5784 Cohort

Acacia Berg (she/they) was raised by the hills, valleys, and maples of Driftless Wisconsin, unceded land of oθaakiiwaki‧hina‧ki, Meškwahki·aša·hina, Myaamia, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, and Hoocak communities. She currently lives and farms in community at Zumwalt Acres, a queer Jewish regenerative farming project in Sheldon, IL. Acacia treasures learnings from plant friends; things shared in curiosity, reciprocity, and gratitude; and expression through somatic dance, painting, and other embodied movement.

Anna (she/her) loves forest hikes, laughter, and deep conversation. She loves to sing, especially in community. In the last few years she has been leaning into her Judaism, finding meaning in connecting to her ancestry and ritual practices. She is currently studying to become a somatic therapist.

Ariana (she/her) is a farmer and organizer based in Trumansburg, NY (Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ Haudenosaunee territory). She co-owns and operates Here We Are Farm which raises vegetables and silvopasture sheep, serves as Grassroots Co-Director of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and is active in her community as part of several grassroots racial justice and food sovereignty projects. She loves using Jewish ritual as a way to build community and groundedness. She also loves audiobooks, crafting, and kitty cats.

Celia (she/her) has been a social justice movement facilitator & trainer for almost 20 years. Working with groups and mentoring organizers, she holds every life sacred and has long been dedicated to the power of raw emotion, body wisdom and reciprocity - with self, other and the more-than-human. She is a woman weaving many threads as Core Trainer with Training for Change, Fundraising Director at Let My People Sing!, Board Chair at the Watershed Retreat Center, and current co-founder of two projects that tend to the underbelly of activism - Move Like Water, a facilitators cadre of conflict workers valuing complexity and because we need each other, a place to turn the tide on the taboo topic of cancel culture.

She is a student at Goddard College studying Mental Health Counseling and has earned certificates from the Process Work Institute, the School for Global Somatics, and in Spiritual Herbalism from Sacred Vibes Apothecary.

She joins Taproot as a life-long learner, raised rural and without the formal structures of a Jewish life she seeks the strength to transmit the songs and wisdom older than this moment. Buoyed by her Buddhist studies thus far and long-distance hikes through the wilderness, her faith is strong. She is known to be gracefully direct, sensitive and quite goofy. She lives with her dog and partner with the land of the Mohawk and Mohican, along the banks of the Hudson River, the Muheakunnk, The River that Runs Both Ways.

Ele (they/them) is an artist & harm reductionist who is passionate about healing, psychedelics & decolonization. With a background in theater and community building, they honor the powerful intersection between ritual and creative expression as ancient technologies for healing and growth. After 8 years living nomadically and working in ceremonial spaces with entheogenic medicines, they finally put down some roots in Grass Valley, California last year. They currently spend their time/energy supporting different harm reduction organizations, partner dancing, and offering astrology readings. They work for DanceSafe, a non-profit that distributes drug checking and education tools, and as an educator with the Zendo Project, a non-profit offering peer support sanctuary services and training at festivals and beyond. At Burning Man '23 they helped launch the Zendo Project's Pulse Team, an initiative around DEAI and community wellness for their care providers. They are honored to be apart of the Taproot '24 cohort and to delve deep into the intersection of anti-racist decolonization & spiritual practice through the magic of Judaism.

Ellie (she/her) has spent the past 20 years working in international community development, peacebuilding, gender equity movements and trauma therapy. She currently lives and works in Aurora, Colorado - on land originally stewarded by the Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne people and now home to much of Colorado's refugee and immigrant community. Ellie is the founding executive director of The Village Institute - a holistic family development center designed with and for refugee and immigrant women and youth. As a white, Ashkenazi Jewish American woman, Ellie sees her work with refugee families both as a way to pay forward the privilege of safety and comfort she was given by her immigrant family, and as an opportunity to work towards generational healing alongside other women and families on their own journeys. Ellie is deeply connected to her growing Jewish community in Colorado, drawn in particular to traditional song circles, indigenous and immigrant solidarity movements, and intimate rituals held in the homes of two dear rabbis and their families. Ellie LOVES to connect with spirituality and joy through nature, exploring Colorado’s incredible wilderness and traveling back to visit the ocean whenever she has the chance.

Gavi (they/she) is a farmer, dancer, and scientist excited about building resilient land-based community, especially with other queer midwestern land-loving Jews. They co-founded Zumwalt Acres, a regenerative farm and community rooted in Jewish values in 2020. After graduating from Yale in May 2023 with a degree in mechanical engineering and earth science, they moved back to Sheldon, IL to live and work full time at Zumwalt Acres, which is located on unceded homeland of Kickapoo, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Potawatomi, Myaamia, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ peoples. Gavi is interested in climate science and climate justice and learning about legacies of Jewish farming throughout the diaspora. They are an avid bread baker, amateur fermenter, and lover of walks in the woods.

Leo/ra (she/they) lives, creates and organizes in Huichin (aka SF East Bay) on Lisjan, Ohlone territory. They grew up on twelve acres in the Sierra Nevada foothills in Nisenan & Mewuk lands in a house built by their parents. They studied Sustainable Agriculture and Sexualities at UC Davis and have a Masters of Social Change from Starr King School for the Ministry. Leora organizes with Jews on Ohlone Land as an educator and social practice artist. For fun, Leora loves deep conversations, talking with animals, making ceramics & full laughter.

Lior Gross (they/them) is a connector, an intrepid explorer of the webs and weaves of ecosystems, an avid hammocker, and an adventurer learning to rest. They are a writer, scientist, and co facilitator of the Nonbinary Hebrew project. They channel their love of learning into studying Torah and the concept of home and are learning to move slowly with the seasons in their art and their life. They resonate with their ancestors when cooking and practicing herbal medicine, and love to dance with the rhythms of Jewish time. Lior has been a participant of the Arava Institute, IJS’ Yesod program, and We Will Dance With Mountains, an educator, a JOIN for Justice Empower Fellow, an organizer, and an ecologist. They are excited for this new opportunity to engage in community towards justice.

Michelle Borok (she.they) is a feisty radical cheerleader turned fierce and reverent baby-catcher. They are a Licensed Midwife specializing in Queer family building and an Organic Intelligence Coach offering somatic healing sessions to clients globally. She lives on Lisjan Ohlone land in Oakland CA.

Michelle is blessed with 20 years of experience as a meditation practitioner, primarily in the Theravada Buddhist lineage of Vipassana (main teachers Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Sharon Salzberg) and the Zen of master teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. She is familiar with the beautiful, shadowy, and sometimes strange realms that can emerge in stillness. Michelle is in a process of reconnecting to her Jewish roots of mysticism, ritual technology, and community building, and so grateful to be part of The Taproot Immersion.

Nico Fleck (she/her) is a question-asker and a student of the heart based on Tongva/Chumash land (Los Angeles). As community-centered designer, she is currently focused on fostering networks of trust and interdependence within various spaces and organizations that inspire collective learning and healing. Nico is a budding ethnobotanist and healing artist, passionate about returning to and deepening connection with our roots, our bodies, and the earth. Nico sees herself as a bridge builder: weaving threads among disparate ideas, peoples, places—bringing us back to interconnectedness.

Rachel (she/her) is an ever-curious learner and lover. Born in the Sonoran Desert, Rachel's family has roots in New York by way of Paris, Poland, Turkey, and Russia & she has called the Midwest (currently Detroit, MI) her home since 2016. Rachel is energized by working with individuals and couples who are seeking deeper fulfillment and grounding in their identities and relationships, by singing with her Jewish communities, by experiencing newness, and by learning what the people around her are feeling energized by! Rachel is excited to grow in her spiritual self and practice alongside her Taproot cohort.

Thena (they/them) is a queer ritualist based in Seattle, who uses song and dance to journey through the seasons of change in community. They have found homes in witchy spaces and activist spaces, and they are now finding belonging in Jewish circles that live at the intersection. Their favorite holi day is Purim, for its sacred contrast of irreverent queer joy and sobering communal processing of cycles of trauma. Sukkot is their newer love, and they are excited to deepen into this ritual of awe for the world that G-d livens. Thena feels such gratitude and enthusiasm to be a part of this cohort and looks forward to the web of magic and healing that we'll weave together.