Nitzanim: Threefold Program of Jewish Learning for Kids & Families
Our year-end Nitzanim gratitude video! Enrollment for our 2023-24 programs is live!
Meeting Your Family’s Learning needs
Ner Shalom’s Nitzanim Program is here to meet your family’s learning needs. We do that through family-wide experiential learning (usually in nature), Hebrew study, and B.Mitzvah preparation. These program components complement and support each other. Under the leadership of Youth & Families Education Director Mia Zimman, and with the involvement of Rabbi Irwin and a skilled faculty, we look forward to helping your family enrich your sense of Jewish values, connection, literacy, and practice.
Click on the buttons below to find out more detail about each of our programs.
Your Trusty Faculty
Mia Zimman
Mia Zimman is Youth & Families Education Director. Mia is a Jewish educator and ritual leader who has a passion for bringing Judaism alive and making it meaningful, relevant, and fun. Through Torah study, folklore, games, music, nature connection, and art, Mia empowers learners to find their own voice inside of the Jewish tradition and co-create a meaningful learning experience. She is a certified Jewish Spiritual Director, has a Masters Degree in Jewish Education from Hebrew Union College, and has been leading Shabbat services, holiday ritual, and life cycle events for close to twenty years. Mia was key faculty in Camp Tawonga’s B’nai Mitzvah Program in San Francisco from 2018-2022, and continues to work one on one guiding families and students as they learn and prepare for their B'nai Mitzvah ceremonies.
Alice Pennes
Alice Pennes (she/her) is a maker, teaching artist and Jewish Educator. She has worked in the Jewish community for all of her adult life. Alice is the daughter of a Conservative Rabbi and grew up in an observant home, attending Jewish day school. Alice studied anthropology, Hebrew language, and Jewish studies at UC Santa Cruz. She has done freelance cantorial work, taught art at Jewish summer camps, taught Hebrew School, and was a B.Mitzvah tutor. She has a master’s degree in Integrative Health from the California Institute of Integral Studies, focusing on the healing power of creative expression, which she weaves into her work with the Jewish community.
Bucky Brynjegard-Bialik
Bucky Brynjegard-Bialik (he/him) is an acting major at SSU, and a NFTY SoCal alum. He has been going to URJ Camp Newman for 15 summers, and loves being a counselor and theater specialist there. Bucky will be visible in our Nitzanim Family Experiential Education program and also in Midweek Hebrew.
Carey Averbook
Carey Averbook (she/they), who will serve as Nitzanim’s Jewish Nature Educator, works at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco doing spiritual care and young adult (20s/30s) community building. She worked as the young adult connector at Congregation Sha'ar Zahav and is a current resident and Jewish educator at Moishe House Rockridge, a student in ALEPH's Earth-Based Judaism Certificate program, and an MA in Jewish Studies student at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Carey has studied at PARDES, in Applied Jewish Spirituality Classes, independently with Yiscah Smith and with Rabbah Mira Neshama's weekly Meor Enayim group study. Over the last 4 years, they have trained and worked in relational engagement and creating cultures of belonging in Jewish communities. In 2021, they went through a one year Kabbalistic ceremonial rite of passage and initiation into adulthood with Tree of Life. Carey loves playing tennis, singing, watching movies, traveling, speaking Spanish, cooking large amounts of food for friends and community, and conversing with the trees.
Rabbi Irwin Keller
Rabbi Irwin Keller (he/she/they=all-okay!) is Ner Shalom’s spiritual leader since 2008 and ordained Rabbi since 2021, a longtime Jewish educator, and a former director of J School. Reb Irwin teaches midweek Hebrew and staffs our Nitzanim Family Experiential Learning and B.Mitzvah Academy. He grew up with wonderful Jewish teachers and learning experiences and he wants that for the young people of this community. He is also available to talk to families about the B.Mitzvah experience.
Lauren Broersma-Grossman
Lauren Broersma-Grossman (she/her) was born and raised in Ventura County in Southern California, and graduated from UC Davis where she majored in Nature and Culture. She has been gardening and working with children since 2002, including 5+ years in the plant nursery at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center and one year in the Lifeways program for Waldorf methods early childhood. She became deeply interested in Judaism in 2019 and completed her conversion in 2021. Lauren is very excited about weaving together her passions for Jewish spirituality and practice, nature, children, and families with the Nitzanim community. She enjoys knitting, hiking, reading Jewish books and cooking plant-based meals. Lauren and her husband James share 3 children and 2 cats.
Raja Abastado
Raja Abastado (they/them) (Midweek Hebrew) is a native Hebrew speaker and a student at Santa Rosa Junior College and is happy to be teaching at Midweek Hebrew.
Gesher Calmenson
Gesher Calmenson is our lead B.Mitzvah prep tutor. He is the Education Director Emeritus of Ner Shalom’s former religious school, Dor Hadash. He is a Jewish Family Education Fellow and was Director of Sonoma County’s Jewish Family Room program. He is the founder of Remember Us: The Holocaust Bnai Mitzvah Project which pairs rising B.Mitzvah students with the name and memory of a young person who perished in the Shoah. Gesher has served as the Chair of the Sonoma County Yom Hashoah Commemoration, and has been named by Ner Shalom Educator of the Year. He has been a favorite B.Mitzvah tutor at Ner Shalom for over 20 years.
And you. We look forward to the volunteership of parents and congregants to help make our programs lively and varied. If you would like to volunteer your time and skills, email us!