Journey-Powered Judaism
Our Mission
Lech-Lecha לך-לך facilitates empowering outdoor adventures and communal journeys that catalyze personal development and spiritual growth, connection with the wonder of Hashem’s creation, meaningful interpersonal relationships, and joyful community deeply rooted in Torah and a holistic approach to Jewish life and practice.
Lech-Lecha לך-לך facilitates empowering outdoor adventures and communal journeys that catalyze personal development and spiritual growth, connection with the wonder of Hashem’s creation, meaningful interpersonal relationships, and joyful community deeply rooted in Torah and a holistic approach to Jewish life and practice.
Our Vision
Lech-Lecha לך-לך envisions a vibrant community of outdoor adventurers embarking on a Jewish future animated by our heritage and inspired by the ecological synergy of Hashem’s creation. We see an empowered generation courageously building lives and communities committed to growth and wholeness.
Lech-Lecha לך-לך envisions a vibrant community of outdoor adventurers embarking on a Jewish future animated by our heritage and inspired by the ecological synergy of Hashem’s creation. We see an empowered generation courageously building lives and communities committed to growth and wholeness.
Breaking out to break in to personal and social change
The first step is back, out of our daily norms and routines, in order to access our inner vitality. Natural settings, forests and streams, allow us to release and realign. Beyond the city streets, we break out of the four walls in which our tradition is often encountered in order to discover the personal relationship and wisdom we hold within.
Ultimately, inner transformation effects our homes, our communities, and our societies. Lech-Lecha's adventures seek to inspire social change by renewing personal energy, creativity, and alignment.
Ultimately, inner transformation effects our homes, our communities, and our societies. Lech-Lecha's adventures seek to inspire social change by renewing personal energy, creativity, and alignment.
Mutual Empowerment & pluralism
With 20-30 years under our belts, we each have skills and experiences to share. We gather as a team of seekers, each of us contributing to our communal growth and discovery, facilitating based on our skills and experiences.
In each of us bringing our personal practice, we inspire one another to shine greater vibrance into our individual journeys and relationships with our ancestral heritage. All adventures are Kosher and Shomer Shabbat, honoring individual practice and fully supporting observance of mitzvot.
In each of us bringing our personal practice, we inspire one another to shine greater vibrance into our individual journeys and relationships with our ancestral heritage. All adventures are Kosher and Shomer Shabbat, honoring individual practice and fully supporting observance of mitzvot.
Connection
Our journey builds genuine and lasting connections. We journey with a small group of peers, 10-15 per adventure, and come out bonded on the other end. Our community is a supportive network of peers seeking to challenge one another to grow and embrace one another for who we are.
PEER-LED & SMALL GROUP
We'll have facilitators at each retreat who will take a leadership role in organizing and designing our adventure. These retreats, though, are ours. We'll learn from and share with one another. Our facilitators will create a framework that supports our process as a group, weaving each of our contributions into a wholesome journey.
Each retreat will have between 8-15 participants.
Each retreat will have between 8-15 participants.
Join Our Team
Trek Leaders
Lech-Lecha לך-לך is seeking trek leaders for summer 2023. Lech-Lecha’s Trek Leaders are guides, teachers, and friends. Our experienced team of leaders train together and support one another to facilitate safe, professional, and communal treks; share and encourage deep and connecting content, and build authentic relationships with participants, forming a beautiful community.
Meet Our Team
Our Trek Leaders
Carrie Watkins
Hi! I’m Carrie - Rabbinical Student at Hebrew College, Jewish meditation teacher and retreat organizer for Or HaLev, and longtime outdoor adventurer, educator and trek leader. Favorite pastimes include floating on big bodies of water (surfboard on the ocean or canoe in a river) and climbing up cliffs (while safely attached with a rope). My favorite animal has always been a turtle, and when I started backpacking, I understood why. Excited to adventure this summer!
Jon Stone has been leading trips with Lech-Lecha since the summer of 2022. He brings many years of outdoor experience, having spent his summers on backcountry canoe trips with Keewaydin Canoe Camps in Vermont, ranging from four-day trips in the Adirondacks to thirty-five day trips in Northern Canada. In his previous lives, he has been a Hebrew School teacher, a middle school garden coordinator, and a professional tour guide, having designed his own walking tour of Jewish historical sites in Philadelphia. In his present life, Jon works as a carpenter in the film and television industry, and splits his time between Crown Heights, Brooklyn and his off-grid cabin in Sullivan County, NY. He is excited to have this chance to share is combined love of Judaism and the Outdoors and is looking forward to many more adventures with Lech-Lecha!
Alex Voynow brings his experience as an outdoor educator, Jewish community leader, and men’s work facilitator to this special retreat. He has been involved with men’s work for the past five years, and has spent the last year creating and facilitating transformative men’s spaces. Alex believes that through cultivating vulnerable, courageous, and supportive relationships among men, we can learn and practice what it means to show up in wholeness to our friendships, our partnerships, our communities, and to the Earth. Alex is a wilderness first responder, free diver, and dancer, and enjoys backpacking in old-growth forests, cooking, making ice cream, and cuddling with his cat, Garbanzo.
BGOLD ben ruach, Yisroel yacov, Bryan Goldfeder is a Jewish artists and educator based in Boulder Colorado. He has many years of experience leading biking and backpacking trips in the Rockies, and has hosted 2 mussar in the mountains retreats during his time as a moishe house resident . He currently creates functional art and Judaica out of his recycled glass studio, BGOLDglass.
Sophia Katz has been leading trips with Lech-Lecha since the summer of 2021. She is currently completing her Masters in Mental Health Counseling at Prescott College, with a specialization in Adventure Therapy. She currently works at OHEL health homes, providing psychiatric support for adults with mental illnesses.
At every opportunity, Sophia enjoys traveling and traversing the beautiful vast wilderness! Sophia has a deep passion for the natural world, and its power to shift our perspectives and inspire growth in a uniquely impactful way. And it’s downright awesome.
Rabbi Paige Lincenberg lives in the redwood forest of the Mendocino Coast of California (Pomo land), specializing in Earth-Based Judaism. She loves facilitating meaningful communal experiences, from Wilderness Torah tefillot (prayer services) to overnight trekking like with Lech-Lecha! For further connection, please flow on over to www.rabbipaige.com
An avid lover of all things wild, Miri Kaiser has been working in outdoor education for the past 10 years leading workshops and hiking trips for children, teens, and adults. She received her certificate in adventure therapy from Wingate College and is a Wilderness First Responder. Miri loves to forage wild edibles and other people's leftovers. She is currently living in Vermont, where her time is split between working in wilderness therapy and ceramic art.
With his ineffable love for the outdoors, Brandon Kosoffsky strongly believes in the power of nature to heal, self-regulate and prosper as a human being. Brandon also loves the outdoors as a way to connect more to his Jewish practice. He spends ample time meditating, doing yoga, writing, and praying to G!d. Some of his favorite things in life are visiting national parks, rock climbing, yoga, singing Shabbat songs, hammocking, and inspiring others through storytelling. He is also a certified Wilderness First Responder.
Noam Levenson grew up in Alaska and quickly grew accustom to cold toes, freezing ocean spray, and high altitudes. His journey is ongoing and has taken him to the Israeli army, through Europe and Asia, and up and down many a mountain. He currently lives in Israel, writing, exploring, practicing yoga, playing guitar, and studying Torah. This bio makes him seem cooler than he actually is.
Gavi Strauss works at the Neuroleadership Institute supporting large-scale organizations as they leverage insights from cognitive science to drive measurable change in leadership development and learning. He holds dual Bachelor degrees from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary in Neuroscience and Rabbinic Literature respectively. Gavi loves exploring community through the lens of relationships and using science as a touchpoint for subjective experience.
Our Year-Round Team
Nadav Slovin
Founder and Executive Director
Nadav is a passionate seeker and educator. On his journey toward purposeful living, Nadav adventured through thick forests, abundant farms, diverse modes of spiritual practice, and into the richness of Jewish text and tradition. While studying for his BA in Philosophy at McGill University and subsequently receiving his degree in education from Herzog College in Israel, Nadav led countless outdoor adventures and farming immersives with Camp Ramah in the Rockies, Justifi, and Teva to name a few. The powerful intersection between wilderness and Jewish practice inspired Nadav to found Lech-Lecha in 2017 and he has found great joy in facilitating genuine encounters with self and others, creation and Hashem ever since.
Founder and Executive Director
Nadav is a passionate seeker and educator. On his journey toward purposeful living, Nadav adventured through thick forests, abundant farms, diverse modes of spiritual practice, and into the richness of Jewish text and tradition. While studying for his BA in Philosophy at McGill University and subsequently receiving his degree in education from Herzog College in Israel, Nadav led countless outdoor adventures and farming immersives with Camp Ramah in the Rockies, Justifi, and Teva to name a few. The powerful intersection between wilderness and Jewish practice inspired Nadav to found Lech-Lecha in 2017 and he has found great joy in facilitating genuine encounters with self and others, creation and Hashem ever since.
Yehuda Arenstein
Director of Scaleup Operations
Yehuda is an educator, innovator, and builder. Prior to joining Lech-Lecha, he spent many years in academia exploring the intersections of ecological systems, intellectual history, and religious thought through research, teaching, and program development, and he has published several articles proposing new directions and possibilities in Jewish education. Yehuda also brings extensive experience in operations and management to his role as Director of Scaleup Operations, and he feels blessed for the opportunity to synthesize all of his experience and commitments in service of moving the Lech-Lecha journey forward.
Director of Scaleup Operations
Yehuda is an educator, innovator, and builder. Prior to joining Lech-Lecha, he spent many years in academia exploring the intersections of ecological systems, intellectual history, and religious thought through research, teaching, and program development, and he has published several articles proposing new directions and possibilities in Jewish education. Yehuda also brings extensive experience in operations and management to his role as Director of Scaleup Operations, and he feels blessed for the opportunity to synthesize all of his experience and commitments in service of moving the Lech-Lecha journey forward.
Ronen Schatsky
Director of Adult Programming and Finances
Ronen was born and raised in NYC but feels most at home exploring the outdoors, from New York's Harriman State Park to the Alaskan wilderness. In 2016 he successfully thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail and is currently training for a summit attempt of Mount Rainier. As much as he love the outdoors, he is even more passionate about helping other people find purpose pushing themselves in nature, and looks forward to doing so with Lech-Lecha!
Raffi Levi
Adventure Camp Director
Raffi is a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in Riverdale, NY. He grew up in Southfield Michigan. Outside of his studies, he loves to spend his time fermenting, playing guitar, writing songs, sewing, baking bread and spending time with the glorious outdoors. He loves humor and goofiness, deep discussion, and deep listening. He also has ADHD and loves being a Neurodivergent Jew. Last summer, Raffi worked as a Culinary Arts Educator at Eden Village Camp, where food is gathered directly from their farm to appreciate the beauty and sacredness of eating with holistic, ecological, and spiritual intention. Currently, Raffi lives on the Upper West Side with his wife Daphne and several plants.
Adventure Camp Director
Raffi is a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in Riverdale, NY. He grew up in Southfield Michigan. Outside of his studies, he loves to spend his time fermenting, playing guitar, writing songs, sewing, baking bread and spending time with the glorious outdoors. He loves humor and goofiness, deep discussion, and deep listening. He also has ADHD and loves being a Neurodivergent Jew. Last summer, Raffi worked as a Culinary Arts Educator at Eden Village Camp, where food is gathered directly from their farm to appreciate the beauty and sacredness of eating with holistic, ecological, and spiritual intention. Currently, Raffi lives on the Upper West Side with his wife Daphne and several plants.
Rachmiel Gurwitz
Director of Partnerships and Special Programs
Rachmiel is always designing new ways to explore the inner and outer worlds through the lens of Jewish wisdom. Originally from San Diego, Rachmiel received a BA with high honors in Global and International Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He continued his studies at Yeshiva Darché Noam in Jerusalem and went on to receive smicha, rabbinical ordination, at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Following his ordination from YCT, Rachmiel served as the Hillel Director and Jewish Chaplain at Muhlenberg College and Rabbi-in-Residence at Carmel Academy. Currently, in addition to designing Lech-Lecha programs, Rachmiel serves as the Rabbi-in-Residence at The Leffell School. In his free time, you can find him lost in a story of Rabbi Nachman or exploring the forests of New York with his wife Joanna and their three kids.
Director of Partnerships and Special Programs
Rachmiel is always designing new ways to explore the inner and outer worlds through the lens of Jewish wisdom. Originally from San Diego, Rachmiel received a BA with high honors in Global and International Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He continued his studies at Yeshiva Darché Noam in Jerusalem and went on to receive smicha, rabbinical ordination, at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Following his ordination from YCT, Rachmiel served as the Hillel Director and Jewish Chaplain at Muhlenberg College and Rabbi-in-Residence at Carmel Academy. Currently, in addition to designing Lech-Lecha programs, Rachmiel serves as the Rabbi-in-Residence at The Leffell School. In his free time, you can find him lost in a story of Rabbi Nachman or exploring the forests of New York with his wife Joanna and their three kids.
Sashya Clark
Director of Online Engagement
Sashya is a Creative Entrepreneur from the Midwest, who seems to consistently have spiritual encounters outside, usually near a body of water. Prior to joining Lech-Lecha, she successfully launched three businesses of her own, and has spent many years serving various organizations during times of growth and transition, including a recent rebrand of her local synagogue's religious school. As a perennial understudy of life and nature, she is consistently captivated by encountering G-d hiding among the bushes of circumstance. An avid reader, she currently spends most days pondering the deeper connections in the words of Torah, keeping up with the Daf Yomi, writing, homeschooling her three boys, strengthening the local Jewish community, and trout fishing Iowa's Driftless Area streams with her husband, Ben.
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