International Women’s Day 2023 #EmbraceEquity 8th March 2023
Summary:
Wednesday 8th March - 10:00AM-2:30 PM
NW London Venue
Programme:
The JLC and Lead are delighted to be holding an event to celebrate International Women's Day 2023, the theme of which is #EmbraceEquity. On Wednesday 8th March we will be bringing together a range of speakers to discuss some of the topics individuals and organisations are currently facing.
The programme for the day is as follows and as you’ll see there’s a lot going on!
9.45 - 10.00: Arrival and Refreshments
10.00 – 10.05: Welcome
10.05 – 10.30: Introductory Activity
10.30 – 11.30: Opening Plenary – Embracing equity in our organisations
Panel speakers: Daniel Carmel-Brown (Jewish Care), Nechama Kutner (Lloyds Banking Group) and Rona Harvey (PUBLIC)
11.30 – 11.45: Break
11.45 – 12.45: Breakout sessions
Sharing perspective on women’s faith leadership journeys
Panel of religious leaders across denominations
Government reform – what system changes would make the biggest impact?
Speaker: Sam Freedman (Ark)
Policies vs Empowerment – how far do we need to go?
In conversation: Mandie Winston (UJIA) and Cevin Owens (Harvard Business School)
12.45 – 1.30: Lunch
1.30 – 2.20: Interactive final session with Jewish Women's Aid and Keshet UK– diversity and equity in action
2.20 – 2.30: Closing
To book your place please click here. Please note there is a £15 charge and a kosher lunch will be provided.
Speaker Biographies
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Rabbi Charley Baginsky has been involved with the Liberal Jewish movement since childhood – as both a youth leader with LJY-Netzer and an educator.
She is now the Chief Executive Officer of Liberal Judaism, following on from her post of Director of Strategy and Partnerships, which she has held for four years.
Charley is responsible for setting the direction and priorities for the movement, fundraising, liaising with all our external partners and most importantly with all our communities. She will often be seen representing the movement and oversees the Liberal Judaism communications team.
After studying Theology, first at Cambridge and then King’s College London, Charley spent several years working in Israel which included a period at Leo Baeck, Haifa, where she also studied at Haifa University. She was ordained at Leo Baeck College in the UK.
Charley was the Rabbi for Kingston Liberal Synagogue for over ten years, before joining the Liberal Judaism team and combining this with four years at South Bucks Jewish Community. Charley has served as the Chair of ColRaC and has overseen Liberal Judaism’s national conferences for many years.
She is the mother to Joshua, Eliana and Cassia.
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While I was growing up my dad, Rabbi Tony Bayfield, was head of the Reform Movement and my mum, Linda, was headteacher at Akiva school. You could say Reform Judaism runs through my veins.
After a straight path from Henrietta Barnett school to reading theology at Bristol university, to a year at HUC in Jerusalem, I enrolled on the rabbinic training programme at Leo Baeck college.
I was ordained in 2006 and came to work at FRS – initially as the associate, but shortly after I was made Principal Rabbi.
The community has accompanied me on life’s journey since that time, celebrating with me when I was engaged and married to my husband Jonni, and again in 2011 when we had our son, Ben.
Having personally lived through some challenging times, as well as supporting members through their own difficulties, I have been inspired to create the Mikveh Project UK. I hope to see “Wellspring”, a centre of wellbeing with a mikveh at its heart, opening very soon.
During my time with FRS, I have watched the membership almost double in size, and the clergy and professional team grow – but hope we continue to feel like a small and closely connected community.
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Cheryl Brodie is an independent consultant working in learning, development and organisation development. Her career has been in the public and private sector in diverse organisations including advertising, banks, education and NHS.
Her passion is changing organisations and individuals so that the work is more productive, customer focussed and satisfying. She has done this through strategy development, education management, leadership programmes and business improvement teams, never underestimating complexity and the role of conversation. She has set up Learning and Development departments and held Assistant Director OD positions, most recently in a Mental Health Organisation which had 60 hospitals across the UK. Her task was to align and oversee all education and training ensuring it led to real outcomes for the patients. To achieve this she led a major IT project to implement e-learning for staff and patients that they could get excited about. As well as making business cases and project management Cheryl also designed and wrote programmes always with an emotional connection to the delegates. She also coaches aspiring leaders.
Currently Cheryl works with charities. She founded and runs a Refugee charity, holds a Trustee position with a Hospice and also runs programmes to improve charity effectiveness. This has included a programme for JLC ‘Follow the Leader’, a certificated programme focusing on the finances, budgeting and strategy of charities as well as the softer skills
Cheryl is deeply committed to work that enables people to develop themselves and in turn, serve in supporting the development of others. She holds a B.ED and MSc in Education Management. She also has post-graduate qualifications in Advanced Process Consultancy (Tavistock) and Coaching. In addition she is qualified Level A & B psychometric tests and MBTI.
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Sarah is Head of Education at KeshetUK. An experienced primary school teacher, she is currently conducting academic research to improve school-based relationships and sex education. Sarah also lectures at the LSJS with a focus on inclusion in the Jewish classroom; and is a Trustee for Migdal Emunah.
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Daniel is the CEO at Jewish Care, he was appointed to the role of CEO in April 2018 and has worked for the organisation for over 25 years.
Having started on the front line of the organisation as a care assistant at Redbridge Jewish Community Centre, Daniel held a variety of roles there before going on to manage the centre. He has also had the opportunity to lead the team at the Brenner Centre at Stepney Jewish Community Centre, at Raine House and is a qualified informal and community educator.
Prior to his role as CEO, Daniel was the Director of Fundraising and Marketing where he held responsibility for the organisation’s voluntary revenue income, capital projects fundraising, legacy income and marketing, the Jewish Care ‘brand’ and reputation management.
Daniel is married with 3 children and enjoys a bit of exercise (he ran the London Marathon for Jewish Care in 2017). He is a Trustee of a number of other charities in both the Jewish and wider community.
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Rona Harvey is Chief Operations Officer running the UK & DE business and people operations at PUBLIC. Rona's career spans a mix of corporate and start-up with experience in global sales operations and strategy, business development, and sales consulting. Prior to PUBLIC, Rona spent eight years at Google, most recently as the global strategy operations lead. She also is a mentor for the Women in Africa Initiative, a platform for the economic development and support of African women entrepreneurs.
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Sam is a senior fellow at Ark. He is also a senior adviser to the education charity Ark.
Previously he was CEO of Education Partnerships Group, which supports governments in sub-Saharan Africa to develop education policy and was an executive director at Teach First. He worked at the Department for Education as a senior policy adviser to Michael Gove between 2010 and 2013.
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Natasha is responsible for Human Resources, governance and events across the JLC, and its subdivision Lead.
Prior to joining the JLC, Natasha was the Events Venue Coordinator at the London Olympics and has had significant experience organising events and projects on a large scale, including working for Louis Vuitton as an Events Planner.
Natasha has a BA (Hons) from Birmingham University where she studied Events Management. Natasha is CIPD accredited in HR and Leadership and is a Diploma Level Associate.
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Emma Gray, is the Project Manager of the Workplace Sexual Harassment Prevention Programme, a programme led by Jewish Women’s Aid in partnership with the Jewish Leadership Council. It supports organisations in the Jewish community via training, mentoring and policy good practice to create safe, respectful and productive workplaces, and to ensure sexual harassment is not tolerated.
Jewish Women’s Aid is the only specialist charity in the UK working with Jewish women and their children affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence. They support Jewish women and girls aged 16+ (14+ in London) and have a full-time support worker dedicated to working with young women aged 14-24.
They run a holistic and culturally sensitive service, offering advocacy and emotional support, counselling, group work, helplines, web chat and children’s therapy services. Their preventive educational work takes place in synagogues, schools, on campus and across Jewish community settings.
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Michelle is the JLCc Co-CEO and she is responsible for the strategic growth and direction of the organisation.
Before joining Lead, she worked for Masorti Judaism as their Operations Director for 5 years managing programming, events and volunteer development. Michelle has also previously worked as a Head of Department in a London school and was seconded to Middlesex University as a lecturer.
She has completed an MBA with a focus on senior lay-professional relationships in the UK Jewish community, Michelle’s links to leadership training and development stretch back over 20 years.
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A strategic HR professional and EDI specialist, skilled at innovating and driving positive change in fast and complex environments. Nechama is currently leading the Culture & People team for Consumer Lending in Lloyds Banking Group – consulting the business in I&D, sustainability, culture, engagement and career development. Particular interest in sustaining a universally inclusive environment which attracts and retains people from all backgrounds, whilst promoting rich development opportunities for all those with an appetite to grow.
Nechama has a strong track record in creating and embedding I&D strategies & initiatives using an analytical approach - focusing around job design, attraction, pipeline and retention.
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I am a Jewish educator passionate about bringing Judaism to life for young people and adults alike. My teaching is driven by a desire to inspire students with a Judaism which is affirmative, relevant, joyful, intellectually solid and centred around Jewish sources. Feel free to read more about my teaching ethos and the different kinds of teaching I offer.
Since January 2022 I have been the Rabbi in Training at Kehillat Nashira, a partnership minyan in Borehamwood. To find out more about this warm, inclusive Jewish community, take a look at our website or Facebook page.
My studies have included a year at Midreshet Harova in Jerusalem, and a year in the Pardes Beit Midrash, where I was an Experiential Education Fellow, supported by Yesod. I am currently in my second year studying for semicha (ordination) at Yeshivat Maharat. I read Theology & Religious Studies at Cambridge, and worked in inter-faith dialogue for nearly a decade – these experiences inform my teaching with insights from and comparisons with the worlds of philosophy, academic religious studies and other faiths.
I’ve taught in Jewish communities, at successive Limmud conferences, at JW3 and the London School of Jewish Studies, and one-on-one with adults and young people.
In 2017 I trained with Jerusalem’s Eden Centre to teach brides and grooms before marriage, and a new passion was born – I believe deeply that in-depth preparation which brings together spirituality, halacha, relationship coaching, and sexuality, is an essential start to building a healthy and strong Jewish home.
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At Harvard I architect innovative leadership development solutions and provide thought leadership in a variety of forums to support HBS Enterprise learning. Every single day I work to lift underserved populations into leadership positions around the world, it's the absolute best work of my life.
My passion is people leadership and leadership & organizational development. I've had the great pleasure of solving large business challenges through learning and operational initiatives throughout my career; this is what fuels my intense focus and energy to problem solve and succeed.
I have 18 years of experience in the learning industry specializing in global learning organizational development, learning operations and financial management, business analysis, learning administration management, curriculum design/development, and executive leadership. Most recently at McKinsey I created learning solutions for 27,000 service professionals around the globe. My specific focus was on New Hire Consultant Development, Diversity & Inclusion, Women’s Learning, Cyber & Risk.
The majority of my career has been in client facing roles. As the Senior Director of Learning for Expertus, I led the global content delivery business and provided strategic learning organization consulting for Expertus’ clients. In 2011 I was honored to be named one of the Top Training Professionals by Training Magazine.
Prior to joining Expertus, I focused 5 years developing and implementing strategic training business initiatives as the CEO for RemoteSite Training; each year doubling revenue and in 2005 receiving the designation of #1 Training Partner in North America by Adobe/Macromedia.
Having held key positions in the training industry for organizations such as Harvard, McKinsey, Global Knowledge and Xerox and worked across all sectors of business; I have led training organizations to develop innovative strategies for success and have become a trusted advisor for training professionals. I'm so very grateful for the work I've been able to lead and contribute to over the years, this is an incredible industry and environment to work.
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Rabbi Natasha Mann joined New London Synagogue by herself as a teenager. She was born in Hertfordshire to a lively interreligious and intercultural family. Rabbi Natasha fell in love with Jewish practice and ideas in her youth, at which point she joined New London Synagogue and studied with Rabbi Jeremy Gordon.
After achieving her first class honours degree in Theology from Heythrop College, University of London, Rabbi Natasha moved from London to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, she studied in the Conservative Yeshiva, and began to work in the non-profit world with Atzum – Justice Works, where she promoted better education and legislation on human trafficking issues.
Rabbi Natasha then moved to Los Angeles to study at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, American Jewish University. During her time in California, she worked at several West Coast synagogues (including rabbinic internships at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation on Mercer Island, and Temple Beth Abraham in Oakland), and worked as the Mashgiḥah (kashrut supervisor) at the American Jewish University. She also committed herself to evening classes in order to achieve a Certificate in Jewish Education.
Rabbi Natasha was ordained at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in 2019, and was honoured to be presented for ordination by Rabbi Jeremy. She has now returned home to New London Synagogue to serve as a rabbi. Rabbi Natasha also spends one Shabbat a month with Mosaic Masorti (formerly known as Hatch End Masorti Synagogue) and has a deep connection with Noam Masorti Youth.
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Claudia is the JLCs Co-CEO and sets the strategy and priorities for the Public Affairs team and leads on the JLC’s policy positions.
She has worked for various think tanks as a Research Analyst, focusing on the Middle East with a special interest in Iran and the transitioning Arab states.
She has a BSc in Biochemistry from University College London and an MA in Middle East Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is an alumna of the Adam Science Foundation Leadership Programme.
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Michelle leads on our long term strategic work on sustainability and challenges facing our members and community.
Michelle joins from JLC member World Jewish Relief where she was Head of Major Giving, having been at the organisation since 2012 when she joined as a trust fundraiser. She is a proud member of the Jewish community, having grown up in a family deeply committed to communal service, an active and busy United Synagogue (Belmont) and B’nei Akiva.
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Read bio here
