Michigan

Rakia Sky Beimel

“Down Telegraph Road – where the Rouge River runs through Ridge Road in the Riverdale neigh- borhood – is Kibbutz Detropia. On 1.5 densely wooded acres, it’s the home base for a growing Jewish nonprofit conceived by co-founder/ executive director Sky Brown, shown here with son Avi, 3. Sky has an undergraduate degree in criminology and forensic science from South Uni- versity and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. She is also a reli- gious school teacher at Congregation Shir Tik- vah and teaches psychology and political sci- ence at Wayne County Community College Dis- trict. As former program coordinator of gardens and food for Hazon Detroit, she helped set up many gardens for local synagogues and de-signed the Sensory Garden at Tamarack Camps Farber Farm. She’s a doula, urban farmer, “weaver of ritual and keeper of sacred space,” and soon to be ordained through the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute.”