Joan Bokaer

Many people have beliefs and visions about how the world should be, but few step up and work to make their visions happen. Joan Bokaer, visionary and activist, was one of those people. During her college years, Joan marched for Civil Rights in Washington and heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech. On a student trip to Israel, she met Tsvi Bokaer on a kibbutz in the Negev Desert. After settling in California, Joan and Tsvi had two daughters, Jennifer and Abigail, who they raised together after their amicable split.

Joan worked for years as a first-grade teacher at Westland Elementary School in Los Angeles, where she encouraged her students to explore in nature and nourished their inquisitiveness. Her philosophy of community and belonging was instilled through play and songs, and oodles of rabbits hopped freely around her classroom. Her playful nature was a great fit for this work, and right up until her death she continued to love children’s songs that embodied her values.

During the 1980s, the absurd gravity of the nuclear arms race called Joan to activism, and she traveled the country speaking on the necessity of disarmament. Due to her knack for communicating political and scientific information into comprehensible discourse, she became a leading public speaker in the disarmament movement and a protégé of Dr. Helen Caldicott. Joan’s activism evolved with her love of nature and concern for the environment, and she organized The Global Walk for a Livable World; in 1990 she walked with over 100 people across the country to raise environment awareness. The lives of the walkers—and the people who hosted them along the route—were transformed by the experience. After crossing the United States on foot, Joan’s next project was EcoVillage at Ithaca. She was the visionary and co-founder of this thriving sustainable co-housing community in Ithaca that has profoundly impacted thousands. She lived there for many years alongside her mother, daughters, and grandchildren.

Joan continued to organize: an EcoCity Conference in Senegal, a sister-village project with Yoff, and various projects to make Ithaca less dependent on cars. In the 1990s she became very concerned with the rise of the religious right (she saw it so early!) and established Theocracy Watch, an organization dedicated to protecting the separation of church and state.

Joan touched many lives on a personal and practical level as she continued her work as an educator, teaching beginning adult ESL to immigrants and refugees.

Joan is survived by her family, who was the light of her life: daughters Jen (John) and Abigail (Bob), grandchildren Aviv (Anselm), Nathaniel (Victoria), and Tivona, great-grandchild Eliahu, cherished partner Ba Stopha, the extended Bokaer family including Tsvi and Sarah Jane (who she appreciated greatly) and their children and grandchildren, sisters Carol and Lynn and nieces Maika, Dorigen, Emily, and Eva, their children, friends who loved her dearly, and many people whose lives she impacted deeply. She is preceded in death by her mother Sarah and her brother David.

Although mild dementia made her last few years challenging, she continued to live a life of zest until the end. If an older woman paddled up to you on a noodle in the warm pool at the gym and asked, “Tell me about your life,” that was likely Joan Bokaer. On a recent walk in the Lime Hollow Nature Preserve, Joan held onto her daughters’ arms as they strolled through the woods, singing one of her favorite songs from her elementary school teaching days: “Love is Something if You Give it Away.” When the trail ended at the pond, Joan said, “Shh, let’s listen to nature.” She closed her eyes and took in the sounds of the crickets, the birdsong, and the cattails rustling in the wind.

Joan gave us the extraordinary gift of approaching death lucidly, with peace and curiosity. She died surrounded by love. In remembrance of Joan, please take a walk or talk with a stranger about their life, and when you see a problem in the world, work to fix it.

We will celebrate Joan’s life at 3 PM Friday 11/20/26 at Anabel Taylor Hall.