here.
  • Volunteer Days. Adamah Fellows organize regular farm-work volunteer opportunities for individuals in the greater Bay Area Jewish community to work on the Urban Adamah farm site. Volunteer work sessions will often include a Jewish integration component.
  • Public and Group Programs. Under the guidance of the Urban Adamah Farm Manager/Lead Educator, fellows run educational programs at the farm for students and families from the local community and from Jewish institutions such as JCC’s, day schools, Hebrew schools and summer camps. Programs integrate sustainability education with hands-on work on the farm. Programs for Jewish groups also incorporate Jewish tradition and values.

Service of the Heart

Each morning, we come together for an experience we call Service of the Heart. The goal is to provide a space that connects us to our bodies, our hearts and each other. The Service of the Heart is based on the Jewish traditional morning service but is creative, multisensory and contemplative. It generally includes chanting, movement (yoga and/or qi gong), and ten to fifteen minutes of silent meditation.

Fellows take increasing responsibility for the content and style of the experience as the season unfolds. Service of the Heart continues throughout the day in the form of teachings and practices that cultivate greater awareness, connection and gratitude.

Like all ritual life at Urban Adamah, the Service of the Heart is designed to support and engage fellows with a wide range of Jewish backgrounds. It is one of many opportunities for fellows of diverse backgrounds to create meaningful ritual and community together.

Our morning service time was amazing. It showed me how rich life can be when you start the day by giving yourself the space to just savor life itself… It was also instrumental in our process of building community, creating the possibility for depth we were able to reach in other parts of the program

Rachael Graber, Fall 2011 

Service of the Mind

The curriculum of study in the urban adamah fellowship includes material in four primary areas: Jewish/Spiritual Exploration, Environmental Sustainability (primarily Urban Agriculture and Environmental Justice), Teaching/Pedagogy and Leadership Training. Sessions are taught by in-house staff, adjunct scholars, and professionals from partner community-based organizations. Structured Service of the Mind sessions occur, on average, about six hours per week.

  • Jewish Exploration. At Urban Adamah we are interested in an expansive approach to Jewish tradition, one that opens and connects, and adds greater depth and meaning to our lives.  Here, there are no Do’s or Don’ts, no Should’s or Shouldn’ts. There is no empty ritual, rote prayer, or confounding rules. There is no: “because its always been this way” or “because that’s what the the authority says”. At Urban Adamah, there is simply this: an invitation to take the ancient tools of our tradition and use them to better understand ourselves, our connection to each other and our power to make the world a better place. With this intention, we explore. We explore our holidays and rituals that are rooted in the agricultural and natural cycles. We explore texts that speak of an ancient relationship between human beings and the earth, that invite us to look inside, and that call on us to be agents of compassion in the world. We explore perspectives and practices – old and new – that are grounded in our tradition’s core values of kindess (chesed), justice (tzedek) and love (ahava), so that we may more fully manifest them in our lives.
  • Environmental Sustainability. Fellows learn about environmental sustainability through lectures, reading and discussions of environmental topics and through hands-on skill building workshops on the farm. Environmental Studies include in-depth agricultural training. Fellows leave the fellowship with the skills to design, build and maintain an urban garden.
  • Teaching/Pedagogy. Fellows spend up to four hours per week learning how to teach, and then teaching an experiential curriculum to students of various ages that connects Judaism, food and sustainability. Our curriculum draws upon many sources, including the work of the Teva Learning Center, the leading Jewish environmental education organization in the country; Hazon’s comprehensive food curriculum; The Teen Adamah Program at Isabella Freedman (2004-2005); and the Jewish Farm School (founded by an Adamah alumnus), which runs Jewish urban agricultural education programs in New England.
  • Leadership Training. The Urban Adamah curriculum includes leadership development exercises, discussions and role-play scenarios to empower fellows to take leadership roles in the community after they leave the program. The leadership curriculum is based on the approach of the Rockwood Leadership Program and NVC. Topics include public speaking, meeting facilitation, active listening, conflict resolution, and anti-oppression training, among others. Fellows are supported in this work by the Adamah staff through community-building exercises, regular community meetings and other programs.

Fees

There is a non-refundable application fee of $36, which must be submitted by check or online with submission of your application. If you are accepted into the fellowship and decide to participate, this fee will be subtracted from your fellowship fee.

The fellowship fee for 2012  is $1295. This covers housing, food, and educational expenses. Some scholarship funds are available for those who do not have the personal or family resources to pay the fellowship fee. The fellowship fee payment is due seven weeks prior to the start of the program. It is 50% refundable up to four weeks prior to the start of the program. If a participant withdraws from the program less than four weeks prior to the start date, the fellowship fee is not refundable.

There is also a $100 security and house cleaning fee that is paid prior to the start of the fellowship. A portion of this deposit is used to pay for cleaning the adamah house at the end of each season. The remaining amount is refunded in equal portions to all fellows.

To understand more about the fellowship fee, please click here.