About COEJL
​

The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) deepens and broadens the Jewish community’s commitment to stewardship and protection of the Earth through outreach, activism, and Jewish learning. Through a network of Jewish leaders, institutions, and individuals, COEJL mobilizes the Jewish community to advocate for policies that support environmental protection while building core Jewish environmental knowledge. COEJL has been an initiative at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs since 1993 and serves as the Jewish partner in the National Religious Partnership on the Environment.
​
COEJL acts to expand the contemporary understanding of Jewish values such as tikkun olam (repairing our world) and tzedek (justice) to include the protection of both people and other species from environmental degradation. COEJL seeks to extend such traditions as social action and gemilut chasadim (performing deeds of loving-kindness) to environmental action and advocacy. And COEJL works to achieve shalom (peace or wholeness) in its full sense of harmony in all creation. COEJL seeks to connect all Jewish and non-Jewish communities through embodying these values in everyday life.

Established in 1993

In the spring of 1992, the leadership of major American Jewish organizations, eminent rabbis, and denominational presidents gathered in Washington, D.C. to discuss the creation of a Jewish response to the mounting environmental crisis.

In 1993, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life was created and charged with catalyzing a distinctively Jewish programmatic and policy response to the environmental crisis.
​
Established by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (then NJCRAC), the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, COEJL now serves as the Jewish voice in the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.

Our Mission

COEJL's mission is to deepen the Jewish community’s commitment to the stewardship of creation and mobilize the resources of Jewish life and learning to protect the Earth and all its inhabitants. Our goal is to unite the entire Jewish community, all denominations and non-religious alike under this mission.
​
​

Our Partners

• ​​Jewish Council for Public Affairs 
• Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
• The Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism 
• Reconstructing Judaism​​

Our Leadership

​Rabbi Daniel Swartz
Executive Director

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 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. The most important thing in his life is his daughter, Alana.

Read Rabbi Swartz's letter to COEJL supporters -- written some time ago, but still altogether relevant -- here.

​Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb
Rabbinic Advisor

Until becoming COEJL's Rabbinic Consultant, Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb had served on its lay leadership team since the late 90's, including as Chairperson, working closely with Executive Director Rabbi Daniel Swartz. Across that same time frame, he has proudly been in the pulpit of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, MD. Fred has just become Rabbi Emeritus at his beloved synagogue, while turning his rabbinate toward eco-Jewish education and activism as COEJL's part-time Rabbinic Advisor.

Fred has long been involved in this arena; is a regular contributor to Moment and other publications; and is a member of the national Board of  Interfaith Power and Light.  He continues to write, speak, educate, organize, and consult around eco-Judaism, climate and racial justice, and related concerns.  Fred enjoys connecting with Jewish and other faith leaders and activists around how to best green ourselves, our shared community, and our world, at a scale commensurate with both our tradition and the needs of the moment.    
​
Fred's previous volunteer roles include Co-Chair of Religious Witness for the Earth, President of the Washington Board of Rabbis, Chair of IPL-DMV, and board member for the Greater Washington JCRC, Shalom Center, RRA, and National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE). He graduated from RRC in 1997 as a Wexner Fellow, and received a Doctor of Ministry from Wesley Theological Seminary in 2009. Together with Minna Scherlinder Morse, Fred's greatest joys and biggest projects are Gilad (10th grade) and Sara (college sophomore).

---

Israel Harris
Advocacy Director​ 2023-24; now a dedicated volunteer (though no longer on COEJL or NRPE email addresses)

Israel Harris just wrapped up a year of service as COEJL's Advocacy Director, leading the organization’s legislative work to connect rabbis, lay leaders, the Jewish community, and advocates throughout the country in support of climate and environmental justice. He was also a partner staff member and Policy Director at the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE), while in the inaugural cohort of the Jewish Organizing Institute and Network (JOIN) for Justice’s Jew of Color (JOC) Community Organizing Fellowship. With a passion for youth engagement, Israel also remains an Organizer with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s (RAC) Youth Organizing Team, leading on initiatives like the RAC’s Teen Justice Fellowship and Teen Jews of Color Fellowship.   
​
Before this joint position, Israel was an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant Fellow at the RAC (2021-23) as the first JOC in the program’s partnership with the Jews of Color Initiative (JoCI). He organized the Jewish community to engage on issues including voting rights, criminal justice reform, civil rights and liberties, and reparations for Black Americans, and contributed to the RAC’s National Voting Rights and Climate Justice Campaigns. He began his work in the advocacy space as one of the first staff members at the July Third Foundation, and has since built a growing network as a Jewish professional to expand opportunities for education, equity, and justice.