Symposium on Spirituality and the Environment 2023
From Moses to Greta: Leadership Lessons for Facing Up to Climate Change
Sunday, November 12; 1:00-3:00pm
The Symposium will focus on bringing people together to explore perspectives on environmentalism from faith and spiritual traditions. We bring forward teachers, academics, faith-based activists in dialogue and shared learning. Our hope: greater understanding leading to greater engagement in acts of environmental protection and justice.
Speakers:
COFOUNDER, JEWISH EARTH ALLIANCE
Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith is an environmental psychologist, educator, and activist. Mirele is an expert in how to change human behavior to solve environmental problems and build a sustainable future. She is the founder of Jewish Earth Alliance, a national advocacy coalition raising a moral voice on climate change to the US Congress. Mirele attended the UN Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen and was the lead Jewish organizer for the People’s Climate Marches in New York and Washington. She directed Hazon’s Jewish Greening Fellowship, a program funded by UJA-Federation of New York that mobilized 55 synagogues, JCCs, day schools, and social service organizations to respond to climate change. Mirele’s writings on Judaism and sustainability have been widely published and she has shared Jewish environmental teachings in Jewish and interfaith settings from Kathmandu to the Salisbury Cathedral to the Parliament of World Religions.
COLORADO RIVER PROGRAM DIRECTOR AT THE NATIONAL AUDOBON SOCIETY
Jennifer Pitt joined Audubon in December 2015 to advise the organization’s strategies to protect and restore rivers throughout the Colorado River Basin. At Audubon she continues to lead the United States–Mexico collaboration to restore the long-desiccated Colorado River Delta. She serves as the U.S. co-chair of the bi-national work group whose partners will, through 2026, implement existing treaty commitments providing environmental flows and habitat creation.
Prior to joining Audubon, Jennifer spent 17 years working to protect and restore freshwater ecosystems in the Colorado River Basin at the Environmental Defense Fund. With partners, she led the conservation community’s efforts to prioritize and implement restoration of the Colorado River Delta, and she worked with Colorado River stakeholders to produce the unprecedented Colorado River Basin Supply and Demand Study, the first federal assessment of climate change impacts in the basin and the first basin-wide evaluation of the impacts of river system operation on water supply reliability and river health. Jennifer has also worked at the National Park Service headquarters and in Mesa Verde and Sequoia National Parks, as a legislative assistant to U.S. Congressman Mike Kopetski, and in the headquarters office of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation.
Jennifer graduated from Harvard University and received a master’s in Environmental Science and Policy from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
COFOUNDER, CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS OF CITIZENS CLIMATE LOBBY
Grant is a Zen Sensei who began a deep exploration of the world’s various spiritual paths in 1990. Through that effort he found a personal resonance with the Buddha’s teachings and he has studied with many Tibetan, Zen and Vipassana teachers. He is a Board member of Zen Peacemakers whose mission is to realize humanity's oneness and interconnectivity through contemplative social action. The existential risk of Global Warming has been a focus of his practice and it has taken him into halls of the US Congress as he advocates meaningful, sustainable and bi-partisan national climate policies. Grant has worked with Citizens Climate Lobby since 2013 where he started the Conservative Caucus and he is a Board member the Bipartisan Climate Trust which is the 501c3 of the Bipartisan Climate Action PAC.
We gratefully acknowledge that this Symposium is underwritten by the Bachrach Endowment Fund at Congregation Har HaShem.
Schedule:
1:00 Rabbi Fred Greene, Welcome
1:05 Land Acknowledgement
1:10 Rabbi Deborah Bronstein, “Opening Prayer,” Rabbi Emerita, Congregation Har HaShem
1:15 Mirele Goldsmith, Keynote
1:45 Questions and Discussion
2:00 Panel Discussion
2:45 Questions
2:55 Rabbi Fred Greene, Closing Thoughts
We gratefully acknowledge that this Symposium is underwritten by the Bachrach Endowment Fund at Congregation Har HaShem.
Past Symposiums
2022 – Spirituality and Environmental Stewardship: A Conversation with Two Scholar Activists
Watch the recording here.
Speakers:
- Professor Tink Tinker (he/him/his) is Professor Emeritus of American Indian Cultures and Religious Traditions at Iliff School of Theology.
- Dr. Oakleigh (Oak) Thorne II (he/him/his) is founder and honorary president of Thorne Nature Experience.
2021 – Food Justice and Faith: Nourishing Our Bodies and Our Souls
Watch the recording here.
Speakers:
- Becca Gan Levy (she/her/hers) is the Farm and Sustainability Director at the Boulder JCC.
- Hayden Dansky (they/them/theirs) is a cofounder and Executive Director of Boulder Food Rescue.
- Dina Coates (she/her/hers) is the Chief Development Officer for Community Food Share.
2020 – Fighting Climate Change
Watch the recording here.
Speakers:
- Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, Founder and CEO, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action
- Senator Steve Fenberg, CO State Senator & Majority Leader
2020
Watch the recording here.
- Dr. Amanda Baugh, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at California State University, Northridge and Director of the Program in Civic and Community Engagement
- Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre, Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at Iliff School of Theology and Director of the Center for Eco-Justice
2019
- Rev. Susan Hendershot is President of The Regeneration Project and Interfaith Power & Light
- Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action
2018
- Suzanne Benally, (Navajo and Santa Clara Tewa) the Executive Director of Cultural Survival
- Dr. Scott Powell, Catholicism, the Aquinas Institute for Catholic Thought
- Prof. David Robert Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism
- The Reverend Fletcher Harper, GreenFaith’s Executive Director
2016
- Rabbi Marc Soloway, Congregation Bonai Shalom, Boulder
- Rev. Fletcher Harper, Executive Director, GreenFaith
- Gopal Patel, The Bhumi Project
- Nana Firman, Green Market Solution
We gratefully acknowledge that this Symposium is underwritten by the Bachrach Endowment Fund at Congregation Har HaShem.