The Greening of Judaism

International Jewish Environmental Movement
Across All Denominations Builds Momentum
at Conference in Southern California

Malibu, CA (April 2, 2000) - Fifteen-year-old Katie Fernbach traveled alone across the country to represent her synagogue at the fourth annual Leadership Institute of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL).

"I came because I wanted to get my temple more involved in environmental issues. As Jewish people, we can make a difference. Everyone lives on this earth," said Katie, of B'nai Or in Morris Plains, New Jersey. "As God's people we need to take a special responsibility to take care of creation."

Katie's passion is echoed by 85-year-old Selma Rubin, arriving with the flowers from her birthday party. "I am extremely impressed with both the caliber of the speakers and the energy and the caring and beauty of the people who participated. I go away with a wonderful feeling for the future," said Selma, Board member of the Jewish Environmental League of Ventura / Santa Barbara. "This is a group of parents of the world-people who speak for all of the living organisms that don't have their own voice."

Katie and Selma joined 168 Jewish environmental activists from across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in southern California for COEJL's Mark and Sharon Bloome Jewish Environment Leadership Training Institute from March 30 to April 2.

Activists spanning the spectrum of Jewish identity and affiliation-from Orthodox to Reconstructionist to secular-assembled at a camp nestled in the Malibu Mountains to continue building a Jewish movement to protect the environment and the well-being of future generations. Students, environmental professionals, scientists, health practitioners, rabbis, educators, synagogue presidents and many others shared and created new visions of tikkun olam. A joyous sense of community and serious purpose were palpable throughout three days of presentations, Shabbat services, Torah study, and seminars.

"I had never before felt a connection between Judaism and environmentalism. The experience of being in nature and of hearing traditional Jewish chants crystallized the connection," said Matt Greenbaum, who attended the conference in preparation to lead his congregation as President in 2001. He is currently executive vice president of Temple Sinai in New Orleans, the largest Reform synagogue in Louisiana. "This conference will have a profound impact on my role in Jewish leadership in New Orleans by clarifying for me the importance of religious environmentalism."

Founded in 1993 by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Jewish Theological Seminary and the Religious Action Center as the Jewish member of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, COEJL has grown from a small national office into a grassroots movement with twelve affiliates across North America. Through the affiliates and others initiatives, COEJL activists are engaging thousands synagogues, schools, Hillels, camps, JCCs, and other Jewish institutions, and tens of thousands of Jews in addressing local environmental challenges-from protecting open space and reducing air pollution to building environmental justice coalitions and supporting urban forestation. COEJL affiliates organize programs and action for hundreds of local Jewish institutions and thousands of individuals.

"It is our moral obligation to protect God's creation. As the Midrash teaches us, there will be no one to repair the world if we destroy it," said Catherine Greener, founder and co-chair of Southeast Michigan COEJL and vice chair of the Michigan Interfaith Global Warming Campaign. Southeast Michigan COEJL grew out of the 1999 Institute, which took place in Washington, D.C.

At the 1999 Institute, Yoshua Schulman, Tufts Hillel Tzedek Fellow, and Nili Simhai, program coordinator of the Teva Learning Center in New York, met. This year, they returned, engaged to be married. And Yoshua brought three students from Tufts University to develop Jewish environmental leadership on campus. They are following in the footsteps established by Rabbi Fred Dobb, the spiritual leader of Congregation Adat Shalom in Rockville, MD.

At thirty years old, Rabbi Dobb noted "the irony of being a veteran in the movement. To me, the conference is a watershed gathering. The excitement of bringing together students, local activists, rabbis, and community leaders around this connection will propel the organization and movement forward--regionally, nationally, and even internationally."

COEJL is "the next big thing of the environmental movement," said Adam Werbach, elected at age 23 as the first Jewish national president of the Sierra Club. "The strongest tool to fight corporate greed and environmental neglect is the spiritual movement that COEJL is organizing. It is affirming as a Jew to find other Jews who stand for the same things I do."

The program of this year's Mark and Sharon Bloome Jewish Environmental Leadership Institute included panels on "The Promise of Jewish Environmentalism," "Urban Ecology," "Environmental Health," "Climate Change," and "The Future of Food." Intensive skills-building seminars were offered in "Jewish Ritual and Political Action," "Community Organizing," "Community Ecology," and "Jewish Environmental Education." And Shabbat was observed through both traditional and non-traditional services as well as Shabbat walks consisting of hiking, meditation, prayer, and singing.

In addition to Adam Werbach, faculty members included Andy Lipkis, founder of TreePeople, the largest environmental education organization in the U.S.; Dr. Devra Davis, one of the world's leading environmental health scientists; Rabbi Arthur Waskow, author of Down to Earth Judaism and numerous other books on Judaism and ecology; Michael Ableman, founder of the Center for Urban Agriculture in Santa Barbara; and Heather Booth, one of the nation's leading community organizers and veteran of many environmental and social justice battles.

OTHER VOICES FROM COEJL'S MARK AND SHARON BLOOME JEWISH ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP TRAINING INSTITUTE 2000
"This movement makes Judaism alive for me. I thank COEJL for providing me a Jewish home. Before it was just a bunch of strange words, rituals, and buildings. Now it's something so deep I can't even describe it. It moves me right to the core of my being. The more I get involved with this part of Judaism, the more I think that this is going to save both Judaism and the environment at the same time. What could be better than that."
-- Stephan Sylvan, an environmental engineer who works for the federal government in Michigan.

"The Northwest Jewish Environmental Project is a great place for unaffiliated Jews to come together with other members of the tribe, explore and express their identity in a supportive place, and also accomplish great things to protect and restore the environment."
-- Rick Davis, a mortgage banker who serves on the Board of Advisors of the Northwest Jewish Environmental Project, COEJL's affiliate in Seattle.

"Through my years as a Jewish environmental educator, this conference has consistently provided me the spiritual rejuvenation, the tools, and the context to develop the programs of the Teva Learning Center, which now engages 2,500 Jewish day school students a year from throughout the Northeast in environmental education. COEJL has been central to the development of my spirituality sensibility and environmental ethics, which I now want to bring to a new arena of activism, the private sector."
--Adam Berman, former director of the Teva Learning Center and MBA student at UC Berkeley.

"COEJL is a focused way to combine my interest in Judaism with my interest in the environment. It is my hope that we can provide a way for Jews who feel alienated from mainstream Judaism to come back to their roots."
-- Gail Abend, a science writer and founder of Ruach Mojave/COEJL of Las Vegas.

The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, a coalition of 27 national Jewish organizations spanning the spectrum of Jewish religious and communal life, serves as the voice of the organized Jewish community on a wide array of environmental issues. COEJL is the Jewish member of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.