Speakers & Workshops

SPEAKERS

Speakers offer expertise, guidance, and inspiration and are available for conferences or other events. To arrange for the speaker to come to your synagogue or setting, fill out the form at the bottom of this page.

RABBI KATY Z. ALLEN
Location: Wayland, MA

Affiliations: Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope; Jewish Climate Action Network,Neshama:Association of Jewish Chaplains; Association for Rabbis and Cantors

Brief Bio: Rabbi Katy Allen began her career as a science teacher before turning to Jewish education and becoming a rabbi. She is a board certified chaplain and worked at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and in hospice. She founded Ma'yan Tikvah in order to lead services outdoors, and co-founded the Jewish Climate Action Network in 2013.

Expertise: Teaching about Judaism and the environment; leading groups dealing with grief and hope; leading spiritual nature walks; leading JCAN; interfaith climate work

Program or support offered: Teaching about Judaism and the environment; leading groups dealing with grief and hope; leading spiritual nature walks

Sample programs: Loss and Transformation: Finding Hope when Optimism Is Elusive; Shabbat for the Earth Every Day; Holistic Sustainability: Getting Everyone Involved
Pronouns: She/her/hers

FRED DAVIS
Location: Medfield, MA

Affiliations: President of Fred Davis Corporation, energy-efficient lighting products wholesaler (since 1986). Author of occasional e-newsletter, The Lightening Volt. Fellow in Hebrew College's Leaders in Adult Learning. Leader, teacher, facilitator in synagogue adult education. Curator for Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) conference, Building Energy. Previous: Boards of NESEA, local and national Boards of the Illuminating Engineering Society, Co-Chair of JCRC Energy Committee, President of Urban Solar Energy Association, President of Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston.

Expertise: Professionally engaged since 1978 in the energy field: deeply in energy-efficient lighting, broadly in energy conservation and renewables.

Program or support offered: Fact-based, Jewish-text-inspired presentations and workshops encouraging and empowering congregants to radically reduce carbon footprints in stages.

Pronouns: He/him

DAVID SCHREIBER
Location: Waltham, MA

Affiliations: Temple Shir Tikvah of Winchester, Jewish Climate Action Network, Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, J Street, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization

Expertise: Socially responsible investing and fossil fuel divestment and financial planning.

Pronouns: He/him

JUDITH BLACK
Location: Marblehead, MA

Affiliations: National Storytelling Network, winner of the Oracle, Circle of Excellence Award, the Brother Blue Award, Cable Ace Award, MassMouth Grand Slam Winner, Storytelling World (multiple awards) New England Emmy (nominated for Outstanding Performance), Wheelock College, Centennial Alumni Award… www.storiesalive.com

Climate Organizations: 350Mass Statewide Steering Committee, Sustainable Marblehead (founder), JCAN (member), Extinction Rebellion

Expertise: Lively Storytelling, talks, and workshops tying together Jewish traditions and law in support of environmental awareness and climate action, available for a broad variety of ages

Pronouns: She/her

JUDITH GLIXON
Judith Glixon received her B.Mus. degree from Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. She studied there with Paul Olefsky and David Wells, and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music. She has performed with orchestras in North Carolina and Tucson. She has worked with Boston Ballet, Springfeld Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Handel and Haydn Society, Lexington Symphony, and Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra.

Program: One Cello, One Planet where Judith starts with the music of Bach, and ends with music of the 20th and 21st centuries, so that the audience experiences the beginnings of life on earth, travels through centuries of progress, and is dropped off into the present. It is an abridged history of the human race (with an emphasis on Western civilization) from its start to now. OneCello.org

Pronouns: She/her

MARYA AXNER
Marya Axner was the Regional Director of the New England Jewish Labor Committee (NE JLC) for 12 years and she continues to serve as a Board member. She is currently working to bring groups from different sectors together to discuss and a potential Green New Deal in Massachusetts. She is also speaking and leading workshops on the topic of anti-Semitism on college campuses, at social justices organizations, and at worker organizations. She has spoken about anti-Semitism on a panel at the national AFL-CIO convention also at a United Steel Workers national conference. Before working at the Jewish Labor Committee, Marya worked in the Education Department of the Jewish Women’s Archive where she wrote curricula about Jewish women’s history. Prior to that she was the Director of a parents program in the Somerville Public Schools, supporting parents to be involved in their children’s education. She has also worked for the non-profit, Everyday Democracy, which encourages people to have small group discussions that lead to lasting change.

Marya can speak about the Green New Deal. She can also lead workshops on how to use listening tools to empower people in the Climate Change movement.

Sample titles:

“Why the Green New Deal is the best bet for turning things around on climate change.”

“We can do this: How we can stop climate change in the next 10 years.”

“Listening tools for climate change organizations: A participatory workshop to empower individuals and groups.”

Pronouns: She/her

THEA IBERALL, PH.D.
Bio: Dr. Thea Iberall has taught writing since 2005. An inductee into the International Educators Hall of Fame, Iberall has had poems published in anthologies and journals including in Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust. Her book of poems, The Sanctuary of Artemis, bridges science and the arts, the heart and the mind. In her novel, The Swallow and the Nightingale, a scientist goes head-to-head with an Orthodox Rabbi about the moral issue of today. Author of three scientific textbooks and a semi-finalist in the 2014 Mary Ballard Poetry Chapbook contest, Iberall gives climate change workshops and studied Method Writing with Jack Grapes.

Area of expertise: The Art of Storytelling, creative fiction writing, finding the deep voice. www.theaiberall.com

Pronouns: She/her

YOUR PEERS
The JCAN Decarbonizer Program is a powerful, peer-to-peer program that showcases your temple members who are making reasonable but radical reductions in residential carbon consumption.

The program inspires and educates fellow congregants by letting them hear from friends and neighbors who are taking effective measures now to reduce fossil fuel use. Examples of such measures include: photovoltaics, electric cars, solar hot waters, and heat pumps. People are delighted to learn of steps being taken now and how we all can make a difference in climate change.