People of Eden Village
Founding Directors
Yoni Stadlin, a passionate and talented educator, activist and community builder, founded Eden Village Camp in 2008 with his wife, Vivian Lehrer Stadlin. In 2010, the Jewish Week recognized Yoni and Vivian as two of the “36 under 36” (the 36 most influential Jewish leaders under the age of 36). Yoni holds an M.A. in Informal Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and directed the 92nd Street Y’s science and nature day camp for two years, where he garnered rave reviews from campers, parents and staff. He is a veteran educator for the Teva Learning Center, the country’s leading Jewish environmental education program. Yoni has taught Judaism and environmental justice internationally with the American Jewish World Service, taught environmental science from an educational sailboat on which he lived, co-organized earthquake relief trips to India and Turkey, and led Birthright Israel trips. In 1999 and 2006, Yoni spent several months living aloft in ancient redwood trees that were slated to be cut, as an environmental protection initiative. Today, those trees are alive and well. Yoni has a natural gift for sharing his vision, leading raucous song sessions and connecting with people of all ages.
Vivian Lehrer Stadlin grew up in Jewish and outdoor camps and believes in camp’s power for good. She graduated from Columbia University and Columbia Law School, carried out a two-year legal fellowship at the Urban Justice Center, served as adjunct professor at Boricua College, and led Jewish service-learning trips for teens in Israel and New Orleans. Her interest in wellness led her to attend the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, and she brings a holistic perspective to Eden Village. She is thrilled to help create an experience for campers and teens that is fun, dynamic, and, just maybe, life-changing.
Our Staff
Rachel Dawn Kaplan, Retreats & Events Manager - racheldawn@edenvillagecamp.org
Upon graduating from the University of Florida with a focus on public relations for non-profits, Rachel Dawn left the Sunshine State to tackle Torah in the Holy land at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, a pluralistic yeshiva in Jerusalem. She returned to the States to serve as an intern for the children’s program at Elat Chayyim Center for Jewish Spirituality. Since then, she has served the Jewish community as communications director of Romemu in New York City, children’s educator at the JCC of the East Bay, teen educator at TV/TC Midrasha, and tribe leader for Wilderness Torah in California. Her love for the natural world and permaculture farming was fostered as an intern at Punta Mona Center for Sustainable Living & Education. When she’s not coordinating events and retreats for Eden Village, Rachel studies yoga, Chinese internal martial arts, healing practices, Muppetry, slam poetry, Jewish Jedi training, and other disciplines that aid her in defending the forces of love against fear.
Greg Lawrence, Site Manager - greg@edenvillagecamp.org
The winds blew Greg Lawrence to Eden Village Camp from the Bay Area. There he donned the roles of Membership Liaison at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco’s LGBT Jewish congregation, and Jewish teen educator at TVTC Midrasha. He achieved an MA in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from John F. Kennedy University and grew his passions for community and leadership within the Wilderness Torah community. Greg holds BAs in Psychology and Neurosicence from Brandeis University, where he developed his skills for working with kids at the Lemberg Children’s Center.
Greg is excited to be living and working with his superhero wife and Retreat and Events Manager, Rachel Dawn Kaplan, whom he met and wed in Black Rock City (in non consecutive years). At Eden Village Camp he intends to bring laughter, happiness, communication skills, confidence, the instillation of Jewish and environmentally sustainable values, and empowerment to people of all ages.
Becca Linden, Chief Operating Officer - becca@edenvillagecamp.org
Becca Linden graduated from Wesleyan University with High Honors, and recently completed an MPA at the Wagner School for Public Service and an MA in Jewish Studies at NYU. Becca comes to Eden Village having most recently worked in development for the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, and as a researcher for the Natan Fund and the Jewish Teen Funders Network. Becca recently founded a democratic giving circle philanthropy for her extended family of 150 people through the PresenTense Fellowship, and now serves as the chair of its board. A native of Charlottesville, Virginia, Becca loves to sing gospel music and to play bluegrass on her viola. As someone who has experienced many summers of the power and potential of summer camp to bring out the best in kids (and perhaps the world?). Becca is thrilled to build on the strengths of Eden Village Camp, and can’t wait to help to create many summers of the deepest joys.
Simone Lindenbaum, Program Director - simone@edenvillagecamp.org
Simone is totally thrilled to be working at Eden Village. After graduating from McGill University, Simone worked for a sustainability non-profit in the Philadelphia area. Simone has grown up in camp and in community; she spent 13 years learning and educating with Habonim Dror. She’s worked in synagogues, community centers and after-school programs to facilitate creative Jewish experiential learning. Most recently, her spiritual and environmental practice has been shaped through living in community at Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland, participating in the ADAMAH fellowship at Isabella Freedman, and working as a Jewish environmental educator with the TEVA Learning Alliance. Simone can be found hanging out in the forest, singing loudly, putting on shows, rap battling, crafting and playing the 4 chords she knows on guitar again and again and again.
Ashley Noack, Office Manager - ashley@edenvillagecamp.org
Ashley joins Eden Village after recently completing a B.A. in Religious Studies from New York University with a minor in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Her studies carried her to Ghana, where she led weekly guided meditations with the children of Beacon House Orphanage. Impassioned to deepen her knowledge of alternative medicine from this experience, she apprenticed intensively with Wisconsin herbalist Linda Conroy. This past year, Ashley served the Midwestern herbal community as a logistical coordinator for the first annual Midwest Women’s Herbal Conference. When Ashley is not organizing information and communicating with Eden families as Office Manager, she is exploring, writing, and sipping nourishing herbal infusions.
Baruch Shapiro, Medical Herbalist
Baruch Shapiro, Medical Herbalist, is a founding staff member at Eden Village camp where he happily directs the Herb Program each summer. He is also the founder and director of the Israel Herb School, which is in the Emek Haela region of Israel. Baruch grew up in the gardens and wild places of California and Nevada. Growing up around Native American healers and the leaders of the Jewish Renewal Movement he had close contact as a youth with Reb Zalman Schachter Shalomi and Reb Shlomo. First introduced to herbs by Rolling Thunder, he then studied, worked with, and was finally certified to practice and teach herbal medicine by the most distinguished herbal medicine teachers of this day, including David Hoffman, NIMH, and Tierraona Lowdog, M.D. He has been practicing and continuing to study the healing arts with a passion since 1986. Now living in an old refurbished farmstead in the Emek Haelah, Israel, self built from stone and wood he has created a living, breathing permaculture farm with a green house, herbal laboratory, and teaching center where he lives most of the year with his wife Keter and their five children growing and preparing herbal elixirs for clients and other therapists as well as doing consulting and design work for individuals, homes, businesses, and gardens throughout the country. His website is www.israelherbschool.com.
Our Farm Staff
Nati Passow, Co-Founder & Executive Director of the Jewish Farm School – nati@jewishfarmschool.org
Nati is a writer, carpenter and educator living in Philadelphia. From 2005 to 2007 Nati ran an award-winning garden construction program for the Urban Nutrition Initiative at University City High School. He enjoyed two seasons at the Teva Learning Center and has continued to work for Teva as a curriculum writer. Nati has studied sustainable building design and natural building and is a certified Permaculture designer. Nati holds a B.A. in Religion and Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a recipient of the Joshua Venture Group Fellowship for Jewish social entrepreneurs.
Jonathan Billig, Lead Educator – jonathan@edenvillagecamp.org.
Jonathan has a hunch that human and more-than-human nature can coexist joyfully and productively. Despite majoring in History at Columbia University and the Hebrew Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, his first job out of college was gardening in a South Bronx basement with Bronx Helpers, a summer program for teens. He has since spent a season sailing aboard the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, taught in the Family Garden of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and coordinated programming for the GreenSchool at the New York Botanical Garden. All that inspired him to pursue a degree in Environmental Education at Antioch University New England, where he served as the Volunteer Program Coordinator for the Monadnock Ecological Research and Education project. He is interested in hiking, nature learning, poetry, yoga and meditation, and cooking and eating (not that any of those things are entirely separate…) He is excited to learn and celebrate with the Jewish Farm School at Eden Village Camp!
Ellen Brown, Farm Program Coordinator – ellen@edenvillagecamp.org
Ellen Brown enjoys gardening, yoga, salsa dancing, spoken word poetry and vintage clothes. Her eclectic spirit brought her to study in Costa Rica and Ghana while earning her B.A. in Anthropology and Sociology at Goucher College in Baltimore. Ellen had her first farming experience in Nicaragua on an Alternative Break with American Jewish World Service. Inspired by the Jewish ethics that guided the trip, Ellen enrolled as a participant in a Jewish Farm School Alternative Break. Since then, she has continued to explore the intersection of Judaism and the Environment through farming at Kayam Farm in Reisterstown, MD and earning her permaculture design certificate on the Eco-Israel MASA Program in Israel. While in Israel, she was hired as a writer for the Global Jewish Voice to blog about her experiences of interacting with the land and cornerstone principles of the Jewish Environmental Movement.
Sarah Brown, Farm Director - sarah@edenvillagecamp.org
Sarah received a B.A. in Social Relations and Policy from Michigan State University where she focused on understanding the complexity of food deserts and sustainable food systems. In 2007, she lived in a community on Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland, which inspired her to spend the next five years studying, traveling and learning how to live a more sustainable lifestyle. In her journeys, Sarah accumulated ample crew and management experience on organic farms in Michigan, Connecticut (as an Adamah fellow), California and in the Hudson River Valley of New York. As a child Sarah attended Habonim Dror Camp Tavor, later spending five years on staff and as the Camp Director. She loves to grow, harvest, dance and eat delicious food with intention and community.