ARI2024 Speakers

(in alphabetical order)

J. Rivkah Asoulin is the founder and executive director of Ancient Roots Israel, the first international herbal conference and community in Israel. In clinical practice as an herbalist for 20 years via, Wise Woman Fertility, she specializes in women’s health and fertility issues. She is a certified kallah teacher, and is the creator of JFAM; the first and only Jewish sympto-thermo method of fertility awareness. She offers courses in this and herbal programming throughout the year.

J. Rivkah can be found teaching and lecturing internationally about herbal medicine, Jewish ancestral wisdom, fertility and raising herbal children, among other topics.

Nir Avraham BSc (Life science), MSc (Medical science – Biochemistry) and current PhD studies student (Haifa University/Technion) graduated from the California School of Herbal Studies (2006) and returned to Israel to build his business, preparing herbal remedies at the Jerusalem Center. It was here that he gained his experience as an herbal practitioner and teacher and became recognized by the AHG (American Herbalists Guild).

Nir proudly established the groundbreaking herbal pharmacy, Trifolium, the first official 100% Herbal Medicine Pharmacy in Israel, with partner Noam Oren, in 2016. Here, Nir can be found serving his regular client base of over 2000 herbalists, providing educational and customer support to the community, and developing new extraction methods and remedies. Find Nir on Facebook.

Kate Breslaw is best known for both her “Foraging Fun” workshops and ‘FoRest & ReNew’ women’s day retreats which combine foraging and foresting (a restorative forest experience), EFT tapping, and exquisite dishes that Kate prepares with foraged edibles.
 
When not roaming the forests, Kate can be found helping her clients to heal past wounds and release trauma and negativity, as an advanced, certified EFT (tapping) practitioner, a Highly Sensitive Therapist and advocate and the founder of An Integrated Life.  At her practice, Kate will enable you to live with increased inner calm, and create more joy and harmony in your life and with the world around you.

Yael Cnaan is an herbalist living in Givat Ada. Here she welcomes clients to her private clinic, surrounded by a semi-wild garden where she grows her herbs and vegetables. She also handcrafts herbal medicines, with an emphasis on using wild local plants.

Yael taught herbal medicine at various colleges for 10 years and is now speaking at conferences and leading courses and workshops at her home clinic.

Chava Dagan runs Nettles and Pins; a farm, website and folk school teaching skills she learned and expanded on, while serving in the Peace Corps in Sri Lanka. She holds a degree in psychology as well as qualifications in natural health, agriculture and education.

Chava, together with her husband, have six boys and live in the SW Negev desert. She is the author of Mother’s Pearls: The Revival of Parenting and continues to write and explore these and other related topics, through blogs, books and a podcast, Ancient Roots Mothering, which she shares with J. Rivkah Asoulin and Gilla Weiss .

Peretz Gan (ARI2024) is an agronomist, herbalist and, together with his wife Roni, co-founded (1996) the Al-Alim Medicinal Herb Center, Ltd., an organic farm and manufacturing plant which produces over 250 different western and Chinese (TCM) medicinal herbs in Zippori, Israel and imports/exports botanical extracts and raw materials for nutritional supplements and cosmetics.

Peretz specialized in soil and water chemistry. His expertise has taken him to work on nearly every continent in the world.  Peretz is also well known (and loved) for co-founding Eilam (The Israeli Medicinal Plant Association, founded 2003), where he has held various positions. 


Andrew Gerren (Resilient Farmer Drew) is the founder of Sacred Herbs and Botanicals (SHAB), an organic, handcrafted, 100% vegan botanical, fungi-based products, and herbal education company. He is an herbalist, ethnobotanist and sustainable agriculture specialist who graduated from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa with a bachelor’s degree honors, cum laude, in Ethnomedicine and Plant Conservation, with a minor in Tropical Plant and Soil Science – Production Management. Andrew embarked on two major research projects while pursuing his studies, namely the Doctrine of Signatures and the traditional Oceanic plant kava (Piper methysticum) in Vanuatu and Hawai’i.

Andrew has learned both La’au Lapa’au – Hawaiian Traditional Medicine under the Ohai tradition and Jamaican bush medicine and has served in the U.S. Peace Corps (2018-2021). He continues to learn and expand his craft in the Tropics and beyond.

Mishi Harari is an herbalist, holistic health coach, barefoot adventurer and unconventional homeschool mom of six. She teaches women about the healing energy of trees and encourages them to get their hands and feet dirty in the outdoors with their children to support immunity, mental health and soothe the nervous system. She also helps others to release and heal trauma through various body movements and thought patterns.

Mishi lives on Fort Campbell in KY where her husband, an avid outdoorsman and equine
therapist, serves as a chaplain in the US Army. Together they have a wilderness program for teenage boys to spend a month in the remote outdoors, where they learn primitive, backcountry skills, lifelong communication skills, and gain tremendous independence while learning to trust and rely on each other.

Judith Hill is a medical astrologer, herbalist, researcher, and award winning author of thirteen books. She is the Founder and President of The Academy for Astrological Medicine, and creator-producer of the first Renaissance Medicine Conferences. She has also created multiple online courses including Medical Astrology 101; and Astrological Herbalism Decoded, and the blog series Mrs.Winkler’s Cosmic Apothecary.

Judith is a Chartered Herbalist with Dominion Herbal College, and a faculty member with The Matthew Wood Institute of Herbalism; Kepler College; and The Astrology Hub.

An internationally recognized researcher, Hill published significant statistical research on astro-genetics and astro-seismology, and has served as the Educational Director for the San Francisco NCGR; and as the private assistant to the great physicist Arthur M. Young at the Institute for the Study of Consciousness. Hill successfully matched five biographies to five natal charts in an NCGR sponsored skeptic’s challenge in 1989. She is one of the longest practicing full-time astrological consultants in America. 

Shayna Judelman has been a practicing herbalist for 13 years, working with clients from Israel and abroad.  She is the founder of One Earth Herbs, an herbal clinic and dispensary located in her home town of Tekoa.  

Here, she consults with clients of all ages to skillfully formulate customized herbal blends to best meet their individual needs. She is known for her abilities to assist with a large array of ailments, while specializing in safe herbal medicine for women during pregnancy and postpartum. 

Shayna offers a variety of workshops and herbal classes. When she is not working, you will find her either hanging with her family in the garden or on a hike.

Prof. Efraim Lev is a full professor, at the department of Israel Studies at the University of Haifa and of Humanities at the University of Haifa. He was trained both as a historian and field biologist and therefore his academic work has always had a strong interdisciplinary focus.

Prof. Lev spent his post-doctoral year at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London (2000-2001), and was Visiting Scholar at St. John’s College, Cambridge (2003-2004, 2011-2012). His research focus is on ethno-pharmacology and the history of medicine in the medieval Middle East, with particular emphasis on the medical documents in the Cairo Genizah.

Prof. Lev served for 8 years as head of department Humanities and Arts at the Technion.  He published 10 books and more than 90 referred articles and 10 chapters. He won the George Urdang Medal for pharmaco-historical writings 2013 (Award of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy); as well as Medal and membership of the International Academy of the History of Pharmacy (Warsaw 2017).

Esther Lachman is the Founder and Director of the Israeli School of Medicinal Plants. Here she guides future herbalists in intensive 2-year programs, short term studies and master classes and cultivates organic plants on her medicinal plant farm. Esther is also the owner of Arugot Organic Wellness. She has written two best selling books: Plants for Children and Natural Pharmacy Recipes for Every Day.

Esther and her husband raise their 6 children in Moshav Shuva in the Land of Israel.

Eva Ariela Lindberg was born in Sweden and graduated from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, with a BA in Architecture with extra-curricular studies at the University of Architecture in Venice, Italy and the Boston Architectural Center in Massachusetts. She also studied at the Academy of Art College and Energy Art School in Berkeley, California, where she synthesized past art modalities and became the originator of the 5th Dimensional Artwork. Her work is exhibited in USA, Europe and Israel.  

On a parallel educational path, Eva studied Psychology and Drama Therapy at CIIS, San Francisco and completed her MA in Humanities and Leadership at UCS in the San Francisco/Bay Area. As a consequence, she began the Tulip Healing model and created the Tulip Temple (2000-2010). Later the Tulip Love workshops continued in Israel, at the Tulip Center in Talbiye, Jerusalem. In addition to her individual/community healing work and teaching, Eva is a Feng Shui consultant, Events Coordinator and Peace Worker.

Heather Shelton RN, BSN is a retired nurse and herbalist who has worked with botanical medicine for over two decades. She provides consultations that include herbal medicine, cannabinoid therapy, nutritional guidance, and healthy lifestyle changes. 

Heather blends her botanical medicine experience with her background in traditional nursing to offer a unique (w)holistic approach to care.  She is committed to working with mind, body and spirit and is excited to support others on their healing journeys. 

Heather is an instructor for psylocibin facilitators in Oregon and the assistant director at EPIC Healing Eugene, the first licensed psilocybin service center in the United States.  Heather has a deep commitment to the Earth and serves as a board member of two non-profits, the Northwest Land Conservation Trust and Fox Hollow Forestland where she stewards land and leads workshops on herbal medicine, self-sufficiency and Earth based traditions. 


Sara Chana Silverstein is a master herbalist (AHG), classical homeopath, and board-
certified lactation consultant (IBCLC), and appears on local and national TV news affiliates
across the country such as CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX News, where she teaches people how they
can safely integrate alternative medicine with conventional medicine.

Sara Chana runs a women’s clinic in Brooklyn NY for the past 30 years. Her specialty is
pediatrics and women’s health. She is also the author of the best-selling book-MOOODTOPIA:
Tame Moods, De-stress and Find Balance Using Herbal Remedies, Aromatherapy and
More
…which has been #1 on Amazon and has appeared on at least 15 “must-read” lists.

She recently opened an online herbal school called MOODTOPIA ACADEMY where she teaches
hundreds of women and men about the medicinal benefits of herbal and homeopathic
medicine.

Susun S. Weed is a green witch, a wise woman, and an extraordinary teacher with a joyous spirit, a powerful presence, and an encyclopedic knowledge of herbs and health. She is the voice of the Wise Woman Way, where common weeds, simple ceremony, and compassionate listening support and nourish health/wholeness/holiness. She has opened hearts to the magic and medicine of the green nations for over five decades. Ms. Weed’s six herbal medicine books are beloved by millions. Available at  Wise Woman Bookshop.

Want more? Visit Wise Woman School for distant learning opportunities. Susun’s free herbal ezine and mentorship offerings can be found here.

Gilla Weiss is an herbalist and birth doula with a background in massage therapy and has been serving and supporting women in her community and worldwide for over 25 years. At her company Sage and Honey, she infuses her birthwork with herbs and enriches her herbalism with the connection and empowerment of her birthwork.

As the mother of 8, including one with Down Syndrome, Gilla combines her experience of natural birthing, nursing, homeschooling and consciously parenting, with her skills in the healing arts to assist women in their transition into motherhood.

Gilla creates herbal products and offers hands-on herbal workshops. Here she leads women to tap into, and connect with, their ancestral feminine wisdom and gently nurtures and encourages them to trust their innate intuition as they heal themselves and their families.


Matthew Wood
 is a critically acclaimed author, experienced clinical herbalist, and has earned his Masters of Science degree from the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine (accredited by the University of Wales). Matthew has been an active practitioner of traditional Western herbalism since 1982. He has helped tens of thousands of clients over the years, with many difficult health problems.

While Matthew believes in the virtue of many healing modalities, he has always been most inspired to learn, preserve, and practice the tradition of herbal medicine descending to us from Greek-Arabic-Jewish-Latin tradition and the folk medicine of Europe, the UK, US, and Native American heritage teachings.