conference@jewishfarmernetwork.org

https://www.soulfirefarm.org/ <3

<3

Lucille Srivastiva <3

George Sohn - found a way to garden wherever they were through his 90s

I love that big ole’ proud mama smile <3

My beloved mother, Barbara Wolfson, who gave me my first seeds when I was 3.

hi grandma ferne <3

Great granny bella <3

My father Walter Levison who grew a vineyard and an apple orchard, and my mother Ann Levison who taught me to forage.

Claire Weisberg <3

I’m calling in my mother!

Bob Frank <3

Leona and Sadie my namesakes

my grandma Shirley who loved to garden xxx

Birdie Kerson - my maternal grandmother who left her family in the US to work in post-war Germany where she met my grandfather in a displaced persons camp and together they built a life in the US

Saba avram <3

My bubblierie Miriam Solomon Wolff

My grandma Bill who kept a small backyard garden

my grandpa Herb Friend who tried to teach me to farm even though i didn’t really like it :)

My great-grandmother, Ella Stuchinsky Frutkin.

my safta Shifra Meisenberg.. tended a live carp in a local bathtub in Queens NY every week for shabbas gefilte fish

welcome Frankie and Evie

Babushka Masha Eresenco <3 the queen of chisnoc

my grandma Dora Madeleine from Wyoming who loved birding

Sarah Jackson

My great grandfather, Meyer Levinson, who left his homeland so that I have the opportunity to grow here now.

my zayde, erwin blant, who cared deeply for his community. and grew grapes in his backyard. thinking of him a lot today.

my saba max

My biological paternal grandmother, Avo Maria Jose. I wish I knew more about her.

My great-great-grandfather Leiser

dod benyamin🌙

papa john

miriam luria <3 who made chicken feet delicious

I want to honor my ancestor Bella who was a “nature doctor” who knew all of the plants of the garden and the forest

My great grandfather who persevered!

my grandfather Joel who became a farm vet

i honor and call in my paternal great grandmother, Ruth Wesiburger, for communing loved ones over shared food

Blessings of love, healing, and deep learning with my great grandmothers, Louise Flarsheim and Goldie Moseson

my gramma Geraldine Leek Kamm of blessed memory, who taught me how to be in relationship to land

Mom-mom and her love of geraniums, and incredible generosity

my maternal grandma beatrice schultz

Great Grandmother Hilda- who farmed in MI to feed her family after my great grandfather died.

geraniums! <3

grandmother Sylvia Jacobs, Uncle Richard Jacobs

My mom’s mom whom I never was able to meet Cyria Haut

My Father, Charles, who’s love of animals and connection with land was shared with me before he died.

My Chinese ancestors esp my Grandpa Jimmie who was a butcher, gardener, and amazing cook; my ashkenazi ancestors incl my Zaide Jay who had an avocado grove and my great-Zaide Harry who was a Shochet

great grandma mary for whom I was named and whose brisket recipe I follow every year on rosh Hashanah

I call in mother - Jan Shanis Tuttleman z"l for bringing the practices of Judaism (directly) and herbalism (indirectly) into my life. I also call in my grandmother Edna Tuttleman (Edna Shanis) z"l for being an artist and for creating beauty in my life.

Annette Rosen- my maternal grandmother

My nana shirley and grandma ethel

Deda Zhenya - my maternal great-grandfather, who took care of the cows in the shtetl when he was 7, and wrote memoirs for us to know about it

Esther Ben Maor Matarasso

Same Emmet, Same

My grandparents Chanan and Aliza Haberer who helped form a kibbutz near Jerusalem

maja plait, who loved plums :)

my greek ancestors, whose names I do not know, who lived in marmara

**plaut

my paternal grandmother Ros Levitt still growing veggies at 85

Calling on the love and fortitude of my Baba Orina (paternal grandma) who without knowing how to read or write in any language, was able to flee persecution, and settle and raise ten babies on this land in former shared hunting grounds of Haudenosaunee, Algonquin, Tsalagi, and Shawnee people

my grandfather Robert who came to the us as a boy and for a time was a chicken flicker at the Eastern Market in Detroit

Beautiful!

is that sheet mulching

haha I thought you meant "dear deer" at first

I dream of a home heated with a masonry oven <3

yes that was sheet mulching

That does not look crappy to me!

Yesssss the MST!!!!

sounds like proper equipment to me!

Uh-mazing

haha I did that too!

this is all so incredible wow!!!!

So much love and work in just 10 mins!

amazing!

oh that's my friend kiani!!!

Brraap Brrrrap!!!!!!

Incredible!

Wowowow

yeah beautiful work, so inspiring =)

ppshhh, soooo inspiring

amazing work!

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing so much story via photos and words!

Y’all are powerhouses. Big respect.

pictures of you jumping in different places on the farm?

Slideshow https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aCLIgQOYn7toU4nXEqSZfNkkeOQLaNu3-kUyfOjTL9c/edit?usp=sharing

What the history and the reason of the name SOUL FIRE farm??

wow, so beautiful

I love this question so much

non-pressing question: Emet, are you a leo?

love cheryl! <3

How has the change felt having fewer people come through your home this year?

So inspiring the incredible amount of growth and diverstiy and depth of what you've done and inspired and set in motion, in just a handful of years! But was also helpful to see how had to start slow at first as gathering resources, and the patient, slow, exploratory phase, before BOOM took off! Would be curious to hear a bit more how you decided where to start and put limited resources/energy/time at first, and how to gradually expand. How much of the work you do now did you envision originally, and how much arose later in the process? And your process of incorporating justice, empowerment, indigenous sovereignty, and spirituality into your work. As someone wanting to start a project that incorporates this, wondering where to start and how to invite these aspects in, and what feels realistic as far as gradually building to that.

Love that

In awe…

I second that, Neshima’s harmonies!!!!

iirc the halacha is at least 10% and at most 20% -- so you give but have boundaries

and theres a thing about "you should give tzedakah but not so much that you need to receive tzedakah yourself" (roughly translates to charity)

I call to Faige Khaye for her resilience and courage.

“we didn’t need robust infrastructure to do our programming and touch so many lives…” Neshima

BIG UPS HAITI!!!!!!!

Ayiti = Mountains upon Mountains = Haiti

Beautiful!!!

emeetttt

This panel is so inspiring!

y’all are amazing!

woah I just googled reciprocal frame on google images and its amazing

FACTS!

Thank you for letting us in on your absolutely inspiring, visionary work--Black Jewish liberation on land is a beautiful future in action

*reciprocal roof

Do you have plans for the upcoming Shmita year?

a question from one sheet mulching practitioner to another: Do you find you have a problem with water percolating underneath the bottom added layer and into the original soil? Do you have any advice on how to improve that, without tilling?

Q: I’m fortunate to have visited your farm and have followed your family’s farming story for years but until this conference I somehow never knew that you all identify as Black Jews. I am curious to know how being Jewish fits into (or doesn’t fit into) the public identity of Soul Fire Farm as Black-focused organization.

leah could you speak to juggling raising children with all of the farming and programming and caring for yourself??

also, would anyone be interested in a sheet mulching interest group during lunch next week?

If theres interest I could email the conference organizers and volunteer to facilitate it

thank u

its interesting cause in so many ways 2020 has been a shmita year...

Leah: Who have been your teachers? How did you learn how to do all of this, and continually find inspiration to keep taking Soul Fire to the next level of regenerative ag, social justice, community building, etc.?

would love to hear more about how you balance the local and “national” work and particularly the inquiries for speaking and teaching engagements with the more hands-on practice of doing the farming and research itself

Neshima and/or Emet: do you see yourselves continuing to farm in your coming years?

So amazing how the whole family is able to express in such detail and such heart the practical, ecological, and spiritual what and why of what you do, and have been so involved and invested in the work all along. Thoughts on incorporating children in all of this, planting seeds of excitement and pride and genuine understanding and involvement in the work?

WIthin the farm household in particular.

Beautiful answer and example of holding the complexity

Neshima and Emet: where were your favorite hideouts or secret spots on the land as children??

Also, would love to hear about how SFF folks are approaching somatic healing practices integrated with land relationship for multigenerational / hereditary racial trauma

Do you know the song, Be Like Water, Lo Wolf?

does soul fire have any insights or thoughts on how we as earth-based Jewish seekers can think about Jewish seeds—what is the equivalent of our “seed bundle”

🙏🏼💕🔥

how can I get involved in the jews and land group?

(also, as a philly person, how can I get involved in urban farming in philly?)

I wouldn’t assume he did haha

https://www.jewishfarmernetwork.org/event-details/jews-and-land-study-group-season-1-sundays

maybe a lot of Jews are scared and traumatized of being farmers and owning land like they did in Europe, in the shtetl that they have to lived?

Info about the Jews and Land study group : https://www.jewishfarmernetwork.org/event-details/waitlist-for-jews-and-land-study-group

ty!

Sarah, feel free to shoot me an email on Philly urban farming. There’s a great listserv called PUFN (Philly Urban Farming Network), among other resources. Happy to connect you. nathankleinman@gmail.com

Breakout Question: what lessons from Neshima, Emet, and Leah’s stories resonate for you? Also share your names, pronouns, where you’re calling in from, and who are the Indigenous peoples of the land you are on.

responding to another comment: yes I think living off the land has never been easy, and it's especially difficult when you're systemically in poverty, and traumatizing, as was the case for many eastern european jews in the tsarist period. However white jews getting involved in farming today should prolly understand that but also understand our own role in general white settler patterns in white farming today in America.

Breakout Question: what lessons from Neshima, Emet, and Leah’s stories resonate for you? Also share your names, pronouns, where you’re calling in from, and who are the Indigenous peoples of the land you are on.

THANK YOU SO MUCH LEAH NESHIMA & EMET!

Thank you so much! this was amazing, big love and solidarity to you all Leah, Emet and Neshima!

Just wow, so inspired by everyone’s journeys

Honored to be here <3

Things don’t need to be perfect when you start

^^^

deep dedication

+1 Ella!

our visions exist within the realms of reality!!!

Relationship between generations.

My Grandmother's Hands!

generational change, succession planning

being gentle with yourself

magic and evolution and deep grounding in vision and values

The earth can compost trauma. Give it with deep thanks to the Earth.

will take the time that it takes, will take the shape that it needs

integration is not a to-do

Baby steps

our kids can believe in us but don’t need to become us

composting trauma

remembering that we need collective liberation!! none of us are free if some are in chains

dedication to service & spirit

It takes a village, with boundaries, and generosity

“a lot of wow” really sums up this conference for me

healing soil

hinei mah tov (the soundtrack of my subconscious throughout. conference)

play us out with some music!

Thank you for such a heartfelt discussion!

thank you!

so grateful to have shared space with such a beautiful family!

This has been incredible. Please pass such gratitude to Neshima and Emet and Leah!!!!!

so grateful to be here with this extended community

Thank you!

!!! <3

^^

Thank you!

Thanks for a beautiful day together!

soooooo many blessings for you all!!!!!!!!!

thank you!

thank you shani and sj for being rockstars

I bet a bunch of ppl here will want to join this program on Friday we’re hosting on the MainStage of the Big Bold Jewish Climate Fest: 
Us and Us - Centering the Margins of Racial Identity in the Jewish Climate Movement
https://bigbold.jewishclimatefest.org/events/3f9387dd-8c0a-4dc3-9ad9-a186b59c8867

yesssssss! ditto to the shani / sj love

<3

Thanks Yoshi!

Thanks wonderful people!

thank youuuuu

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!

Thank you hosts, you've done such a great job!!!

Thanks so much!

thank you