Leadership
ADAM GRIFF
Co-founder and Director of Adamah Adventures
adam@adamahadventures.org
From Cleveland to Denver, Boulder to Atlanta, Adam has worked to engage and inspire Jewish teens across the county. For many years he was part of the Shwayder Camp family – rising from counselor and song leader to the full-time position of Assistant Director of this celebrated summer camp located in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. In addition to his camp experience, Adam has worked as a retreat director, youth advisor, and song leader for synagogues and community organizations across the U.S.
Adam is currently pursuing an MBA from Georgia State University. His hobbies include traveling, cooking, hiking, skiing, and reading a good book. He recently married his best friend, Bobbee, in July 2009!
BOBBEE SELDIN GRIFF
Co-founder and Program Director of Adamah Adventures
bobbee@adamahadventures.org
Bobbee originally wanted to work in a children’s hospital and never planned on having a career working with Jewish teens. However, after spending four years as the youth director at Temple Sinai in Denver, she realized that she had a true enthusiasm for this kind of work. In 2006, Bobbee was tapped to lead and direct TIYUL, a new outdoor adventure program piloted by Shwayder Camp. When designing the program for Adamah Adventures, Bobbee was able to draw on this experience as well as her master’s degree in child and family development from the University of Georgia. Bobbee enjoys going to the movies, reading a good book, cooking for her friends, and being a newlywed.
In addition to their roles at Adamah Adventures, Bobbee and Adam are currently the youth directors at Congregation Dor Tamid in Johns Creek.
SUSAN POWELL
Trek Coordinator
susan@adamahadventures.org
Ever since Susan was a kid, she loved going to summer camp. That love of camp turned into a career after getting a B.S. in Recreation and Park Administration and a M.Ed. in Recreation and Leisure Studies. From girl scout camp to an outdoor residential center for teens to campus outdoor recreation, Susan has pursued her dream of working in the outdoors. Now the Trek Coordinator for Adamah Adventures, Susan spends her time planning and organizing the many components of the awesome Adamah treks and loving every minute. In her spare time, Susan enjoys long distance backpacking, gardening, and planning camping trips for her friends. This fall, Susan will begin working towards her EMT-Intermediate certification.
ADVISORY BOARD
AMY BRAM
Senior Director of Camp & Adult Programs at the Chattahoochee Nature Center
Amy has been leading Camp Kingfisher at the Chattahoochee Nature Center since 2002 and has been at camp in one way or another since 1978. From 1999 to 2001 she served as the Co-Director of the Teva Learning Center. Her interests outside of camp include reading, sewing, movies, hiking, and making up the silly songs they sing at camp. At Camp Kingfisher she is living her dream and having a great time doing it.
SCOTT ESSERMAN
English Teacher at Cherry Creek High School (Denver, CO)
Scott Esserman currently teaches in the English Department at Cherry Creek High School in Denver, Colorado. He is also the sponsor for the Cherry Creek High School club El Pomar, which is designed to involve students in community service projects. For the last several years, Scott Esserman has served as the Educator for the Rose Youth Foundation and as Member of the Board of Trustees of Congregation Emanuel for 2007-2008. Scott Esserman also served as the Shwayder Camp Interim Director for the summer of 2001. He is a New Member in 2008 of the Wexner Heritage Program (Wexner Foundation).
TODD GORDON
President of The Benefits Group, Inc.
The Benefits Group works with business owners to design, implement and maintain comprehensive group insurance, business insurance and executive benefit programs. In business since 1984, Mr. Gordon joined the company in March 1997. Prior to joining The Benefits Group, Todd worked for ten years in public health research. Todd’s community involvement includes serving on the board of directors for the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce & Jewish Family & Career Services as well as the Advisory Board for the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta. Todd’s camping and Jewish youth work experience includes 7 years as an assistant camp director and 4 years as the NFTY- Southern Area Region Advisor. Todd continues to volunteer with the URJ and NFTY throughout the year including most summer weekends at Camp Coleman in Cleveland, GA. Todd is a graduate of Indiana University (1988) and holds a Masters in Public Health from the University of Illinois (1990). He has been married to his wife Lauren for 16 years and lives in John’s Creek, Georgia with their four daughters.
NOAH HARTMAN
Director of Student Life at the Weber School
Noah Hartman graduated from NYU in 1998 with a B.A. in History and in 1999 with an M.A. in social studies education. He taught history in New York and Washington, D.C., and worked in marketing in Los Angeles for a few years in between, before moving to Atlanta and joining the Weber School. Noah Hartman is the current Director of Student Life at the Weber School, a day school for students in grades nine through twelve in Atlanta, Georgia. Since 2006, Noah has been overseeing Weber’s co-curricular life, which includes school trips, Shabbatonim, the student council, a specialty minyan, the Rosh Hodesh barbecue, morning programs, and more than twenty clubs. He also teaches history classes at Weber. Noah anticipates receiving an MA in Jewish Education in 2008 from The Davidson School’s distance learning program, with a concentration in Informal/Communal Education.
RABBI RAYMOND ZWERIN
Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Sinai (Denver, CO)
Rabbi Raymond Zwerin was ordained as a Rabbi from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, in 1964. In 1989 he received a Doctor of Divinity degree from HUC-JIR. He is the founding rabbi of Temple Sinai, and has been serving in the Denver community since 1964. Rabbi Zwerin was co-founder and president of A.R.E. Publishing, Inc., a major producer of creative Jewish educational materials for children and adults. He is a past Executive Board member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and past president of the Midwest Association of Reform Rabbis, and the Rocky Mountain Rabbinic Council. In Denver, Rabbi Zwerin is a founder of Theodor Herzl Jewish Day School of Denver and a founder of Babi Yar Park Memorial to the Holocaust and was active in the cause of Soviet Jewry. He is the author of a dozen books for children and teachers and the editor of over 400 titles. His latest book contains his High Holy Day sermons and is entitled, Forty Years of Wondering.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is different about Adamah Adventures? A. Adamah Adventures is a new kind of summer offering that takes the best of traditional Jewish summer camps — the friends, the traditions, the sense of community — and then adds this new, exciting layer of travel and hands-on, outdoor adventure.
- What kind of support has Adamah Adventures received? A. In addition to the support of an outstanding advisory committee of Jewish leaders from across the country, Adamah Adventures was selected to be part of the Specialty Camp Incubator of the Foundation for Jewish Camps, a program that is generously funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation.
- Will each camper interact directly with Adam and Bobbee? A. Yes! Adam and Bobbee created Adamah Adventures because they want to work with teens and because they want campers to experience the joy, beauty, and excitement of the outdoors. And so, both Bobbee and Adam will meet with each teen and family prior to their registering for an Adamah Adventure. In addition, they will both be at Base Camp for the start and end of each trek and will also travel with each trek group at some point during their adventure.
