Over the past 30 years, Jewish scholars have written a wide variety of works on the environment, but more work lies ahead. COEJL is trying to enlarge the scope of Jewish environmental scholarship. We want to promote and nurture a comprehensive, contemporary, environmental theology. As we inspire Jews across the denominational and theological spectrum to articulate Jewish environmental philosophy and ethics, we hope to provide the framework for new resources for teaching, sermonizing, and discussion about environmental themes within Judaism.

The central product of our work will be a Rabbinic Letter on Judaism and the Environment (now being drafted). We plan to have this letter signed by the leaders of all the major Jewish denominations as well as other scholars, rabbis and educators. We will then publicize and distribute the letter to all rabbis and Jewish educators in North America. It will also be promoted on COEJL’s Web site as well as the Web sites of other organizations which represent the religious environment movement around the world. The Letter will be presented publicly during the National Religious Partnership for the Environment convocation in May, 2005.

We have also commissioned scholars with widespread authority and influence in the Jewish world to write papers on the relationship between God, Creation and humanity. A second group of scholars is writing papers on Judaism and its application to contemporary environmental policy.

The COEJL-sponsored scholars are:

• Rabbi Saul J. Berman, Director, Edah, New York.
• Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, Director, Organizational Development, National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, New York
• Rabbi Rachel Cowan, Executive Director, Institute for Jewish Spirituality.
• Rabbi Everett Gendler, retired, Temple Emanuel, Lowell, MA.
• Dr. Paul Kay, Associate Professor, Environment and Resource Studies, Waterloo University, Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA.
• Dr. Robert Rabinowitz, Vice President and Economist, Chicago Climate Exchange, Chicago.
• Dr. Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor Emeritus, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York.
• Rabbi Jonathan Slater, Co-director for Program, Institute for Jewish Spirituality.
• Rabbi Daniel Sperber, Professor, Talmudic Studies, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, ISRAEL.
• Dr. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Associate Professor, History, Arizona State University, Phoenix.
• Rabbi Lawrence Troster, Rabbinic Fellow, COEJL, New York.
• Dr. Martin Yaffe, Professor, Philosophy and Religion Studies, University of North Texas, Denton, TX.

Rabbi Lawrence Troster, COEJL's rabbinic fellow, has recently prepared a background paper on the modern history of Jewish environmental scholarship. He reviews the field of environmental ethics, the religious environment movement, and Jewish environmental writing during the last 30 years. Then, he analyzes the major themes of Jewish environmentalism and suggests where future scholarship may proceed. Rabbi Troster's work forms the context for a major COEJL initiative, in which other scholars are writing on the relationship between God, Creation and humanity, and environmental justice; how the Jewish tradition can translate these ideas into ethics, ritual and prayer; and Judaism and its application to contemporary environmental ethics and policy.