Bruce Bierman is a celebrated Jewish dance master, theater director, and teaching artist passionate about the transformative power of the arts in later life. A leader in the Creative Aging movement, Bruce has served on the faculty of Stagebridge Theater Company, the nation’s premier performing arts institute for adults 55+, and launched its first branch in Los Angeles at the LGBTQ Center. His own SAGErhythm program brings song, dance and storytelling to elders in memory care and dementia communities across the Bay Area. A former lead dancer with the Los Angeles Aman Folk Ensemble, Bruce specializes in Yemenite and Yiddish dance and is co-artistic director of the award-winning Yiddish Theatre Ensemble in Berkeley. His work is rooted in the belief that aging is not a decline, but a rich opportunity for expression, connection, and creative joy. 

I completed the 2025/2026 of “Older to Elder” program and facilitated several classes for this cohort including: Slow Flow Yoga and Yoga Fusion and moderated a workshop called: “Israel/Palestine Listening Circle.” So now, with a foot between twoworlds, one as a  psychotherapist, psychotherapy teacher, clinical supervisor and registered yoga teacher and the other at the dawn of my journey to become an elder. What better way to make this transition than to research and co-create some specific program offerings for the next cohort of “Older to Elder.” There is nothing quite like teaching and facilitating in order to thoroughly learn about a topic of interest.

Currently, I am a certified teacher, clinical supervisor and core training teacher with the IEDTA (International Experiential Dynamic Therapy Association). I serve as adjunct faculty for the New Washington School of Psychiatry where I teach ISTDP (Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy). ISTDP is an evidenced-based, experiential, emotionally focused therapy designed to rapidly uncover and process unconscious feelings that drive anxiety, depression and physical symptoms. I have taught a number of international workshops on ISTDP for licensed therapists in the U.S. Canada, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. In addition to teaching therapy since 2014, I provided supervision and case consultation in ISTDP to psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers and marriage and family therapists in the U.S., Canada, U.K, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand.

For more than 50 years, Jerry Falek has created visual and performing arts programs for children and adults in places as diverse as rural Alaska, Soledad Prison, and Stanford Children’s Hospital. His goal has always been how to foster wholeness in our fractured world. He was a clown for 25 years, a puppeteer with puppets that have disabilities for 35. He still teaches and works as a storyteller. Jerry was the co-designer and co-leader of the first year of the Older to Elder program, and has been convening, supporting and inspiring elders for many years as part of Wilderness Torah..

Rabbi Laura Geller is Rabbi Emerita of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills. Prior to becoming one of the first women to lead a major synagogue, Rabbi Geller served as the Director of Hillel of USC and as a regional ED of the American Jewish Congress.  Ordained by Hebrew Union College in 1976, she is the fourth third woman in America the Reform Movement to become a rabbi. She was twice  one of Newsweek’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America, and was named by PBS Next Avenue as one of the fifty 2017 Influencers in Aging.She served as a Fellow of the Corporation of Brown University from where she graduated in 1971.  In addition she serves on the boards of CoGenerate , CoGenerate.org Co-Generate (formerly Encore.org) ,   B3: the Jewish Boomer Project, Enso Verde and on the Advisory Councils of the Jewish Women’s Archive and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human RIghts. In partnership with her husband Richard Siegel, she wrote the book “Getting Good at Getting Older”, in a format that echoed Siegel’s earlier landmark work: The Jewish Catalog. In Getting Good at Getting Older  , drawing they draw Drawing upon their own experiences and professional networks developed over lifetimes devoted to Jewish spiritual community and practice, Geller,Siegel  Seigel, and an impressive roster of contributors reframe d the experience of aging from one of decline to one of opportunity, with a focus on learning, giving back, and connecting. She a co-founded of ChaiVIllageLA, an uniques partnership between two synagogues that enables members to continue to live at home as they create a thick community of support and friendship. Chaivillegela.org  Her current project is creating the Synagogue Village Network

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Rabbi Dan Goldblatt was ordained in 1995 through the ALEPH Ordination Program and certified as a Spiritual Director through the Graduate Theological Seminary in 1997. In 2015, he was engaged by Sofia University as a Supervisor of Spiritual Direction students. Following three decades of congregational work, social activism, and working with scores of individuals in Spiritual Direction, Rabbi Dan now co-directs the AriYael Jewish Healing Center in the Bay Area. The healing center was created to be an essential support for individuals and families responding to illness, loss and all life transitions.

When Yael, his wife of 38 years, died in 2016, heI was devastated. As a way of turning her memory into blessing, Rabbi Dan co-founded the AriYael Jewish Healing Center with his dear friends, Marc Mazer and Susan Talon Mazer who had lost their beloved son, Ari, earlier that year. Working through his grief has allowed him to greatly deepen his ability to help others do end of life work, grief work, and greatly expand his lived experience of healing. His wife, Zoe and he have taught at conferences around the country on the sacredness of the dying process.

Zoë Francesca Goldblatt, MFA, is a director and facilitator at the AriYael Jewish Healing Center in the SF Bay Area. Zoë co-founded the East Bay End Of Life Doula Network and works as an End of Life Doula in the Jewish community and beyond. She is a mentor and coach for individuals, families and professionals in the field of activity therapy for dementia care. Additionally, she facilitates an online discussion group for people with serious illness diagnoses who are exploring the use of psychedelics. Zoë was a contributing author to “The Book of Symbols” (Taschen, 2010) and a co-author of “Make Your Own Jewish Wedding” (Wiley, 2004).

Rabbi Elizheva Hurvich is a spiritual leader, educator, and artist who brings Torah, story, and meditation into transformative practice. A Bay Area native, ordained through ALEPH, she has decades of experience teaching, creating ritual, and guiding communities. Her workshops invite participants to finding their own voices, stories and connections through prayer, meditation, storytelling, and embodied awareness. Rabbi Elizheva draws on her life experiences and her background in Jewish Renewal, education, and creative arts to help participants reconnect with themselves, their loved ones, and the Divine—coming home to wholeness and return.

Tom Levy, 73, a writer, videographer and award-winning photojournalist, has been volunteering with AdamahSF/Wilderness Torah since 2014. He was in the first Older to Elder cohort and on the second cohort’s leadership team. During the second cohort Tom designed and led workshops on nature connection practices, and looks forward to bringing more nature connection wisdom to Older To Elder’s third round of programs. He received a BA in journalism in 1983 from San Francisco State University. Since then he’s studied Earth-based Judaism with Wilderness Torah and completed Rabbi Mike Comins’ TorahTrek Guides Track program. He lives in Oakland, Calif. with his wife of 30 years, and their son, a recent graduate of the University of Southern California. Tom writes poetry, and likes cats, chocolate, XC skiing, bicycling, yoga, walks in the woods and matzoh with peanut butter.

Laurie Lippin, Accordionista, is a graduate of the O2E 2025/2026 program and is one half of the popular instrumental duo Two Tribes. Her band mate is Chris Eccles, Irish mandolin player. Laurie has been playing accordion since she was a child, performing with many klezmer bands in the Bay Area since the 1980’s, most recently the Red Hot Chachkas.  She says that discovering klezmer music was the key to returning to her Jewess Eastern European roots. 

Kohenet Amanda Nube brings a wealth of experience as a teacher and as a leader of women’s spirituality. She has received the title of Kohenet from Rabbi Jill Hammer and serves as lead educator for Olamim, Latin Jewish Belonging as well as the B’mitzvah program director for Chochmat HaLev. She is passionate about sharing her love of Judaism, Hebrew, world music, and embodied spirituality

Ellie is honored to be an “elder at large” in the rich multi-generational community of Wilderness Torah (now part of Adamah), where in addition to holding elder spaces, she has served as a coach, mentor, organizational consultant, board member and deep creative thinking partner. Ellie has been exploring “eldering” for many years (she recently turned 75) through retreats, workshops, reading, conversations, writing and living! She has embraced the line from Jenny Joseph’s poem “Warning”  – “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple” – for many decades.

With fellow WT elder Jerry Falek, Ellie envisioned, designed and led the first cohort of Older to Elder in 2024-25, and led the second cohort that just completed in may 2026.

Outside of WT, Ellie is a life/career/leadership coach who loves her time with grand and god-children & dogs, bicycling, facilitating ceremonies, tap dancing, planning travel adventures, spending time in wilderness and being part of radically inclusive Jewish life. In her earlier life, Ellie created and led many types of leadership programs for managers and graduate students at UC Berkeley, was a camp director and taught at the UCB School of Public Health.

She is currently in the middle of leading a 9 month elder Jewish Ashkenazi pilgrimage to Poland (6 months of preparation, a journey to Poland in August/September, and integration in the fall.)

Rabbi SaraLeya Schley was ordained in 2005 by the ALEPH Rabbinical Program of the Jewish Renewal Movement.  From 2001-2021 she served many communities throughout the West as spiritual leader:  Renewal, unaffiliated, and Conservative.  Between 2008-2014 she was Rabbi to Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley, CA.  In 2019 she was designated a Senior Rabbinic Fellow by the Shalom Hartman Institute. Having moved back to Northern Nevada in 2018 to live closer to family, she leads prayer and leyns Torah regularly.  She continues to be involved with various Renewal communities, including Wilderness Torah, Torah of Awakening and Chochmat HaLev, as an adjunct leader, teacher and elder.

In 2017, she received a special ordination from the Integral Halachah Institute as a placeholder within the Jewish Renewal movement for a dynamic and responsive relationship to the halakhic process.

She leads ritual and prayer and teaches across the spectrum of Jewish practice, bringing a spiritual and ethical perspective to her love of traditional text study.  Facilitating vibrant, individualized life-cycle rituals brings great joy to her work as a Rabbi, particularly working with multi-faith and non-traditional families.

She is mother to three married adult children and savta to her four beloved grandchildren.

Drew feels blessed to have the opportunity to become an Elder and be of service to the world in a good way. His participation in Elder Circles and the Older To Elder programs help to fulfill his vision of Elders in Communities and Communities with Elders. Drew  was in the first Older to Elder cohort and on the second cohort’s leadership team. During the second cohort Drew  designed and led workshops on nature connection practices, and looks forward to bringing more nature connection wisdom to Older To Elder’s third round of programs.

Drew has a BA in Human Services from Western Washington University and worked with at risk youth. He was a community activist for a decade in Seattle and the Bay Area before embarking on a career in telecommunications. Since retiring in 2016, Drew has followed a path across the pond, one lily pad at a time, starting with Wilderness Torah, on to 8 Shields, Helpers Mentoring Society, and The Circle For Change.

Drew is a life partner to Sharon, a father to his adult children Julian and Pia, Grandfather to Ben and Uncle to Myles. Drew rode his first bike at about 7 and is still riding at 75. 

My relationship with growing old has dramatically changed since attending Old to Elder. The program has given me the unexpected surprise of wanting  to continue to work with issues of aging, as I ,also, continue my Eldering journey. As a result, I am excited to help facilitate sessions as the next group of individuals begin their exploration of Elderhood.

 I am trained as a therapist and had a 35 year profession as a Career and Executive Coach. Additionally, I have designed and implemented dozens of ceremonies and rituals including baby namings, weddings, funerals, house closings, and a pre-wedding MIkvah. In addition, I spent a year providing hospice care, training and support for volunteers in a Jewish Hospice Program. I have also been a student of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and his teachings have been a significant part in shaping my relationship with my Judaism.

These five sessions will deepen your exploration of ideas related to Eldering. In the classes we will learn from one another.  It is not a lecture series, but a series of conversations for those who have already begun exploring issues of meaning, fragility, accommodation, relating to our aging (bodies), leaving an ethical will and developing resilience.

Though this topic is often difficult and frightening, we will not be reticent to confront the struggle and the “tough stuff” in our conversations.

Alison Zuber recently completed the Older to Elder program, and is delighted to have the opportunity to return as a co-facilitator of the 2027 virtual program, offering support and spirit as this next cohort embraces the pilgrimage, traveling from Older to Elder.  

Alison has served as a spiritual director since 2006 and in that time has had the honor of accompanying others as they explore their deep questions about life and spirituality.  She is the co-founder and Spiritual Director of Zimrat Yah, a small, post-denominational shul in Santa Barbara Ca, where she carries Judaism into the realm of joy through song, chant, prayer, creativity, and embodiment. She is the author of Pilgrims on the Path – Counting the Omer Through the 49 Gates.

Her exploration of the therapeutic and spiritual aspects of touch and movement began in 1977. Alison is a  Practitioner and  Instructor of Ortho-Bionomy®, a Practitioner and Teacher of Body-Mind Centering®, and since 1982, has maintained a somatic private practice and taught courses throughout the United States and beyond.  Her training includes western allopathic health care, holistic  health, therapeutic bodywork, Gestalt, family systems work, and theatre arts. 

Her dream is to make enlivened Judaism accessible, and to support others to embrace the elder journey with grace, joy, and radical acceptance. Outside of her work, Alison fills her days with family, song, painting, growing food, knitting poorly, and dancing in the moonlight.