Shamu Fenyvesi Sadeh, Ph.D.

Shamu co-founded Adamah and has been its program director since 2004. He has led the growth of Adamah into the most productive Jewish educational farm in the country, with a transformative fellowship program that has produced dozens of leaders in the Jewish farming, environmental education and food movements. Among Adamah’s 200 alumni are food justice advocates, rabbis, farmers, community organizers, teachers, chefs and green business leaders. Before coming to Adamah, Shamu was a professor of environmental studies, writer, Jewish educator and wilderness guide. He directed the Teva Learning Center in its early years and completed a doctorate in Educational Leadership. He is drawn to the integration of soul and soil. He works for the creation of a fruitful ecological landscape while building confidence, mindfulness and community among participants. Shamu has the yichus – ancestral connections – for Adamah from his great-grandparents and father, Jewish farmers and gardeners who practiced the mystical arts of composting and soil conservation. In 2010, the New York Jewish weekly “Forward” named Shamu one of the “Forward 50” who made significant contributions to Jewish life in America.