Yonatan Neril

Biography

Rabbi Yonatan Neril founded and directs The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, which reveals the connection between religion and ecology and mobilizes faith communities to act. 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. He has spoken internationally on religion and the environment, including at the UN Environment Assembly, the Fez Climate Conscience Summit, the Parliament of World Religions, and the Pontifical Urban University. He co-organized twelve interfaith environmental conferences in Jerusalem, New York City, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. As part of ICSD's Faith Inspired Renewable Energy Project in Africa, he has been involved in facilitating the development of commercial scale solar fields on church lands in Africa. He is the lead author and general editor of two books on Jewish environmental ethics including Uplifting People and Planet: 18 Essential Jewish Teachings on the Environment. Yonatan also co-authored three ICSD reports on faith and ecology courses in seminary education in Israel, North America, and Rome. He is currently working on publishing the first-ever ecological commentary on the Hebrew Bible. He is a member of the United Nations Environment Program's Faith-based Advisory Council, and of the Pontifical Universities' Alliance for Laudato Si' Advisory Council. He was a Dorot Fellow, PresenTense Fellow, and Haas Koshland Award recipient. He lives with his wife, Shana and their two children in Jerusalem. He enjoys hiking and being in nature.