JCAN NYc Leadership

Our leadership is committed to providing structure and guidance to our organization while creating a safe space to learn and take action. The beating heart of our grassroots organization is our enthusiastic members who are committed to changing our planet’s future.

Steering committee Co-Chairs

Adriane Leveen - Co-FOunder

Adriane 'Ace' Leveen, is senior lecturer in Hebrew Bible emeritus at Hebrew Union College in New York. She has published two books and numerous articles in the field of Biblical studies with a special focus on memory and literary narratives of Israelites and their neighbors. Ace is proud to be one of the founders of JCAN-NYC along with Mirele Goldsmith and Hody Nemes, and feels enormous gratitude for the committee and our activist members. As a new grandmother, Ace finds that work ever more urgent.

Wendy Seligson

Wendy Seligson is founder of Wendy Seligson Consulting, a nonprofit management consulting firm. Prior to founding her firm, Wendy was Associate Executive Director of the 14th Street Y, where she met Mirele Goldsmith and many of her JCAN NYC friends and allies. With Mirele’s support, Wendy organized the 14th Street Y staff and community for the 2014 Climate March and started a composting initiative. Wendy has enjoyed helping lead JCAN NYC’s legislative efforts in support of the recently passed NYS Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

STEERING COMMITTEE MEmbers

BRIAN KREISWIRTH

Brian is an attorney who has spent much of his career addressing fair lending and related anti-discrimination issues in the public and private sectors. He has worked for the New York Attorney General's Office, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and several large banks. Brian became interested in climate advocacy thanks to his son, Benjamin, who has long been a climate-motivated vegetarian, public transit enthusiast, and environmental activist.

Mary Krieger

Mary Krieger is a former educator who worked with Deaf children in several educational settings. For Mary, the vision of a world where all can live in peace and dignity is a core value. This ideal compelled Mary to become an organizer for a Jewish Feeder March to the 2016 Women’s March. After the March, Mary decided to channel her activism into climate justice and joined JCAN. She worked with the Legislative Team to pass the landmark Local Law 97 which sets emissions threshold for large New York City residential buildings. By expanding the reach of JCAN’s weekly Pre-Shabbat Climate Action email, Mary hopes more members of the Jewish community will make climate action a habit.

Ben Orlove

Ben Orlove has long been engaged with environmental issues, both as an avid hiker, cyclist and paddler, and as a researcher and professor. His field work in the Peruvian Andes began decades ago and continues to the present, with a total of over three years. He has also spent time in mountain communities in the Alps, the western US, and Central Asia. He's been involved with international climate assessments and negotiations as well. 

Former Steering Committee Members

Mirele Goldsmith - co-founder

Dr. Mirele Goldsmith is an environmental psychologist, educator, and activist. Mirele co-founded JCAN NYC in 2016 and played a leadership role in launching JCAN NYC as a network of Jews working for climate action. She is a 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 is proud to have mobilized Jews to participate in the People’s Climate Marches. She directed Hazon’s Jewish Greening Fellowship, funded by UJA-Federation of NY, mobilizing 55 synagogues, JCCs, day schools, and social service organizations to respond to climate change.  Mirele has shared Jewish environmental teachings in Jewish and interfaith settings, and is widely published.

JEFF LEVY-LIONS

Jeff has been a leader with the People’s Climate Movement NY, and has been involved with Extinction Rebellion, GreenFaith, Climate Reality, and Zero Hour. He views the climate emergency as a very Jewish issue, as it challenges our basic Jewish values of caring for the stranger and protecting creation. Jeff draws on his many years as a communication skills trainer and coach to help individuals and organizations speak about the climate emergency with a strong, clear voice, and to live in balance.

Dr. Michelle Friedman

Michelle is a psychiatrist who focuses on the Jewish community. She holds the Steven and Marilyn Lieberman Chair in Pastoral Counseling at YCT Rabbinical School, is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and has a private practice in Manhattan. She is the co-author of The Art of Jewish Pastoral Counseling: A Guide for All Faiths published in 2016.

JESSI THOMPSON

Jessica Thompson is a violist who performs across the US and abroad as a member of the Daedalus Quartet, ensemble-in-residence at the University of Pennsylvania. She also freelances as a chamber and orchestral musician and teaches at Princeton and Columbia Universities. Jessi has been stumbling her way into climate justice work since about 2015, first through her synagogue and later with JCAN. She is passionate about JCAN’s legislative work, and she has discovered along the way that she loves helping others find ways to take climate action, which she does weekly through the Pre-Shabbat Climate Action email. Jessi is a mother to two boys, who remind her every day why a sustainable future for all is worth fighting for.

Hody Nemes - Co-Founder

Hody is a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. He graduated Yale University with a B.A. in Environmental Studies, and studied at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa. He has worked on climate at Hazon, reported on the 2014 People’s Climate March with the Forward, and is currently a Greenfaith Fellow and former Green Israel Party Candidate for the World Zionist Congress. Hody witnessed the power of Jewish climate activism after meeting Dr. Mirele Goldsmith, and his life hasn’t been the same ever since!