TheJewish Communal Leadership ProgramSunday’s panel event highlighted the Jewish community’s efforts to be environmentally-justed and sustainable. Six speakers shared their experiences in being environmental activists in the Jewish Community.
Kristy, a Jewish-Filipina environmentalist and founder of Brown Girl Green, a company that is committed to including the perspectives of peoples of color in the climate movement. Kaplan Drutman is another speaker at the event and an organizer and campaigner at. MoveOnNonpartisan advocacy and education on important national issues. The organization has worked with communities to close down coal plants. Drutman also worked to protect water resources.
Drutman drew on her own experiences to highlight the challenges faced by green non-profits led by people with color, especially when it is about community attention and resources.
Drutman said that I am constantly thinking about resource allocation within the climate movement. I remember that I worked with both big, mainstream, white environmental organizations. I’ve also worked with predominantly Black or Brown-led environmental justice organisations that don’t receive the same amount funding, press support, or just general clout like these large mainstream environmental groups.
Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein is a rabbinic scholar who also serves as a public affairs advisor at Jewish Federations of North America. He said that one of the challenges in discussing climate change is the division between science and religion.
Rothstein stated that it is difficult for ideologies to co-exist. It is hard to address the power education has on people, especially when they are one against the other.
Sophia Rich, a junior high school student and a member the National Leadership Board Jewish Youth Climate MovementShe spoke out about how she felt she wasn’t being taken seriously because she was her age. She also stressed the importance for younger people to engage in environmental justice action.
Rich stated that the tokenization of youth has been a topic we’ve been discussing a lot lately. It has become a very common issue in various eco spaces and in social justicia. Everyone says Hi, Sophia. Shes our young person. She’ll give us our young perspective. But, I think, especially when we think about the climate crisis we need to consider all the responsibility being held by these young people, and the fact we are Generation Z. This is part and parcel of our responsibility in dealing with this crisis.
Assistant professor at Stanford University’s Department of Religious Studies, Rabbi Dr. Ariel Mayse described the importance of Jewish narratives towards environmental justice and building structures that make everyone feel obliged to make a difference.
Mayse stated that obligation is a key part of Judaism. It brings a theory of obligation along with a toothsome ethic about the environment. This is not only about individual moral choices. This must be paired with understanding that we act from within stories. Sophia and others spoke today about the need to think differently about the stories we are living in and the actions that reflect them.
The event ended with the speakers discussing how Jewish institutions could do more for environmental justice and increasing awareness about climate change.
Rabbi Ellen Bernstein was the founder of The Sanctuary. First Jewish environmental organization1988 and currently serves on the advisory panel of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, spoke about the need to increase climate change discussion in higher education.
Bernstein said that for many years I tried to get a masters of Judaism Ecology from various seminaries. People have always said that there isn’t enough money. This is the most important issue in our time. The fact that it is not being addressed by Jewish higher education institutions is very sad.
Jonathan Wang, Daily News Contributor can be reached via [email protected]