Shabbaton

Rabbi Zelig Golden (he/him) is a ritualist, mentor, and teacher who stokes the fire of evolving Jewish traditions. He is the Founding Rabbi of Makom Shalom, Forest Synagogue in West Sonoma County that serves the local community. He is a founder and guide of Brit Adam: Jewish Men’s Initation, a yearlong ceremonial rite-of-passage designed to awaken men’s path of healthy power, prayer, and purpose. A leader in the earth-based Judaism movement for nearly three decades, he co-founded and guided Wilderness Torah from 2007-2025 with a vision for a thriving, earth-based Judaism. 

Rabbi Zelig feels alive in soulful encounters and thrive when he helps others discover their truth, find more clarity, and improve their lives. He is adept at helping people explore shadow and awaken gifts. His highest values include love, authenticity, and unity. He loves bringing joy through music. 

Rabbi Yosef Goldman (he/him) is a prayer facilitator, composer, educator, and rabbi. Raised in a mixed Orthodox Ashkenazi and Mizrachi home, Yosef has taught and led prayer in communities of every Jewish movement. He has served as a ba’al tefillah (prayer leader) for some of the most spiritually vibrant and creative prayer communities in the United States and Israel, including Romemu and B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan, the Kitchen in San Francisco, and Beit Tefila Yisraeli in Israel. For over a decade, as a consultant, Yosef has advised synagogues and prayer communities seeking to deepen the communal spiritual experience through musical prayer.

Yosef’s original Jewish music is sung at synagogues, schools, and camps across the country. His first album of original music, Open My Heart, was released by Hadar’s Rising Song Institute in winter 2019. As a sought-after vocalist, Yosef performs and records with a wide range of Jewish artists. He is a longtime featured vocalist in the Hadar Ensemble, with Joey Weisenberg, and a founding member of the Middle Eastern Jewish music ensemble the Epichorus. Along with trombonist Dan Blacksberg, Yosef was selected by the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts for its 2018–19 Jazz Residency. His next album, Abita, will be released this fall.

Yosef received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2013, with a concentration in pastoral care and counseling, and was awarded a Master of Sacred Music. He and his wife, Rabbi Annie Lewis serve as Co-Senior Rabbis at Shaare Torah, in Gaithersburg, MD, outside Washington, DC, where they live with their children, Zohar Lieba and Shir Emet.

Rabbi Rishe Groner (she/her) has over two decades of experience in Jewish education, and spent over a decade in a professional marketing career before turning to freelance Jewish education and spiritual leadership, and then rabbinical school. Her most recent role has been as Director of Education at the Beacon Hebrew Alliance in upstate New York, where she has been living within the community while building a network of 20s and 30s young Jews for Shabbat dinners and immersive experiences, as well as interning at the synagogue and running her Masa education program for children. In addition, She is a frequent speaker at the Women’s League Torah Fund events; a writer of a growing weekly email newsletter; and am involved in supporting ex-Orthodox neo-Hasidic spiritual communities in New York and in Jerusalem, where she lived for two years until last August.

Rabbi David Zaslow (he/him) is the rabbi Emeritus of Havurah Shir Hadash. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1947, Rabbi David was ordained in 1995 by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z”l under the supervision and mentorship of Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield. In the summer of 1996 he became spiritual leader of the Havurah, which was founded in June 1985. In 2003 he completed his term as a Spiritual Advisor to ALEPH, the umbrella organization of the Jewish Renewal movement. Before his ordination he served as a rabbinic intern for the Jewish communities Crescent City, CA, Bend, OR, and Redding, CA.

During his years as a poet-in-the-schools for the southern Oregon region, David Zaslow wrote and edited more than a dozen of books of poetry as well as two albums of children’s music for publishers like Good Apple; Harcourt Brace Javanovich; and Scott Foresman. In the late 1970s David, along with partner Steve Sacks, co-created what became the Peter Britt Jazz Festival by bringing jazz legends like Dave Brubeck, Count Basie, Dizzie Gillespie, Woodie Herman, and dozens of other jazz greats to southern Oregon for the first time. Along with poet Lawson Inada, in 1988 he was awarded an American Book Award for educational materials for a project he co-produced featuring Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows to music composed by Patti McCoy.

Rabbi David also leads Shabbaton weekends and retreats for Jewish Renewal communities throughout the United States. Plus, with the publication of his book “Jesus: First-Century Rabbi” he is leading interfaith seminars and workshops for churches and synagogues.