Yael Stone to deliver keynote address at Social Justice Summit on gender equity

Australian actor Yael Stone will be joined by female leaders and advocates at this weekend’s summit in Sydney to discuss women’s status and inclusion in the Jewish community.

Yael Stone headlines an exciting range of speakers and sessions at this year’s Jewish Social Justice Summit, which will be themed around gender equity.

Stone, who is best known for her role in the Netflix series, Orange Is the New Black, has been an outspoken activist on a range of issues. Over the past few years she has spoken out about sexual harassment in the theatre and engaged in the climate debate, rejecting her US Green Card to return home in a show of solidarity over reducing CO2 emissions.

Stone has also founded an organisation that uses solar projects to fund scholarships for local workers training for “low carbon” jobs, and is an ambassador for AIME, a mentoring program for Indigenous high school students.

This year’s summit, to be held at Sydney’s Emanuel Synagogue on August 28, will also feature a diverse array of Jewish community leaders and activists, including Nomi Kaltmann, founder of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, and as of this week, a Teal candidate for the seat of Caulfield in the upcoming Victorian election; Jillian Segal, President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry; Lisa Ezekiel (CEO of NCJWA in Victoria), Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio from Emanuel Synagogue, who will make the opening remarks, and leaders from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which has a strongly female leadership.

Summit sessions will include a discussion of the status of women in Jewish community organisations, Jewish women in leadership, a roundtable about the results of the gender survey commissioned by the summit, case studies of organisations creating meaningful change, and the big ideas that that will boost women’s leadership and inclusion.