Two Jewish Environmental Organizations Announce Complementary Pledge Campaigns

New York, NY – (Oct. 15, 2009) COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, the seventeen-year old coalition made up of 29 national Jewish organizations spanning the full spectrum of Jewish religious and communal life that serves as the voice of the organized Jewish community on environmental issues in Washington, D.C. and around the country, and Hazon, the largest  environmental organization in the American Jewish community, announced today that they are undertaking new community-wide climate change and energy campaigns. They are seeking to engage the Jewish community here and in other countries to make increased activism and awareness regarding the environment more central to the fabric of Jewish life.

The cornerstones of both campaigns are pledge drives, which together seek to mobilize a large number of Jewish people and institutions to commit to learning, acting and advocating so that Jewish institutions and individuals start to effect serious change in relation to a wide range of environmental issues, such as adding environmental issues to the community's agendas;  improving the sustainability of their buildings;  engaging in advocacy efforts to prevent more global climate change from occurring; and to ensuring a more secure and less carbon-based energy policy for the world at large.  The pledge drives, while using different pledge language that will correspond to the different specifics of each campaign, are intended to be mutually supportive of each other.

The campaigns are part of a long-range effort to mobilize major changes in the Jewish community between now and 2015.  They will reinforce each other in calling for every Jewish institution to create green teams or sustainability committees aimed at starting the process of setting specific goals for lowering the carbon footprint of their institution and the whole community.

Hazon, working with a range of other Jewish environmental groups, will also focus on integrating education, action and advocacy and on making a wide range of materials available through a new website, www.jewishclimatecampaign.org.  Its campaign is part of a multi-faith effort, coordinated by the Alliance for Religions and Conservation in the UK, aimed at mobilizing faith communities in advance of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December.

COEJL, www.coejl.org , through its Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign will be focusing on increasing Jewish American engagement through the involvement of Jewish leaders and its 29 member national organizations, thousands of pledged participants, a solid engagement both within its wide organizational and synagogue structure as well as a full court press  on the legislative front in terms of strong global climate change legislation and in lifting up an effective Jewish religious and communal voice in our nations' current climate change and energy debates.   

Nigel Savage, the executive director of Hazon, said: "In the lead-up to the UN Climate Change Conference, faith communities around the world are starting to launch serious multi-year environmental campaigns.  We hope that Jewish institutions and leaders will take this opportunity to commit to make a difference."

Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), COEJL's parent organization, stated: "How pleased I am that we and Hazon are bringing the issues of climate change and energy security so front and center in Jewish life today. These efforts are necessary, and sadly have been a long time coming."

COEJL seeks to expand the contemporary understanding of such Jewish values as tikkun olam (repairing the world) and tzedek (justice) to include the protection of both people and other species from environmental degradation.  Hazon works to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community.

For more information on the Hazon campaign, go to www.jewishclimatecampaign.org, email climate@hazon.org or call Nigel Savage at 212.644.2332, and for the COEJL campaign please contact Steve Gutow at 212-689-3208