Yoshi Silverstein is a Chinese-Ashkenazi-American Jew and an educator, designer, speaker, husband, and father. Founder and Executive Director of Mitsui Collective and creator of the Mitsui Method system of Jewish embodiment and a multidisciplinary practitioner of embodied creative and spiritual expression, he is a recipient of the 2022 Pomegranate Prize for emerging leaders in Jewish education from The Covenant Foundation, and was selected as a 2021 “Grist 50 Fixer” building a more just and equitable future. Yoshi earned his Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture at University of Maryland with a thesis exploring Jewish landscape journey and experience, and holds certificates in spiritual entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, permaculture design, and environmental education. Yoshi sits on the Board of Directors for Repair the World, is an adjunct faculty instructor at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, a Senior Schusterman Fellow, and studied with Resmaa Menakem in the areas of embodied antiracism and somatic abolitionism.
Prior to founding Mitsui Collective, Yoshi was Director of the JOFEE Fellowship at Hazon from its launch through its first four cohorts, through which he catalyzed the growth and leadership of over 60 emerging professionals working across the US and Canada in the realm of Jewish relationship to land, food, culture, climate, and community. He holds over two decades of experience in both Jewish and secular outdoor, food, farming, and environmental education — including time working at the Teva Center (CT), Kayam Farm at the Pearlstone Center (MD), Camp Wise (OH), and Camp Solomon Schechter (WA).
Yoshi is an alumnus of M² Institute for Experiential Jewish Education’s inaugural Jewish Pedagogies Circle, of the Selah Leadership Program (Cohort 14, Jewish Leaders of Color) through Bend the Arc and current member of the Selah Advisory Council, was a founding member of the Repair the World NYC Advisory Board; and has been a cast member of Kaleidoscope Project’s “What Does Jewish Look Like to You” monologue series, an ELI Talks speaker, and a Dorot Fellow.
Yoshi holds a 2nd degree blackbelt in Lotus Kajukenbo and currently studies Chinese martial arts – including Tai Chi, Baguazhang, and Shuai Chiao (Chinese wrestling). In October 2024, Yoshi was a member of Team USA competing at the World Shuai Chiao Games in Baoding, China, followed by ten days of intensive martial arts study in the Wudang Mountains, birthplace of Tai Chi and Baguazhang.
Yoshi’s written work has been published in ArchDaily, ASLA’s The Dirt, Haaretz, and Green Prophet, and featured in Planetizen, ArchNewsNow, and the American Planning Association.
A Pacific Northwest native, Yoshi has resided in roughly fourteen different places since his eighteenth birthday – including the Olympic Mountains, central and northern Idaho Rockies, Berkshire Mountains, the Arava Valley, and the Bushwick Plains of Northern Brooklyn. He now lives in the Cleveland area with his wife and daughter.
Fun Fact: Yoshi was a captain of the Brandeis Ski Team in college, a team which sometimes made it to regionals and tried not to land in last place.
“Yoshi facilitated the group so beautifully. He got to know us, listened to our needs in real time as they arose, invited us in as decision makers of this experience allowing our group to really build of it what we wanted while still holding a deep container and a lot of vision. He facilitated the training with grace and humility and always brought the positive energy and sincere compassion for us as a baseline. Big Yoshi fan.” ~Cohort 1 JOFEE Fellow
Select Trainings and Study:
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Embodied Transformation 4-day Intensive for BIPOC Leaders — Strozzi Institute
- Foundations of Wudang Kung Fu and Baguazhang (10 days) — Wudang Mountain Tai Chi & Kung Fu Academy
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Movement Intensive and Community Retreat (4-day) — Marcello Palozzo and Shai Faran with ApeCo Movement School
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Somatic Abolitionism 5-day Intensive — Omega Institute with Resmaa Menakem
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Radical Dharma Camp — Omega Institute with Rev angel Kyodo williams Roshi
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Foundations in Somatic Abolitionism + 9-Month Communal Consultation (online) — Education for Racial Equity with Resmaa Menakem
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Schusterman Fellowship (18 months), Cohort 6 — Schusterman Family Philanthropies
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Jewish Pedagogies Fellowship (10 months) — M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education
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Certificate in Spiritual Entrepreneurship (9 months) — Glean Network with Columbia Business School
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Selah Leadership Program, Cohort 14: JOC Leaders (9 months) — Bend the Arc
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“Motion” Intensive Workshop (3-days) — Ido Portal with ApeCo Movement School
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Movement Brooklyn — ongoing movement studies 2018-2019
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Dorot Fellowship in Israel (10 months)
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Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies (Fall semester)
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Certificate in Permaculture and Ecovillage Design (3 months) — Center for Creative Ecology at Kibbutz Lotan
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Informal Jewish Education — Hebrew College
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CrossFit L1 Certification
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Alpine Level 1 Ski Instructor
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Graduate Certificate in Environmental Education — University of Idaho
Yoshi Silverstein 