It’s the new year for Trees and it’s time to celebrate the environment around us.
Tu B’Shvat, one of the lesser known Jewish new years (there are four it seems), is a time to feel thankful for nature, trees and to increase awareness of the environment around us. This has never been more relevant than now.
Young JW3 invites you to join us from your sofa to hear from six young Jews who are working in vastly different ways to ensure a sustainable future for all. We will hear from Rafi Addlestone, Rabbi Daniel Lichman, Shulamit Morris-Evans, Rebecca Perlman, Miriam Westbrook and Adam Abadi. Each speaker will share a bit about what they’re doing and present their new year’s resolution for the environment.
This event will now be streamed free on our Facebook and Youtube page. Join us and add your Tu B’Shvat resolutions to the comments section.
Tu B'Shvat Speaker Biographies■
Rafi Addlestone
Rafi Addlestone is a sustainability and impact strategist with over 10 years’ experience of delivering sustainable growth and societal impact.
As part of Deloitte UK’s sustainability practice, Rafi helps clients to maximise their positive contribution to the wider world, leveraging corporate purpose and impact measurement. Rafi particularly focuses on supporting companies across the technology, media and telecommunications sector. Rafi has led authorship of a number of ground-breaking studies on sustainability and impact, focused on topics including the role digital technology in delivering the UN’s sustainability development goals, best practice in impact reporting and the case for corporate purpose. Rafi also co-developed Deloitte’s global proposition on corporate purpose, and previously led third sector strategy for Monitor Deloitte. Before joining Deloitte he held an array of policy and ministerial advisory roles in UK government having started his career in the Civil Service Fast Stream. Rafi is also one of our trustees at JW3.
Rabbi Daniel Lichman
Rabbi Daniel Lichman teaches at Makor Hayim, a community whose purpose is to be a 'Source of Life' dedicated to 'the practice of how to be more compassionate, loving and just human beings, who make an active contribution to the world we want to see.' Makor Hayim is based in the Jubilee line (Finchley Road to Dollis Hill) area of North-West London and is currently meeting on Zoom. Daniel studied at Leo Baeck College and loves trees.
Shulamit Morris-Evans
Shulamit Morris-Evans joined Extinction Rebellion in 2018, was arrested at the end of that year and co-founded Extinction Rebellion Jews a few months after that. She hopes to help mobilise the Jewish community to action on climate change, especially as partners within an interfaith effort.
Rebecca Perlman
Rebecca Perlman is a corporate and charities lawyer at leading international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, where she specialises in impact investment and environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters.
Rebecca heads up Herbert Smith Freehills’ global impact investment & social finance practice and leads the firm’s ESG, sustainability & responsible business practice in the UK, US & EMEA. She also oversees the firm’s pro bono practice in the region.
Rebecca has spent time on secondment with the UK’s National Council for Civil Liberties and with the Government of Sierra Leone, where she advised on the country’s response to the 2014 Ebola crisis. She currently chairs the UN Refugee Agency’s UK charity and is a non-executive director of The Big Issue Invest Trust.
Miriam Westbrook
Miriam is a Senior Consultant for Ricardo Energy & Environment, working in the field of water management. She works on environmental protection and improvement projects for water companies, government bodies and private companies such as Heathrow Airport, helping clients to understand and manage their impacts on the water environment, deliver habitat improvements, and comply with environmental regulations. She specialises in Natural Capital studies - the assessment and monetary valuation of the benefits of environmental services on society and human wellbeing, although she also has a lot of experience out in the field taking water samples and flow measurements in rivers and lakes.
Miriam studied Geography at the University of Manchester and has worked in the water sector since 2015.
Adam Abadi
Adam Abadi is an Urban Farmer, Sustainability Advocate and Visionary, currently working for the pioneering, Israeli vertical farming start-up InFarm, creating an expanding network of urban farms growing fresh and nutritious food within cities across the globe. After witnessing the wasteful and inefficient environmental practices that came with traditional farming in his work in both Australia and the UK, Adam noticed a pressing need for sustainable farming practices. This ignited his unquenchable thirst for engaging with more sustainable and environmentally friendly farming practices.
Infarm’s values go hand-in-hand with Adam’s ambitions to help solve one of the toughest urban sustainability challenges today: feeding the cities of tomorrow. His mission is now to educate, inspire and empower people to understand and adopt these practices worldwide to build a brighter future.
