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Adamah Detroit

Cultivating vibrant Jewish life in deep connection with the earth in Southeast Michigan

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Adamah Detroit implements Adamah’s national mission at a local scale: connecting people and planet in Detroit through Jewish environmental education, leadership development, and climate action programs and initiatives.

Our team provides critical and practical resources, support, and programming to over 40 local Jewish organizations integrating environmental values into Jewish life. We inspire and empower Jewish youth, teens, families, leaders, and institutions through programs and events that cultivate environmental stewardship through Earth-rooted holiday celebrations and experiential, nature-based programming. Our programs cultivate the next generation of environmental leaders, and support institutions in the development and implementation of climate action plans.

Connect With Us
contact detroit@adamah.org

Community Events

Community Programs

Adamah Detroit community programs cultivate vibrant Jewish life through Jewish environmental education, leadership development and action.

Nature Chuggim

Through partnership with local day schools, camps, and religious schools, Nature Chuggim programs connect students to the earth through experiential learning, fostering a deep connection to the earth and Jewish identity. Our activities and programs are integrated with the Jewish calendar, and evolve with the seasons, so children can explore and learn from nature in new and exciting ways all throughout the year.

To bring Nature Chuggim to your youth-serving organization, please contact Detroit@adamah.org.

Nature Chuggim Program Menu

Jewish Environmental Educator Training and Development

Adamah Detroit is building and stewarding the field of Jewish environmental education in Southeast Michigan. Local Jewish educators are invited to join a collective focused on building skills and connections to integrate nature-based learning and Jewish environmental values into year-round Jewish learning at day schools, camps and religious/Hebrew schools. Participants are encouraged to join quarterly learning sessions throughout the year, and participants may receive continuing education credits to support their ongoing professional development.

To learn more and join us, contact Detroit@adamah.org.

Leadership Development Flyer

Jewish Environmental Education and Stewardship

Adamah Detroit cultivates deepened connection with Jewish identity and community through Earth-rooted holiday celebrations and environmental stewardship programming.

To coordinate an environmental education and action event with your community, reach out to Detroit@adamah.org.

Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition

Powered by Adamah, the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition is a network of Jewish community organizations who recognize the existential threat and moral urgency of climate change and are committed to taking action.

The Adamah Detroit team works with local Jewish institutions to develop and implement organizational Climate Action Plans that both reduce institutional emissions and mobilize the broader Detroit Jewish community around climate action.

For more information about the Coalition in Detroit, please email Ari Cohen, Climate Action Coordinator, Detroit at ari.cohen@adamah.org.

Youth Empowerment

Adamah Youth Movement

The Adamah Youth Movement develops Jewish teens into leaders for our people and our planet. Together, we draw on Jewish wisdom, build joyful community, and take action to create a more just, resilient, and sustainable future.

The Adamah Youth Movement functions both nationally and locally. Adamah offers teen programming through our growing network of Community Impact Hubs, allowing each community to respond to its own needs while participating in a larger movement united by shared values and common purpose.

Adamah Youth Movement Regional Boards serve as local leadership cohorts where teens learn together, design programs, and strengthen Jewish environmental life in their communities. We currently have Regional Boards in New York and Boston. Adamah Youth Movement monthly Community Calls connect participants across regions through shared learning, collective action, and relationship building. The national Adamah Youth Movement Leadership Board brings together teens from across the country to share movement-wide initiatives while developing advanced leadership skills.

Together, these interconnected experiences allow every participant to experience both belonging within the local community and the inspiration of belonging to a national movement.

For more information about the Adamah Youth Movement, please email aym@adamah.org, or visit our webpage here.

Adamah on Campus

Adamah on Campus is building a joyful, resilient generation of Jewish environmental leaders through education, action and community building.

Adamah Detroit supports and works to expand the impact of Adamah on Campus, and establish more chapters in Detroit-based university and college campuses.

For more information about Adamah on Campus in Detroit, please email campus@adamah.org.

Staff

Advisory Council


Rabbi Ari Witkin


Rabbi Ari Witkin is the director of leadership development at the Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit. He holds a MS in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania and was ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College where he was a Wexner Fellow. Fun Adamah fact, Ari and his Liz Traison met at Pearlstone where he worked, when she was working for Hazon. Basically the merger before the merger.

Rabbi Blair Nosanwisch


Rabbi Blair Nosanwisch is passionate about building loving and nourishing communities through care, prayer, Torah, and food. She was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2021, joining the Adat Shalom team that same year, and bringing with her an emphasis on spiritual care.

Bob Mattler


Bob Mattler, founder of Green Portfolio Solutions LLC, is a sustainability and clean-energy finance advisor with more than 20 years of experience helping building owners, developers, municipalities, and institutions across Michigan save money while investing in sustainable, resilient, future-ready infrastructure. Bob works at the intersection of commercial real estate, clean energy, environmental law, and public policy, supporting energy efficiency, renewable energy, and decarbonization strategies that deliver measurable economic and environmental benefits. Bob is a board member of the Detroit 2030 District and is honored to serve on Adamah Detroit’s Advisory Board in support of its mission rooted in sustainability, justice, and meaningful community connection.

Jodee Fishman Raines


Recognized twice by Crain’s Detroit Business, as one of Metro Detroit’s Most Influential Women and as a Notable Woman in Nonprofits, Jodee currently serves as the Director of Administration at ArtOps and chairs the Advisory Council at Adamah. She has led significant organizational growth and transformation as a professional and volunteer at some of Detroit’s finest institutions, including COO of New Detroit, Executive VP of Programs at the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Director of The Jewish Fund, and Program Officer at The Skillman Foundation; is a past President of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue and Co-Founder SukkahxDetroit; and has a J.D. from Wayne State University and practiced nonprofit and corporate law at Bodman PLC.

Professor Karla Goldman


Karla Goldman is Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work and Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan where she directs the Jewish Communal Leadership Program. She is a historian of American Jewish communities and author of “Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism (Harvard University Press).

Rachel Jacobson


Rachel Jacobson is a cross-sector collaborator with 15 years of experience in the climate adaptation, resilience, and environmental fields. As Lead Researcher for State Climate Policy at Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, she works with state and federal advocates and policymakers to bring the benefits of federal funding for climate action to low-income and marginalized communities. Rachel previously worked with the American Society of Adaptation Professionals to increase climate resilience across North America and with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the White House Council on Environmental Quality to enact the climate adaptation goals of the Obama administration. She has also consulted with private sector companies on ESG training and staff development and conducted research and planning efforts in coastal watersheds across the U.S. Rachel is an active participant in Jewish communal life in her current home of Ann Arbor and in the communities she previously lived: Seattle, Washington DC, and Boston. She has served as an Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition volunteer coordinator, taught Jewish text classes for people of all ages, regularly serves as a Shabbat and High Holiday prayer leader, and welcomes people from all backgrounds into her home for Shabbat and holiday meals alongside her spouse and children.

Rebecca Starr


Rebecca Starr is the Director of Regional Programs for the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where she also oversees all program development, management, and partnerships in the Midwest region. In this role she manages strategy and organizational synergies throughout North American regional hubs. Raised on a sheep farm in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Rebecca is a proud product of the University of Michigan where she earned undergraduate degrees in education and Judaic studies as well as a master’s degree in social work and a certificate in Jewish communal service. Rebecca channeled her love for fitness into certifications as a personal trainer and indoor cycling instructor. She serves on the board of Camp Ramah in Canada and is a member of the steering committee of Adamah Detroit. Rebecca is married to Rabbi Aaron Starr and they are the proud parents of two sons.

Ryan Hertz


Ryan has served in homeless and human service agencies in Metro Detroit for more than 15 years. He joined South Oakland Shelter (SOS) as CEO in 2010, assuming the role at Lighthouse in 2019 as the two organizations merged. Ryan and his team have expanded Lighthouse’s scope of services to encompass emergency shelter and food distribution; financial assistance; affordable housing and community development; supportive service solutions; and crowdfunding technologies that have contributed to thousands of displaced people getting back on their feet and finding a renewed sense of purpose. He has focused Lighthouse on meeting the critical and escalating emergency and longer-term needs of the working poor, homeless, and otherwise impoverished members of our community who face immense systemic challenges against the backdrop of a pandemic and hyperinflation.

Dr. Sam Stolper


Sam Stolper is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability, where he teaches and does research on environmental economics, policy, and justice. His research spans several topics, including transportation, energy efficiency, renewable power, air quality, water affordability, and carbon neutrality. He currently serves on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Council on Climate Solutions.

Tara Forman Hack


Tara Forman Hack is the Executive Director for the Pathways Family Foundation, where she designed and implements the foundation’s grantmaking process, oversees organizational partnerships and strategy, and evaluates its ongoing impact and growth. Prior to this role, Tara worked as a grant writer and development consultant as well as a program associate at the Jewish Foundation of Metro Detroit. Outside of work, Tara is active as a board member of Hebrew Free Loan and the Jewish Women’s Foundation, as well as a chair of the Autism Alliance of Michigan’s annual Hero Walk. She also frequently reviews books online and hosts Shabbat as often as she can with her husband and two children.

Jackie Victor


Jackie Victor is the co-founder and former CEO of Avalon International Breads, a socially responsible artisan bakery founded in Detroit’s Cass Corridor in 1997. Inspired by the leadership of Detroit grassroots activists James and Grace Boggs, Avalon helped to model socially responsible business practices and grassroots revitalization of Detroit. Jackie’s Detroit journey was itself revitalized when she became involved in the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, serving on the Board from 2012–2018. Now a Detroiter in residence in Huntington Woods with her husband Tom Zerger, Jackie is finding her footing in the Metro Detroit Jewish Community, “noodling” around with notions of Jewish spirituality, food and community and knocking on doors to protect US Democracy. Jackie is the mother of two young adults, a strong supporter of the Grace Lee Boggs School and a proud board member of The Ecology Center of MI.

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