Board of Directors

 
  • RON CLAMAN majored in Economics and Finance at the University of Colorado, specialized in international commerce and commercial real estate investments. He founded the Aerospace Group in 1982. He later founded Aero Tech Properties in 1990. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Boulder Colorado. He is very active in family life, his aviation and real estate partnerships and consulting various national and international non-profit organizations that support community youth development, Jewish spirituality and bringing spirituality into public education through rites of passage work and council. Ron is a co-Founder and former President of the Yesod Foundation.
 
  • DAVID FRIEDMAN was raised in Los Angeles and went on to attend Harvard University where he majored in Economics and was deeply influenced by late 1960's politics. After a brief stint at Harvard Business School, David moved to Maine where his entrepreneurial skills flourished. He founded and built a substantive real estate brokerage firm, which later evolved into real estate development. In 1982, David co-founded Sandy River Health System, Maine's largest provider of long-term care to the elderly, of which he is the current Chairman. For almost two decades his love of business and his deep concern for people found a common outlet. In 1989, David was one of the co-founders of the Social Venture Network. After the death of his wife in 1991, David single parented his four children. Years later he moved to Colorado where he joyously rediscovered Judaism, and in April of 1999, married rabbi and author, Tirzah Firestone. David is currently co-chair of the Jewish Funders Network, and was a past board member of Calvert Social Investment Advisory Board, The Threshold Foundation and the UFP Technologies, a NASDQ company. He is also an advisory board member of The Rockwood Foundation and serves on the board of The Boulder Institute for Nature and the Human Spirit. David is a co-founder and the former President of the Yesod Foundation.

  • TIRZAH FIRESTONE was raised in an Orthodox home in St. Louis, Missouri. After years of seeking and struggle with traditional Judaism, Tirzah came to Boulder, Colorado, to study psychotherapy and earned a Masters Degree in Holistic Counseling from Beacon College in 1982. In the mid-1980’s, she responded to a deep call to return to her Judaic roots and to become a rabbi. She began her studies with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal movement, and in November of 1992, was ordained as a rabbi by Reb Zalman. Her journey through an interfaith marriage and back to Judaism is chronicled in her dramatic memoir, With Roots In Heaven (Dutton, 1998). Tirzah is the founding rabbi of the Jewish Renewal Congregation of Boulder, Colorado, and the current rabbi of Nevei Kodesh. She is a Jungian therapist, author, and national speaker on the topic of Jewish spirituality, the interface of depth psychology and Kabbalah, and the unwritten history of women’s wisdom tradition. Her latest book is The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women’s Wisdom (Harper San Francisco, 2003). She is the director of the Yesod Foundation’s Center for Engaged Jewish Studies.

  • THOMAS D. HAST was born in 1949 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned a B.A. in English Literature from Reed College in 1972. His early career included a period as a dancer in Vermont and N.Y.C., a maintenance engineer at Sierra Designs in Berkeley, California, and as a printer in Boulder, Colorado. He was involved in the founding of two colleges, The Learning Community in Portland, Oregon, and Naropa University in Boulder, which he served as an Administrator from 1973 to 1975, and currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees. Tom entered the field of professional property management in 1977, and in 1979, formed his own company, Hast & Company. By 1981, it was the largest property management company in Boulder. Tom also helped to start the City of Boulder Mediation Project. He served as Chairman of the Board of CDR Associates, which engages in mediation and conflict resolution all over the world. He has also served on the Boards of Shambhala Training, the Boulder Jewish Community Foundation, and the Friends School. He is a founding member of the steering committee of the Colorado Movement for Children which has very successfully worked and lobbied to raise the consciousness of Colorado citizens and lawmakers on issues involving children in the state. He lives with his wife in Boulder and has two daughters in college and graduate school. Tom is the Treasurer of the Yesod Foundation.

  • BOBBIE ZELKIND grew up in Denver, CO, where much of her family still resides. Like her Jewishly active parents, Bobbie was involved in the Jewish community as early as junior high school, as a founder of USY, a youth fundraiser for the Denver Federation, and active in BBYO. Bobbie's professional training is in organizational and interpersonal communication. She has worked for the Allied Jewish Federation and for Colorado's community mental health system, and for the Mental Health Association of Colorado. She has served on the Boards of the Allied Jewish Federation, Congregation Har HaShem, The Boulder Jewish Community Foundation, The American Jewish Committee, the National Repertory Orchestra and The Mental Health Center Foundation of Boulder County. Bobbie has lived in Boulder for over 20 years, lending a hand here and there with the Jewish community's evolution, and is delighted with the array of options and opportunities available for living Jewishly in Boulder today. She is honored to serve as the current President of the Yesod Foundation Board of Directors.