[ad_1]
AGE: 12
FAMILY: Parents Tara, Michael; brother Noah, 15.
SCHOOL: Kellman Brown Academy
SYNAGOGUE: Congregation Beth El
FAVORITE PLANT: Tiger tail succulent
Cong. Mira Berman, a Beth El student in Voorhees is determined to make a positive environmental impact in her local community. With the support of her science teacher and faculty advisor, Melinda Starts, and her principal, Rachel Zivic, the 7th grader at Kellman Brown Academy has created a student led group called the “Kvutzah,” a local chapter of the Jewish Youth Climate Movement (JYCM). JYCM, a teen-led organization that was sponsored by Hazon in 2019, was founded in 2019. Its mission is to reduce climate change and other environmental injustices under the guidance and support of Jewish values. It aims to make climate change a central tenet in Jewish identity for the 21st century. It also provides resources and education to local outposts to help them take collective action.
What first began as Berman’s mitzvah project, the “Kvutzah,” established at KBA, which simply means “group” in Hebrew, is comprised of 12 fellow students, all of whom are passionate about the fight against climate change. Their inaugural event was held on Martin Luther King Jr. Community Mitzvah Day. “We cleaned up the woods by our school, which had a lot of trash that shouldn’t have been there,” Berman said. “About 30 other students and their parents showed up to help clean up our environment and it was really fun to get a whole big group of people to help me out.”
Berman was raised vegetarian and a vegetarian from six years old in a home that ate meat. “The thought of eating an animal always grossed me out and disturbed me,” she said. “Then as I got older, I found out that it was not only helping animals, but it was also helping the environment with the carbon emissions.”
Berman stated that the Kvutzah is aiming to expand its community initiatives. To earn a “seal of sustainability” from JYCM, they need to organize at least three annual service projects, a goal they aim to surpass. Following in KBA’s footsteps, another Kvutzah was recently formed at Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill, advised by religious school educator John Imhof. The two groups have been discussing potential collaboration ideas recently.
For example, the Daffodil Project is an organization that aims to plant one and a quarter million daffodils in honor of the Holocaust-survivor children. “That project with TBS might be something that happens in the future,” Berman noted. Berman is excited about another project that is in the works: a local highway clean-up. With the help of her mother Tara, she applied to partner with “Adopt a Highway,” a program that offers volunteers roadside security so they can safely clean up trash-laden segments of highway.
Berman credits Starts, her sixth grade science elective teacher, with setting her ambitions in motion. She stressed the seriousness and presented educational documentaries to students in class. “I want people to understand that it’s our own fate, that we’re causing this to ourselves,” Berman said. “We’re polluting the environment, and it’s going to be too late soon, so we might as well do something now. Cleaning our environment is Tikkun Olam.”
Though she won’t attend Jewish high school, opting for Haddonfield Memorial High School, Berman said that Jewish courses like Hebrew or Bible have come more naturally to her. “My relationship with Judaism is very strong. I’m not going to stop practicing Judaism; it’s going to keep with me as I grow. I don’t want to leave it behind me.”
