JFS Council

Robert Friedman is a writer and photographer living in Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley. With an English degree from Boston University, Robert works in educational publishing by day and operates Robariah Arts, a photography and greeting card company, by night. In his travels over the years, he has apprenticed with a 300-head goat dairy in Israel and at Serenbe Farms in Georgia. Robert began his Jewish journey in farming as an ADAMAH fellow at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Connecticut.

Robert currently serves as Chair for the JFS Council.

Yigal Deutscher planted his first seeds as an ADAMAH fellow in 2003, during the program's pilot season. Since then he received a certificate in Agroecology from University of California, Santa Cruz (Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems), as well as a Permaculture Design Certificate from the Permaculture Research Institute in Australia. Originally from New York, Yigal moved to Israel in 2006 where he founded the Shorashim:Roots Apprenticeship program at the Chava v'Adam Ecological Farm. Yigal is the Permaculture instructor & farm manager for the program, which is now called Eco-Israel.

Joshua Lichtman is the New Orleans Program Director of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps. AVODAH is a national year-long program for people in their twenties that integrates social justice work with Jewish learning and community building.  Joshua formerly practiced real estate law and is a graduate of the New York University School of Law.  He has studied at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem, is an alum of ADAMAH: the Jewish Environmental Fellowship, and apprenticed for a year at a small organic farm in Connecticut.  He has worked for numerous Jewish organizations including the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Hillel of Florida State University, Jewish Funds for Justice, and Camp Ramah, Wisconsin.

Tali Weinberg is originally from the flatlands of the Canadian Prairies. Years of living as part of vibrant and conscious communities inspired Tali to plant her visions in the earth. While living at the St. Norbert Arts Center's ‘Living Earth Eco-Village', she coordinated the depARTures program, providing youth from marginalized communities with tools of both art and ecology with which to express their truths She co-coordinated the first-ever ecological apprenticeship program at the Elat Chayyim Jewish retreat center, working with a team of apprentices to grow food and run educational programs roots in the principles of ecology and Judaism. As farm manager for ADAMAH, she spent 2 years overseeing production at the site's 4-acre organic vegetable farm. In Israel, she served as the project Coordinator for the BUSTAN-Tel Sheva Desert Medicine Learning Site, working in partnership with the Abu Regayak family of Tel Sheva to establish a learning site dedicated to promoting desert sustainability in Israel's Negev through traditional Bedouin plant medicine and natural building practices. Tali currently resides on the West Coast, passionately growing food and saving seeds for Salt Spring Seeds.