I'm Yoav Peck. I live in Jerusalem and am an organizational psychologist, specializing in systemic programs for the advancement of human dignity. Raised in New York, I've lived in Israel for 50 years, 15 of which were spent as a kibbutz member. I have been active in human rights and peace work for most of my adult life, holding managerial positions in three peace organizations over the past 12 years. I created the “Beyond Persuasion” workshop for training activists to influence hostile audiences. I'm married to Frumit, a Feldenkrais practitioner, and I have four children and four grandkids who all live here in Israel. I love jazz, running in the forest and chopping wood for my wood-burning stove.
Tash Lever (she/her), Education Director
I'm Tash, a professional hobbyist and serious clown. As an impressionable and impulsive young girl born and raised in North West London (vomit), I was obsessed with morality and TV. After a brief period of nihilism, I studied Middle Eastern Studies at SOAS, University of London and soon after began working in schools with kids with learning disabilities. After flipping a coin between moving to a nunnery in Nepal and going to Jerusalem to do Achvat Amim, I ended up doing the latter. Achvat Amim took my inflated sense of ego and belief that because I did an MA in middle eastern studies I knew it all and threw it wide open. I decided to stay in Jerusalem and began working for Rabbis for Human Rights. I am super excited to work as a facilitator and educator and put the sick, sad and glad trajectory of my life into good use. I am also a writer and filmmaker who enjoys using humour to make people sad.
Elly Oltersdorf (all pronouns), Outreach Director
I'm Elly. I'm a devout humanist with no patience for turning a blind eye to structural power dynamics (i.e. let's be optimistic hippies and dream big, but also be fiercely aware/critical of lived and material context of the present). I hail from the sunny sands of San Diego 🤙. While at UC Davis pursuing a major in Modern Middle East History and minors in Human Rights and Jewish Studies, I became involved with numerous direct action social causes. This included the fight against egregious tuition hikes across the UC system, Black Lives Matter Sacramento, and various groups fighting for Palestinian Liberation. After completing my degree, I worked as a peer counselor in a domestic violence shelter and then as case manager in a homeless shelter in West Sacramento, before leaving for Jerusalem as a participant in Achvat Amim in 2018. Since then I've remained a close friend of the Achvat crew as a volunteer/cheerleader and now as member of the tzevet. I loves all things beach, playing/listening to folkmusic, and generally just good vibes.
Meir Gorodskoy (she/they), Development Director
I'm Meir (הבת). I was born in the Gush Dan and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. I grew up in a post-Soviet household and have spent my whole life navigating the politics of exile and migration that have both shaped and fractured my worldviews today. As a teenager (much to my family's disappointment) I found myself skipping class to hang out with activists and ended up spending more time on university campus than I did attending school. This grew into years of involvement in different community organizing spaces, which eventually led me to work for the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, as a co-founder and volunteer coordinator for CareMongering Emergency Response Mutual Aid initiative. I'm privileged to say that I grew up in Canada because my parents made the decision to not raise my siblings and I under a military occupation. I now feel even more privileged to come into the role of Development Director for our program here at Achvat, which combines critical pedagogy, advocacy and empowerment, personal growth and exploration, and education and solidarity - to make legible systems of domination and theories of changemaking. Homeland, peoplehood, and self determination for are all thus strong themes in my own life. In my spare time, I also support Kompas, a Russian-language media and activist collective, and am interested in burn-out, effective campaigning, and leadership building in activism. In that vein, what I love most is seeing activists, creatives, and leaders feel empowered and supported on their journey, and I would love to support you along the way.
Rabbi Rachel "Bluth" Rosenbluth, Ruchani Founder
Rachel "Bluth" Rosenbluth is a spiritual seeker, community organizer, permaculture enthusiast, and niggun singer. Growing up in Canada, and now living in Israel, she is dedicated to building meaningful, spiritual and sustainable Jewish communities. She just completed learning halachah, gamara and chassidis in Jerusalem at Beit Midrash Har’el, Yakar and Simchat Shlomo. She leads Kabbalat Shabbat on the beach in Tel Aviv and brings people together for spirited Jewish gatherings around the globe. Bluth created this Jewish spiritual component of Achvat Amim. Graduating from McGill University with a double major in Environment and Development as well as Buddhist studies, she worked as the Director of Education for Shoresh Jewish Environmental Programs in Toronto. She has studied at Pardes, Mechon Hadar and Matan Women’s Institute for Torah Studies. She has had valuable experiences doing environmental field research in East Africa, and volunteering on sustainable farms in Israel and in Kenya, where she bolstered an interest in spiritual, personal and community development. Bluth hopes to learn deep Torah, explore the world, and share Judaism as a path of mindful and joyous Avodah and tikkun. L’chaim!
Achvat Amim's Founders
Karen Isaacs, Co-Founder
Karen is the co-founder and co-director of Solidarity of Nations - Achvat Amim. She is an educator, community organizer, and serial creator of new frameworks that empower people to take action from a place of meaningful engagement with Jewish identity. In her organizing work she is focused on building partnership between diverse communities through mutual learning and solidarity with a focus on creative non-violent direct action that meets the needs of communities and is rooted in a positive and aspirational vision of self-determination for all peoples in the place they call home. Karen has coordinated the adult movement of Hashomer Hatzair in North America, led community-based exchanges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth in Canada with the Candian Roots Exchange, facilitated groups in Bina - the secular yeshiva in South Tel Aviv, and has most recently focused on building Achvat Amim as a dynamic educational platform for hands on work with educational, community, and human rights organizations, doing grassroots work with Israelis and Palestinians in and around Jerusalem. Karen is also a co-founder of This is Not An Ulpan/Mush Fussha. She has a degree in Sustainable Development from The New School, and has also studied at McGill University.
Daniel Roth, Co-Founder
Daniel is the co-founder and co-director of Solidarity of Nations - Achvat Amim. He is an educator, group facilitator, and community organizer who has been working to establish participatory communities rooted in education and action for more than two decades. As a leader in the Hashomer Hatzair movement, both growing up in Toronto and living in a kvutza (commune) in Brooklyn, he's built and led critical education and justice-centered programs with youth and adults in North America, Europe, and the Middle East with a multitude of organizations primarily aiming to work with young Jewish activists, educators, and leaders. Daniel's work in Achvat Amim has primarily focused on developing vibrant movement spaces to connect people with work in leading Israeli and Palestinian human rights projects and to empower participants to take active roles in the development of their learning processes with the aim of building a powerful movement for equality and self-determination for all peoples in the place they call home. Daniel is also a co-founder and learner with the critical education language co-operative, This is Not an Ulpan/MushFussha and has worked as a print and television journalist and producer. He holds an MA in Education, Community, and Social Change and is a writer, photographer and avid coffee drinker.
