Rabbi Daniel Swartz became the Executive Director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life in January of 2018. He has led the congregation of Temple Hesed of Scranton, PA as its spiritual leader of since 2006. Deeply committed to the task of Tikkun Olam (repairing our world), Rabbi Swartz has served a number of prominent social justice organizations. He was the founding Coordinator for Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light (GWIPL), which works to address moral and practical dimensions to energy use; Associate Director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE), which works across faith communities on environmental issues; and the Director of Congregational Relations for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC), the Reform Movement’s Washington Office and social action arm.
Rabbi Swartz is the author of To Till and To Tend: A Guide for Jewish Environmental Study and Action and children’s book Bim and Bom: A Shabbat Tale. Rabbi Swartz holds degrees from Brown University in Geological Sciences and in Environmental Policy and has received numerous academic honors, including several prizes from the Hebrew Union College, the Senior Prize in Environmental Studies from Brown, and election to both Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi.was recently part of a global multifaith effort, led by the Vatican, to bring together diverse faith leaders to address climate change in advance of the COP26 climate negotiations. Rabbi Swartz will share with us his take on those negotiations, what needs to happen next, and the role of faith communities in general and the Jewish community in particular as we try to address the climate crisis.
Joelle Novey is the Executive Director of Interfaith Power and Light of D.C. Maryland and Virginia. Joelle has served as IPL-DMV’s Director since the fall of 2009 and speaks widely on the role that faith communities can play in the climate movement. She is the co-author of Green and Just Celebrations, a purchasing guide that Jews United for Justice (JUFJ) distributes to local congregations for assisting families in making greener purchasing decisions around weddings and bar/bat mitzvah celebrations. Most recently, Joelle worked at Green America, where she screened applicants to the Green Business Network and wrote dozens of articles about greener living for the organization’s newsletter and magazine.
Joelle brings a variety of interfaith experience to the religious diversity of IPL’s network. For more than a year, she counseled hospital patients of all backgrounds and led interfaith worship services through a chaplain training program at Washington Hospital Center. Joelle is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University where she received a BA in Social Studies and completed the coursework for a minor in the Study of Religion.
