Musician, public speaker, educator, businesswoman, storyteller — and now beekeeper — Amalia Haas has discovered in these buzzing insects a fulcrum around which she could focus her other talents
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hile many of us run from bees, afraid of being stung, Amalia Haas of Cleveland runs towards them, and for good reason. This musician, public speaker, educator, businesswoman, storyteller — and now beekeeper — has discovered in these buzzing insects not only a captivating hobby, but a fulcrum around which she could focus her other talents. And the more Amalia learned about bees, the more she realized bees had to teach her about community, purpose, and the awe-inspiring ingenuity of Hashem’s Creation.
I first met Amalia at the Jewish Women Entrepreneurs annual conference last fall, which she attended in connection with her business, Honey Bee Jewish and Bee Awesome. Through her company, Amalia sells honey as holiday gifts and party favors, and offers services ranging from hive removal and pollinator landscaping to workshops and programs in schools, businesses, and community organizations. Yet bees weren’t always part of this Chicagoan’s life.
Amalia’s self-assurance and articulate speech come from her background as the child of academics: her father is a PhD biochemist, and her mother was one of the first women in the country to serve as a professor of education, at the University of Chicago. “There was a lot of focus on origins in my family — why things happen, how they happen,” Amalia says, “as well as an emphasis on educating people.”
Amalia attended Oberlin College, where she studied voice and piano performance. (She also plays the guitar and dulcimer.) In addition to evolving as a musician, she was deeply influenced by the college’s emphasis on sustainability; for example, their Environmental Studies building includes a Living Machine full of plants that clean and recycle all waste water used in the building.
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