Who We Are / Leadership and Staff
Executive Committee
| Halacha Committee
| Education and Curriculum Committee
| Science and Action Committee
| Administrative/Publicity Committee
| Eitz Chayim Hee Production Team
Executive Committee :
Comprised of the founders of the organization, who are responsible for overall coordination and direction.
Executive Committee : Evonne Marzouk: Executive Director
Evonne Marzouk is the founder and Executive Director of Canfei Nesharim. Evonne has spoken worldwide on the Torah-environment connection, and also currently leads “Maayan Olam,” a Torah-environment committee serving three synagogues in Silver Spring, MD, where she lives with her husband and son. In addition, Evonne has worked for ten years in the Office of International Affairs at EPA.
In 2002, Evonne served on EPA's policy coordination team for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which she attended as a member of the U.S. delegation. Evonne coordinated outreach to congregations in EPA's Energy Star for Congregations program in 2000, and she served as the Legislative Assistant for the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life in 1998-99. She has also worked in EPA's Office of Children's Health Protection, and the Water Division of EPA's Regional Office in San Francisco, where she worked on projects involving outreach to Indian tribes.
As part of her work with Canfei Nesharim, Evonne has coordinated Torah learning sessions, camping Shabbatons, Tu b'Shevat seders, fundraisers, and activities to reduce the environmental impact of synagogues. She has served on the executive board of Shomrei Adamah, the local Jewish environmental group in Washington, DC, where she acted as an advocate for engaging the Orthodox community in environmental protection. She has also given numerous speeches and presentations on the importance of protecting the environment from a Torah perspective. In 2003, she received an "Unsung Hero Award" from EPA for her work with Canfei Nesharim. In 2009, she was selected as one of The New York Jewish Week's "36 under 36."
Executive Committee : Ora Sheinson: President and Board Chair
Ora Sheinson is a founding board member of Canfei Nesharim, an environmental litigation associate at Patton Boggs, LLP, an international law firm, and the mother of four children. Ora has pursued the intersection of environmental activism and Halacha from her days in University at Stern College, where she actively lectured on the relationship between Halacha and the Environment. She advanced her knowledge of the public health implications of environmental contamination during her studies for her BA in biology at Stern College, and published several papers on the topic. While in Columbia Law School, Ora published a paper in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, discussing the laws of Harchakat Nezkin and how those laws relate to modern American environmental and property laws.
She continues to lecture in communities across the east coast on Tu Bishvat and other environmental issues, and has been quoted in several Jewish newspapers. After graduating Columbia, she worked in New York City for several AM 100 law firms, and has settled in the Environmental department at Patton Boggs in Newark, NJ. Her firm serves as Pro Bono counsel to Canfei Nesharim, and is supportive of her work.
Ora continues to expend significant time working to extend the resources and reach of Canfei Nesharim. She currently resides in Hillside, NJ and is raising four
wonderful children with her husband, Baruch.
Executive Committee : Rabbi Barry Kornblau
Rabbi Barry Kornblau has been rabbi of the Young Israel of Hollis Hills-Windsor Park, in Bayside, Queens, NY since 2003. Since 2005, he has also served as Director of Committees and Operations at the national offices of the Rabbinical Council of America in Manhattan, NY. He is also a member of the Va'ad Harabonim of Queens. Between receiving a B.A. in music theory and composition from Yale University in 1988 and ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University in 2001, he worked for many years on Wall Street as a fixed income analyst, primarily at Goldman Sachs & Co. He also studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut, Israel. Rabbi Kornblau is married to Dina, a pediatric neurologist who practices in the Bronx, NY. Together, they are blessed with five children, including a set of twin girls.
Executive Committee
| Halacha Committee
| Education and Curriculum Committee
| Science and Action Committee
| Administrative/Publicity Committee
| Eitz Chayim Hee Production Team
|
