Jews and the Climate Emergency
I was pleased with the recent Jews and the Climate Emergency Workshop that Diane Shisk and I led together. A hundred and eight Jews attended—from England, Israel, Canada, and the United States. Diane was there in her role as International Commonality Reference Person for Care of the Environment and with a commitment to being an even stronger ally to Jews in climate work.
Merchi Shukrun-Lior, the Regional Reference Person for Israel, was a consultant to Diane and me on climate-work issues for Global Majority Jews. She led an important part of the Saturday afternoon class, helping us understand how the racism of white climate activists in Israel slows down the important leadership of Mizrachi Jews in climate work.
I did a lot of discharging leading up to the workshop. I wanted to understand my own early hurts and those of Jews in general that get in the way of embracing climate work as our own and as being key to Jewish liberation.
FINDING A HOME IN THE CLIMATE MOVEMENT
We Jews, beyond our numbers, have been leaders in liberation movements such as the labor movement, the women’s liberation movement, and the Civil Rights Movement—but not in the climate movement. I can think of two reasons for this:
1) The climate movement has historically been a white Gentile movement and therefore has unaware racism and anti-Semitism embedded in it. This has made it hard for many Jews to feel a connection to it.
2) But more than that, our history as Jews includes the loss of our lands, and our ancient connection to land, and with that the loss of our deep connection to the earth. We were once a tribal people with deep roots in the natural world. This is reflected in many of our Jewish holidays. But our deep connection to the earth was stolen from us during the long, brutal history of anti-Semitism.
Many of us have also become distanced from our heritage—for example, from our own sacred texts. The Torah is called a “tree of life”— with an awareness that studying Torah can give us roots deep into the earth.
These losses have left many of us feeling robbed of our inherent and historic connection to the earth.
In addition, many of us don’t know the specific towns and villages where our families came from. Leading up to the workshop, I had many sessions sobbing about not knowing any of the villages in Russia or Romania where my grandparents came from—and now there is no one still alive in my family who could help me get this information I yearn for.
And those of us who do know where our relatives were from often don’t feel a connection to those countries because of the depth of the anti-Semitism our families experienced there—pogroms, being kicked out, bring forbidden from owning land, and so on.
Without a clear sense of belonging to the lands we are from, and having lost a deep connection to our traditions, it is hard for many of us to know we belong on the earth and to embrace our connection to the earth as our home. This makes it hard for us to find a home in climate work.
ROOTING OUR WORK IN JEWISH LIBERATION
I want to root our climate work fully in Jewish liberation—with Jewish sounds, Jewish words, a Jewish home space. We had four shofar blowers at the beginning of the Friday and Sunday classes. I said that the word takeyia could be translated to “Emergency! Act now!” At farewells, when people were asked to say something for closing, several said, “Jewish earth! Reclaiming that the earth is also ours!”
Several folks from the workshop wrote to me afterward saying that they’d struggled for years to feel a connection to climate work but that discharging on ancestral loss, and rooting the work in a strong Jewish liberation base, had made the work more appealing—and possible.
REACHING FOR HOPE
Diane Shisk, along with having us look at and discharge on the hard facts of the climate emergency, introduced the idea of reaching for hope and discharging the early hurts that get in the way of having hope for resolving the climate crisis. This being a focus was particularly useful for many of the Jews.
“PEOPLE BEFORE PROJECTS"
I am using the phrase “people before projects.” I want us to build a Jewish liberation climate movement that has at its core building close relationships and deep human connection—not just doing big projects or “getting the work done.”
We will need millions of people to take on [undertake] this work. Many Jews, particularly we white Ashkenazi Jews, have been saddled with a harsh distress recording that says that we need to be “special,” that we need to be “the one” leading something, or we will end up hating ourselves. This leaves us alone and isolated. I want us to build the Jewish climate movement differently—being deeply connected to each other and to all peoples and welcoming the leadership of many, many activists. There is plenty of space for all of us, shoulder to shoulder and alongside all other peoples.
A FOUR-POINT PROGRAM
I put out a four-point program for a Jewish liberation movement on the climate emergency:
1) Showing up [being present] as Jews—being committed to both working with Jews on the climate and being fully visible as Jews in general climate work
2) Taking on [confronting and doing something about] anti-Semitism, both in the climate movement and elsewhere. Jewish issues matter! Never forget that the work on anti-Semitism is key, no matter how much the internalized oppression tells us it isn’t important.
3) Putting Israeli and Palestinian liberation at the center of a Jewish liberation movement on the climate crisis. Israel, with its increasing hot temperatures, and Palestine, with the horrible unequal distribution of water in Gaza, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights, will bear the brunt of the climate crisis. We Jews can’t forget that Israeli liberation and Palestinian liberation always need to be a central part of a Jewish liberation movement on the climate emergency.
4) Bringing RC tools to Jewish activists who are doing climate work
It was an excellent workshop. It was a solid next step for Jewish liberation. It was a joy to partner with Diane Shisk. Many thanks also for the excellent organizing and the work of the tech team. Yesher Koach (from strength to strength!) to all of us.
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of Jews
(Present Time 203, April 2021)