Core Team
Rabbi Yonatan Neril founded and directs The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development. Raised in California, Yonatan completed an M.A. and B.A. from Stanford University with a focus on global environmental issues, and received rabbinical ordination in Israel.
Yonatan is coauthor of the bestselling book Eco Bible, published by ICSD, which shines new light on how the Hebrew Bible and great religious thinkers have urged human care and stewardship of nature for thousands of years as a central message of spiritual wisdom.
He has spoken internationally on religion and the environment, including at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, the Fez Climate Conscience Summit and the Parliament of World Religions. He co-organized ten interfaith environmental conferences in Jerusalem, New York City, Washington D.C., and Atlanta. He is the lead author of three books on Jewish environmental ethics and also co-authored three reports on faith and ecology courses in theological education. He lives with his wife, Shana and their two children in Jerusalem.
The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky. An ordained Lutheran minister since 2000, Leah has served congregations in rural, urban, and suburban settings. She earned both her MDiv and PhD degrees from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (now United Lutheran Seminary).
Her publications include: Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit (Chalice Press, 2015); Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019); and Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis, co-edited with Margaret Bullitt-Jonas with essays from a cross-section of faith leaders and activists offering their spiritual wisdom and energy for facing the difficult days ahead (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). She has also written a Creation-centered Lenten devotional, For the Beauty of the Earth (Chalice Press, 2019).
Leah has served as an anti-fracking and climate activist, community organizer, and advocate for environmental justice issues and is the “EcoPreacher” blogger for Patheos.com. She began partnering with the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development in 2021 as their EcoPreacher Resource Development Consultant to create a monthly resource called EcoPreacher 1-2-3 for busy pastors wanting to address environmental issues in their sermons.
Deborah Lee Rose is an award-winning children’s author, science writer and editor whose books, many with environmental themes, are read around the world. They include The People Who Hugged the Trees, Into the A, B, Sea, Ocean Babies, Jimmy the Joey, Beauty and the Beak: How Science, Technology, and a 3D-Printed Beak Rescued a Bald Eagle, Scientists Get Dressed and Astronauts Zoom! She was also a senior science writer for UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science.
Deborah most recently edited Eco Bible and Plastic Sea: A Bird’s-eye View. She lives with her husband, Ken, an environmental health scientist, in Silver Spring, MD. (www.deborahleerose.com)
Pesach Chananiah is grateful to be involved with ICSD to transform the relationship between faith and ecology in Los Angeles and beyond. In the past, he has worked on a variety of social justice organizing campaigns, from interfaith capacity-building efforts in Las Vegas and Los Angeles to coalescing stakeholders to improve air quality in and around port communities. Pesach has also taught in a wide range of Jewish education contexts, including youth wilderness programs in New York, Beverly Hills, and the Bay Area. Most recently, Pesach completed his PhD in Community, Liberation, and Ecopsychology – and he brings to all of his work his training in tending of soul in and of the world. Additionally, Pesach is a trained yoga teacher and practitioner of mindfulness meditation. He lives in the Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles with his partner Kimeiko Rae and enjoys urban biking and cooking vegetarian meals.