I grew up mostly nonobservant, a child of intermarriage, but I became drawn to Jewish ritual and liturgy in my late teens and 20s. Simultaneously, I began to work on farms and learn about ecological models of agriculture. I learned about the Adamah Farm Fellowship at Isabella Freedman in my senior year of college. I wanted to meet other people who were drawing lines between agriculture, environmentalism, and Judaism.

I also wondered where I belonged halachically and socially within the broader Jewish world.
Right now, I’m a faculty member at a physician assistant program in Rhode Island. I wanted to organize a regroup session for our students starting Term 3 — a tough term where most students feel the effects of six months of hard work and stress. I thought back on my time at Isabella Freedman with the Adamah Farm Fellowship and ran a graffiti board session with prompts about self-awareness, bringing in/leaving behind, and supporting fellow classmates. We then worked in small groups to reframe negative self-talk into gratitude and growth mindset. We rounded it off with a brief community listening hour where everyone shared a goal for the term, including faculty.

I want to revolutionize the way we teach Physician Assistant students so they are more sage, more empathetic, and better able to weather the emotional storms of the difficult work of clinical medicine.