Professional Team

The Kaima family is passionate about what it does.  Our collective experience working with youth and our respect for the environment and community development align to offer dropout youth an essential sense of personal pride; encourage civic responsibility; and bring to their lives the possibility of a brighter future.

Yoni Yefet-Reich - CEO and Director of the Center for Economic Development and Educational Training

Yoni was born and grew up in Beit Zayit and is a graduate of the nearby Ein Kerem Community Environmental School. He has considerable experience in non-profit organizational management and informal social educational program development and implementation. Yoni received his Bachelor of Law (LLB) in 2005 and graduated with an M.A. in Non-Profit Management at Hebrew University in 2013.

Guy Bar Navon - Social Worker and Educational Director

Guy lives in Beit Zayit, just a few minutes from the farm. He received his MSW in Clinical Social Work from Hebrew University in 2014. Kaima’s supportive environment offers Guy with the ideal opportunity to combine his passion for nature with his professional goals.  In addition to working at the farm, Guy works as a child and youth therapist in a public health clinic.

​Rani Erez – Center for Economic Development and Educational Training, Expansion Coordinator
One of the co-founders of sister farm, Kaima Beerotayim, Rani accompanies that farm’s teens from the initial integration process, through their time on the farm, and provides assistance to alumni. Rani has a degree in behavioral sciences from Bar Ilan University and is a human resource manager by training, a career that changed direction in favor of homeschooling her three children. As the Kaima Center Coordinator, Rani works with all network farms, providing guidance and mentoring in agriculture, business, and education.

Yiftach Garber – Pedagogic Agriculturalist and Team Leader

Yiftach is from Kibbutz Kfar Menachem, where he grew up learning about numerous facets of agriculture, including work with goat and sheep. He is also a trained carpenter. After receiving his BA in special education, philosophy and history from Tel-Hai College in the Upper Galilee, Yiftach moved to Jerusalem and started working at Beit Sefer Hanisui (The Experimental School), initially one-on-one with autistic youth and later within in the mainstream elementary school. He planned to take a break from educational work, but when he heard about Kaima, he immediately changed his mind and joined the team.

Na'ama Gilon Arad – Pedagogic Agriculturalist and Team Leader

Na'ama, grew up in Mevasseret Zion and now lives in Beit Zayit, very close to Kaima Farm. While trained as a birth doula, a field in which she has worked for more than a decade, Na’ama has been involved in youth work, leadership development training, and educational gardening for some 15 years. An experienced agriculturalist, Na’ama is particularly well-versed in the field of medicinal herb development and usage, new disciplines we are now teaching at the farm.

Roey Kraus -  Educational Agriculturalist and Greenhouse Director

Though Roey grew up in Ra’anana, he has lived in and explored many regions of Israel focusing on community and agricultural work. Roey received his B.A. from Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee in “Land of Israel Studies” - an interdisciplinary program that comprises several academic fields that relate to the country's human and natural landscape - past and present. Roey now calls Beit Zayit home. 

Irit Liberman - Office Manager and Visitor Center Coordinator

Irit grew up on Kibbutz Ein Tzurim. Before enlisting in the IDF, she volunteered in a program in disadvantaged neighborhoods via the Israeli scouting movement. During her army service, Irit worked with new immigrants and youth at risk. A professional educational administrator for more than 20 years, she is committed to working with social change organizations whose ideology she shares.

Niv Liel - Agricultural Director

Niv grew up in Kiryat Tivon and was educated at the nearby Harduf Waldorf School. Upon graduation, he moved to Jerusalem where he worked in a variety of educational settings. After completing his military service, Niv embarked on a long journey in Israel and abroad, visiting farms, working, hiking, and living in nature. His first connection to Kaima was as a volunteer while studying for his B.A. in Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Shalem College. Kaima always remained on Niv’s mind, and upon graduation he joined Kaima's staff, assuming the challenging position of agricultural director.     

Adi (Didi) Malka - Farm Manager

After completing her army service, Adi attended the Reidman International College for Complementary and  Integrative Medicine. This background has allowed her to follow a holistic approach to her professional work with youth. At Kaima, Adi feels she has found a place where it is possible to develop a sincere and deep relationship with teens based on cooperation, personal and mutual responsibility, and caring. Adi is  responsible for both our adult and youth staff and oversight of our CSA business operations.

Michael Mizrahi Fein - Educational Artist, Director of Kaima PBL Lab

Born in Jerusalem, Michael always found his passion in building, renovating and craft making. In 2008, he graduated from Hadassah College’s School of Industrial Design, and later served as a faculty member at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design where he headed the school’s workshop. In 2017 Michael, who already had extensive experience volunteering with troubled youth, established Kaima’s PBL (Project Based Learning) wood and metal workshop. There, teaches welding and woodworking skills to our youth and together they build and fix farm equipment and other items.

​Binyamin Rothstein – Packing House Manager

In 2015, Binyamin performed his first year of national service at Kaima, followed by second at a music youth club in Jerusalem. He subsequently worked on various farms in Israel and abroad, exploring the relationship between people's mindset, behavior and agriculture. When not in the fields, Binyamin lives in the world of music. The farm’s music room, where we all play and jam together after work hours, was his vision which he and our youth built by hand. Binyamin re-joined the Kaima team at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic when he helped make important adjustments to our food distribution system, and soon took over management of our very busy packing house.

National Service Team

Atur Dar Cohen

Yoni Hod

Efrat Cohen

Rotem Lavi

Etai Feder

Anouk Goren

Yair Sagi

Volunteer Leadership

Board of Directors

Dani Dikshtain

Nadav Bensusan

Ariel Cohen

Adv. Ohad Hod

Ari Peleg

Audit Committee

Elishar Lifshitz

Advisory Committee

Oren Ben Yosef

Adv. Ariel Dayan

Jackie Goren

Uri Kandel

Nomi Lifshitz

Dr. Yonatan Mirvis

Erez Nota

Adv. Lior Rozner

Carmel Vernia

Yuval Yardeni

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Founders

Yoni Yefet Reich

Nadav Bensusan

Tamir Deutch

Gilad Hochman

Uri Kandel

Nomi Lifshitz

Ishai Rivkin-Fenton

Erez Spivak

Marit Taub (z"l)*

Sharon Yaakovan

* In Memorium. Kaima cherished and deeply appreciated the vision, wisdom, and hard work of our much-missed founding member, Marit Taub z"l, with whom we had the privilege to work until her untimely passing in August 2015.

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