COEJL Staff

Rabbi Steve Gutow, Executive Director, COEJL/JCPA

Rabbi Steve Gutow, after working for nearly 30 years as an attorney and in Jewish and political activities, focused his career on his faith and community and attended the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he received his ordination in 2003. Gutow, who spent more than a decade practicing law in Texas, served as chair of the Dallas Jewish Community Relations Council and then went on to serve as the founding regional director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s Southwest Region, where he forged alliances with Republicans and Democrats. He went on to become the founding executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, where he led national groups in formulating strategies to maintain First Amendment religious freedoms. Following his ordination, Gutow became the first full-time rabbi at the Reconstructionist Minyan of St. Louis where he served as the St. Louis Rabbinical Association representative to the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis. At the same time, he served as Adjunct Professor of Law at St. Louis University Law School teaching a seminar on Jewish law. His article “Tikkun Olam: A Public Policy Focus” in the Fall 2001 issue of The Reconstructionist journal expressed his understanding of the underpinnings of the Jewish rationale for social justice and environmental sustainability - - something so central to Steve’s being that in 2001 he was awarded both the Reconstructionist Student Association Prize for Social Action within RRC, and the Rabbi Devora Barnoff Memorial Prize for Spiritually Motivated Social Action.

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin is the General Consultant for COEJL and Director of the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network (BJEN) at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center, which is dedicated to promoting environmental advocacy, ethics and behavior. She is immediate past Director of Jewish Life at the JCC of Greater Baltimore. Ordained in 1988 from the Jewish Theological Seminary, she served that institution in several capacities including special assistant to the Chancellor, Assistant Dean of the Rabbinical School, as well as two years as Visiting Lecturer in Theology. Currently, she serves on the Chancellor’s Rabbinic Advisory Council. In 1978, Rabbi Cardin co-founded the Jewish Women’s Resource Center, which is now part of the National Council of Jewish Women-NY Section. Rabbi Cardin also co-founded the National Center for Jewish Healing, and the New York Jewish Healing Center in the mid-1990’s. Rabbi Cardin serves on the Boards of Chana, a Jewish organization that assists the victims of domestic violence, Hillel of Towson University, the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the Irvine Nature Center and the Foundation for Spirituality and Medicine. For five years, Rabbi Cardin was the editor of Sh’ma: a journal of Jewish responsibility. She is the author of A Tapestry of Jewish Time: a spiritual guide to the holidays and lifecycles, and Tears of Sorrow, Seeds of Hope: a spiritual companion to infertility and pregnancy loss among other books, writings and articles.

Liore Milgrom-Elcott, Project Manager

Liore Milgrom-Elcott is the Project Manager for the “A Light Among the Nations” campaign. Liore’s environmental passions took root and grew as she spent summers camping in the backcountry of America's National Parks. She received a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Natural Resources from Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with a concentration in Environmental Science. There, she focused specifically on the scientific and social aspects of the environment and pollution. She continued on at Cornell to receive a Masters of Professional Studies in Environmental and Developmental Economics, focusing on how monetary factors will and do play a role in environmental decisions. As an undergraduate, she sat on the Hillel programming board and founded Teva, the campus Jewish environmental group. After graduating, she spent five months representing the American Jewish World Service in rural education and its tsunami relief work in Kanchipuram, India, a conglomerate of fifty-plus individual villages. She has also worked in the Dominican Republic and Mexico on environmental and social justice projects. Most recently she was a Community Liaison for Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Scarsdale) in her campaign and Assembly offices with a specific focus on environmental issues and advocacy. ClimateChange@coejl.org

Jennifer Kefer, Climate and Energy Policy Program Coordinator

Jennifer graduated from Brandeis University with a major in Environmental Studies in 1996  and went on to earn a Masters of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment in 1998 and a Juris Doctorate from the Yale Law School in 2001.  Upon graduation from law school, Jennifer clerked for Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. For the past five years, she has worked as an attorney at both Earthjustice and Environmental Defense where she represented numerous national environmental organizations in lawsuits brought under the federal Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.  In her spare time, Jennifer is very active in her synagogue and was recently honored as a distinguished young leader by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism for her contributions, including her participation in the synagogue's Environment Committee.  As the Climate and Energy Program Coordinator, Jennifer will now have the opportunity to merge her commitment to Judaism and the environment. Jennifer@coejl.org