Shomeret Shalom Ordination Program

Initiated and directed by Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, the Shomeret Shalom ordination program supports leaders to embody a commitment to the Torah of Nonviolence and to deepen in their nonviolent spiritual practice and leadership.

Launched in February 2025, the cohort consists of thirty Jewish practitioners — artists, activists, educators, organizers, healers and spiritual leaders, ranging in age from 24-77. There are active groups in New Mexico, Chicago and the Bay Area, as well as smaller hubs throughout the East Coast and the South. All students have taken the covenant of nonviolence and students will be ordained as Shomeret Shalom leaders and rabbis in 2027 and 2028.

The cohort meets annually in New Mexico for an in-person annual retreat and the Festival Sefardí, and weekly online to deepen in study and practice. They are also engaged in co-creating a pilgrimage in New Mexico in March of 2027.

Meet the Cohort

Acacia Berg | IL

Adam Horowitz (he/him) | NM

Director of Radical Hospitality for Shomeret Shalom

Based in Tiwa Territory (Albuquerque, NM), Adam is an artist and organizer, weaving intergenerational and interspiritual webs of creativity and camaraderie in service of collective thriving.

Alison Avigayil Ramer (she/her) | MI

Alison Avigayil is an activist, writer, spiritual director and coach supporting individuals and organizations to create sustainable liberatory spiritual practices and communities.

Annie-Rose London (they/she) | NY

Annie-Rose is a spiritual director and leadership coach with over 15 years of experience helping individuals and organizations lead with strategy and soul. 

Dani Kosover Ayala (they/she) | IL

David Bronstein | NM

Dayne Samuels (they/הוא) | MD

Dayne is a ritual artist, educator, spiritual caregiver, and wandering spirit currently making home on stolen Piscataway land in beautifully weird Baltimore.

Diedra Robinson Ortegón | CA

Dominika Laster | NM

Elana Auerbach (she/her) | CA

Emet Ma’ayan (they/them) | NM

Emet Ma’ayan is a parent, Jewish community organizer, active in their local Queer and Trans community in Albuquerque, NM, and a licensed clinical social worker on faculty with New Mexico Highlands University’s Facundo Valdez School of Social Work. They have a Masters in Jewish Communal Service and began their career with Hillel at Washington University and then the University of New Mexico and remain a longtime romantic for Jewish pluralism. Emet found home and remained an active member of Congregation Nahalat Shalom for nearly 30 years, having served as President, Board member, and now Treasurer.    

Emet is also lovingly fed by and with the radical faerie movement and New Mexico’s Zuni Mountain Sanctuary.  As they age, Emet can be found often on their front porch nurturing their daydreaming and storytelling through their writing practice. 

Eva Orbuch (she/her) | CA

Eva Orbuch is an organizational consultant, leadership and life coach, fierce advocate, and effective facilitator, supporting people and organizations of all backgrounds to move through inertia towards the meaningful results that they desire.

Gavi Welbel | IL

Gavi Welbel stewards land, culture, and community at Zumwalt Acres in the wetlands turned cornbelt of rural Illinois. Learn more about their work @zumwaltacres

Héctor Contreras López (he/him) | NM

Hershel Weiss (he/him) | NM

Hershel is a woodworker and the co collaborative Director of Casa Sefarad at Nahalat Shalom.

ian schiffer (he/him/ger) | CA

Ian is a tuer (do-er in Yiddish)—a weaver of people and possibility, born and raised in Tovaangar/LA. He’s an Ashkenazi Jewish kuuy/ger (guest in Tongva/Hebrew) devoted to rematriation, collaborating with Eyaa’ Paar, Land Clinic, and the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission ~ inspired by Jewish innkeepers, Ian practices hospitality as a spiritual and political practice, sharing ritual, fruit with strangers, giggles with kids, and collapsing with the earth.

Jessica Valoris | DC

Joshua H. Blaine | RI

Jules Pashall | NY

I am leaning my back against trees and serenading dogs.

Kat Macías (they/them) | GA

Kat is part of the Cuban and Puerto Rican diasporas and comes from a long lineage of spiritual seekers and leaders. Carrying this legacy, they serve as a  Spiritual Director, Creative Facilitator, and Ritualist  in Athens, GA.

Leah Berger | NM

Liat Melnick

Lior Gross | MD

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb (she/her) | CA

Founder & Project Director for Shomeret Shalom

Mackenzie Studebaker | CA

Maya Kosover (she/her) | IL

Director of Learning for Shomeret Shalom

Maya is a cultural worker based in Chicago who collaborates at the intersection of participatory art, education, and spirituality.

Michael Margolin (he/him) | NY

Michael Margolin is a Rabbi in Training with Shomeret Shalom, a handiperson, a creative, and a spiritual leader and educator at a small synagogue in New York's Finger Lakes, where he lives with his partner of seven years and their two dogs on one acre of land they love tending and tinkering with, dancing and making art; his work brings people of all ages together to make Jewish learning, ritual, and experience that draws on Judaism's deep well of resistance and resilience, transformation and justice to nourish, connect, and awaken us to our own path and power and to the power we hold together.

Penny Holland (she/her/ella) | NM

I am a retired trauma therapist and a grandmother of many. My life’s work has been about healing. That continues, with hopes that as we heal individually and collectively, we will bring further into being the loving, just, joyous, beautiful and peaceful world we long for.

Robin Berman | NM

Yesh (Y) Salz (they/them) | NM

Yesh (Y) Salz is a writer, facilitator, community organizer and Co-Director of the Restoring Lifeways Network, a cross-cultural network of communities practicing both traditional and emergent forms of cultural healing and regeneration. As a poet, essayist, and researcher, Y writes on subjects of queer ancestors, hybridity and the politics of diaspora.

Zehara Jambalos Levin (she/her) | CA

Zehara is a decolonial therapist and a land tender. She is grateful to her ancestor, animal, and plant teachers for all the guidance.