Encouraged by plans for papal Encyclical, they call for Eco-Social Justice
As of Noon on August 13, 2015, 403 rabbis have signed a Rabbinic Letter on
the Climate Crisis, calling for vigorous action to prevent worsening climate
disruption and to seek eco-social justice. The text of the Rabbinic Letter and
its signers are below.
The Rabbinic Letter
was initiated by seven leading rabbis from a broad spectrum of American Jewish
life: Rabbi Elliot Dorff, rector of the American Jewish University;
Rabbi
Arthur Green, rector of the Hebrew College rabbinical school; Rabbi Peter
Knobel, former president, Central Conference of American Rabbis; Rabbi
Mordechai Liebling,director of the Social Justice Organizing Program at the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.; Rabbi
Susan Talve, spiritual leader of Central Reform Congregation, St. Louis; Rabbi
Arthur Waskow, director of The Shalom Center; and Rabbi Deborah Waxman,
president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. They were joined by
Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, a leader of the Orthodox community.
The full text and
list of signers follows. To the Jewish
People, to all Communities of Spirit, and to the World:
A Rabbinic Letter on the Climate Crisis
We come as Jews and rabbis with great respect for what
scientists teach us – for as we understand their teaching, it is about the
unfolding mystery of God’s Presence in the unfolding universe, and especially
in the history and future of our planet.
Although we accept scientific accounts of earth’s history, we continue
to see it as God’s creation, and we celebrate the presence of the divine hand
in every earthly creature.
Yet in our
generation, this wonder and this beauty have been desecrated -- not in one land
alone but ‘round all the Earth. So in this crisis, even as we join all Earth in
celebrating the Breath of Life that interweaves us all -- –
-- You sea-monsters and all deeps, Hallelu-Yah.
Fire, hail, snow, and steam, Hallelu-Yah.
Stormy wind to do God's word, Hallelu-Yah.
Mountains high and tiny hills, Hallelu-Yah (Psalm 148)
We know all Earth
needs not only the joyful human voice but also the healing human hand. We are especially moved when the deepest, most
ancient insights of Torah about healing the relationships of Earth and human
earthlings, adamah and adam, are echoed in the findings of modern science.
The texts of Torah
that perhaps most directly address our present crisis ar Leviticus 25-26 and
Deuteronomy 15. They call for one year
of every seven to be Shabbat Shabbaton – a Sabbatical Year – and Shmittah – a
Year of restful Release for the Earth and its workers from being made to work,
and of Release for debtors from their debts. In Leviticus 26, the Torah warns
us that if we refuse to let the Earth rest, it will “rest” anyway, despite us
and upon us – through drought and famine and exile that turn an entire people
into refugees. This ancient warning heard by one indigenous people in one
slender land has now become a crisis of our planet as a whole and of the entire
human species. Human behavior that overworks the Earth – especially the
overburning of fossil fuels --- crests
in a systemic planetary response that endangers human communities and many
other life-forms as well. Already we see unprecedented floods, droughts,
ice-melts, snowstorms, heat waves, typhoons, sea-level rises, and the expansion
of disease-bearing insects from “tropical” zones into what used to be
“temperate” regions. Leviticus 26 embodied.
Scientific projections of the future make clear that even worse will
happen if we continue with carbon-burning business as usual. As Jews, we ask
the question whether the sources of traditional Jewish wisdom can offer guidance
to our political efforts to prevent disaster and heal our relationship with the Earth. Our first and most basic wisdom is expressed
in the Sh’ma and is underlined in the teaching that through Shekhinah the
Divine presence dwells within as well as beyond the world. The Unity of all
means not only that all life is interwoven, but also that an aspect of God’s
Self partakes in the interwovenness. We acknowledge that for centuries, the
attention of our people – driven into exile not only from our original land but
made refugees from most lands thereafter so that they were bereft of physical
or political connection and without any specific land – has turned away from
this sense of interconnection of adam and adamah, toward the repair of social
injustice. Because of this history, we
were so much pre-occupied with our own survival that we could not turn
attention to the deeper crisis of which our tradition had always been aware. But
justice and earthiness cannot be disentangled. This is taught by our ancient
texts – teaching that every seventh year be a Year of Release, Shmittah,
Shabbat Shabbaton, in which there would be not only one year’s release of Earth
from overwork, but also one year’s sharing by all in society of the Earth’s
freely growing abundance, and one year’s release of debtors from their debts. Indeed,
we are especially aware that this very year is, according to the ancient count,
the Shmita Year. The unity of justice and Earth-healing is also taught by our
experience today: The worsening inequality of wealth, income, and political
power has two direct impacts on the climate crisis. On the one hand, great
Carbon Corporations not only make their enormous profits from wounding the
Earth, but then use these profits to purchase elections and to fund fake
science to prevent the public from acting to heal the wounds. On the other
hand, the poor in America and around the globe are the first and the worst to
suffer from the typhoons, floods, droughts, and diseases brought on by climate
chaos. So we call for a new sense of eco-social
justice – a tikkun olam that includes tikkun tevel, the healing of our
planet. We urge those who have been
focusing on social justice to address the climate crisis, and those who have
been focusing on the climate crisis to address social justice.
Though as rabbis we are drawing on the specific practices by
which our Torah makes eco-social justice possible, we recognize that in all
cultures and all spiritual traditions there are teachings about the need for
setting time and space aside for celebration, restfulness, reflection. Yet in modern history, we realize that for
about 200 years, the most powerful institutions and cultures of the human
species have refused to let the Earth or human earthlings have time or space for
rest. By overburning carbon dioxide and
methane into our planet's air, we have disturbed the sacred balance in which we
breathe in what the trees breathe out, and the trees breathe in what we breathe
out. The upshot: global scorching, climate crisis. The crisis is worsened by
the spread of extreme extraction of fossil fuels that not only heats the planet
as a whole but damages the regions directly affected. § Fracking shale rock for oil and “unnatural
gas” poisons regional water supplies and induces the shipment of volatile
explosive “bomb trains” around the country.
§ Coal burning not only imposes asthma on
coal-plant neighborhoods – often the poorest and Blackest – but destroys the
lovely mountains of West Virginia.
§ Extracting and pipe-lining Tar Sands
threatens Native First nation communities in Canada and the USA, and endangers
farmers and cowboys through whose lands the KXL Pipeline is intended to
traverse..
§ Drilling for oil deep into the Gulf and the
Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound off the Pacific have already brought
death to workers and to sea life and financial disasters upon nearby
communities. Proposed oil drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic threaten worse.
All of this is
overworking Earth -- precisely what our Torah teaches we must not do. So now we
must let our planet rest from overwork. For Biblical Israel, this was a central
question in our relationship to the Holy One.
And for us and for our children and their children, this is once again
the central question of our lives and of our God. HOW? -- is the question we must answer.
So here we turn from inherited wisdom to action in our
present and our future. One way of addressing our own responsibility would be
for households, congregations, denominations, federations, political
action --- to Move Our Money from
spending that helps these modern pharaohs burn our planet to spending that
helps to heal it. For example, these actions might be both practical and
effective:
§ Purchasing wind-born
rather than coal-fired electricity to light our homes and synagogues and
community centers;
§ Organizing our great Federations to offer
grants and loans to every Jewish organization in their regions to solarize
their buildings;
§ Shifting our bank accounts from banks that
invest in deadly carbon-burning to community banks and credit unions that
invest in local neighborhoods, especially those of poor, Black, and Hispanic
communities;
§ Moving our endowment funds from supporting
deadly Carbon to supporting stable, profitable, life-giving enterprises;
§ Insisting that our tax money go no longer to
subsidizing enormously profitable Big Oil but instead to subsidizing the swift
deployment of renewable energy -- as
quickly in this emergency as our government moved in the emergency of the early
1940s to shift from manufacturing cars to making tanks.
§ Convincing our legislators to institute a
system of carbon fees and public dividends that rewards our society for moving
beyond the Carbon economy.
These examples are
simply that, and in the days and years to come,
we may think of other approaches to accomplish these ecological
ends.
America is one of the most intense contributors to the
climate crisis, and must therefore take special responsibility to act. Though we in America are already vulnerable
to climate chaos, other countries are even more so –-- and Jewish caring must
take that truth seriously. Israeli scientists, for example, report that if the
world keeps doing carbon business as usual, the Negev desert will come to
swallow up half the state of Israel, and sea-level rises will put much of Tel
Aviv under water. Israel itself is too small to calm the wide world’s worsening
heat. Israel’s innovative ingenuity for solar and wind power could help much of
the world, but it will take American and other funding to help poor nations use
the new-tech renewable energy created by Israeli and American innovators. We
believe that there is both danger and hope in American society today, a danger
and a hope that the American Jewish community, in concert with our sisters and
brothers in other communities of Spirit, must address. The danger is that America is the largest
contributor to the scorching of our planet.
The hope is that over and over in our history, when our country faced
the need for profound change, it has been our communities of moral commitment,
religious covenant, and spiritual search that have arisen to meet the need. So
it was fifty years ago during the Civil Rights movement, and so it must be
today. As we live through this Shmittah Year, we are especially aware that
Torah calls for Hak’heyl -- assembling the whole community of the People Israel
during the Sukkot after the Shmittah year, to hear and recommit ourselves to
the Torah’s central teachings.
So we encourage Jews
in all our communities to gather on the Sunday of Sukkot this year, October 4,
2015, to explore together our responsibilities toward the Earth and all
humankind, in this generation.
Our ancient earthy wisdom taught that social justice,
sustainable abundance, a healthy Earth, and spiritual fulfillment are
inseparable. Today we must hear that teaching in a world-wide context, drawing
upon our unaccustomed ability to help shape public policy in a great nation. We
call upon the Jewish people to meet God’s challenge once again.
Signed (alphabetized according to State or [at the end]
Nation, in order to make contact easier for local organizing):
Rabbi Batsheva Appel
Temple Emanu-El Tucson AZ
Rabbi John
Linder Temple Solel Phoenix AZ
Rabbi Nina
Perlmutter Heichal Baoranim (Temple in
the Pines) Chino Valley AZ
Rabbi Bonnie
Sharfman Congregation Kehillah
Scottsdale AZ
Rabbi Shmuly
Yanklowitz Uri L'Tzedek, Orthodox Social
Justice Scottsdale AZ
Rabbi Jonathan
Aaron Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills CA
Rabbi Ruth Adar Lehrhaus Judaica San Leandro CA
Rabbi Rachel
Adler Hebrew Union College Los Angeles
CA
Rabbi Aaron
Alexander IKAR Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Mona Alfi Congregation B'nai Israel Sacramento CA
Rabbi Adam
Allenberg Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion Santa Monica CA
Rabbi Lewis M Barth Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of
Religion Encino CA
Rabbi Sarah Bassin Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills Beverly
Hills CA
Rabbi Karen Bender Jewish Home of Los Angeles Tarzana CA
Rabbi Allen Bennett Temple Israel of Alameda, Rabbi Emeritus San
Francisco CA
Rabbi Marc S Blumenthal Reform Judaism Long Beach CA
Rabbi Anne Brener Academy for Jewish Religion Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Samuel Broude Temple sinai, oakland,ca - emeritus Oakland
CA
Rabbi Sharon Brous IKAR Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Meredith Cahn Community School for Jewish Learning Petaluma
CA
Rabbi Ken Chasen Leo Baeck Temple Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Jordana Chernow-Reader Reform Ventura CA
Rabbi Steven Chester Temple Sinai, Oakland, Ca. Oakland CA
Rabbi Aryeh Cohen American Jewish University Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Mike Comins TorahTrek LOS ANGELES CA
Rabbi David J. Cooper Kehilla Community Synagogue, Piedmont, CA
Berkeley CA
Rabbi Mychal Copeland InterfaithFamily Mountain View CA
Rabbi Julie Danan Congregation Beth Israel Chic CA
Rabbi Stanley Davids Temple Emanu-El of Greater Atlanta Santa
Monica CA
Rabbi Shoshanah Devorah Congregation Kol HaEmek Ukiah CA
Rabbi Elliot Dorff American Jewish University, rector Beverly
Hills CA
Rabbi Lisa Edwards Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC) Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Stephen Einstein Congregation B'nai Tzedek Fountain Valley CA
Rabbi Diane Elliot ALEPH El Sobrante CA
Rabbi Fern Feldman Havurat Ee Shalom Santa Cruz CA
Rabbi Pamela Frydman Renewal Daly City CA
Rabbi Laura Geller TempleEmanuel of Beverly Hills Beverly HIlls
CA
Rabbi Mark Goldfarb Temple Beth Ohr, URJ La Mirada CA
Rabbi Jerrold Goldstein Sandra Caplan Community Bet Din Sherman Oaks
CA
Rabbi Marvin Goodman No. CA Board of Rabbis Foster City CA
Rabbi mel Gottlieb Academy for Jewish Religion, Ca. los angeles
CA
Rabbi Roberto Graetz Temple Isaiah Walnut Creek CA
Rabbi Arthur Gross-Schaefer Community Shul of Montecito and Santa
Barbara/Loyola Marymount University Santa Barbara CA
Rabbi Judith HaLevy Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue 'Malibu
CA
Rabbi Cecilia Herzfeld-Stern Spiritual Director Carlsbad CA
Rabbi Cynthia Hoffman Aleph Alliance for Jewish Renewal Fremont CA
Rabbi Carla Howard Jewish Healing Center Los Angeles Los
Angeles CA
Rabbi Jocee Hudson Temple Israel of Hollywood Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Ivan Ickovits Metivta Los Angeles CA
Rabbi T'mimah Ickovits Holistic Jew Santa Monica CA
Rabbi Debbie Israel Congregation Emeth Watsonville CA
Rabbi Joshua Jacobs-Velde ZMANIM Sebastopol CA
Rabbi Daria Jacobs-Velde ZMANIM sebastopol CA
Rabbi Burt Jacobson Renewal El Sobrante CA
Rabbi Lori Klein Chadeish Yameinu Capitola CA
Rabbi Jonathan Klein CLUE: Clergy and Laity United for Economic
Justice Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Alan Lachtman Temple Beth David Pasadena CA
Rabbi Howard Laibson Congregation Shir Chadash, Lakewood, CA Seal
Beach CA
Rabbi Marty Lawson Temple Emanu-El, San Diego, CA San Diego CA
Rabbi Michael Lerner Tikkun: A Jewish and Interfaith Critique of
Politics, Culture and Society Berkeley CA
Rabbi Peter Levi Temple Beth El of South Orange County aliso
viejo CA
Rabbi Richard Levy Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion Encino CA
Rabbi Stan Levy B'nai Horin-Children of Freedom Los Angeles
CA
Rabbi Sheldon Lewis Congregation Kol Emeth Palo Alto CA
Rabbi Michael Lotker Jewish Federation of Ventura County
Camarillo CA
Rabbi Brian Lurie NIF ross CA
Rabbi Janice Mehring Congregation Ohr Tzafon Atascadero CA
Rabbi Scott Meltzer Ohr Shalom Synagogue San Diego CA
Rabbi Laurence Milder Congregation Beth Emek Pleasanton CA
Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh Temple Israel of Hollywood Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Malka Mittelman Skirball Hospice and B'nei Mishkan La
Crescenta CA
Rabbi Dev Noily Kehilla Community Synagogue Oakland CA
Rabbi Laura Owens B'nai Horin, Children of Freedom Los Angeles
CA
Rabbi Arnold Rachlis University Synagogue Irvine CA
Rabbi Larry Raphael Congregation Sherith Israel San Francisco CA
Rabbi Dorothy Richman 1 Berkeley CA
Rabbi Stephen M Robbins Academy for Jewish Religion/California, Congregation, N'vay Shalom Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Rochelle Robins The Academy for Jewish Religion, California
Los Angeles CA
Rabbi John Rosove Temple Israel of Hollywood, Los Angeles
Sherman Oaks CA
Rabbi Rick Schechter Temple Sinai of Glendale Glendale CA
Rabbi Howie Schneider Chadeish Yameinu Aptos CA
Rabbi Avi Schulman Temple Beth Torah Fremont CA
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller UCLA Hillel Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Suzanne Singer Riverside Temple Beth El Riverside CA
Rabbi Mark Sobel Temple Beth Emet West Hills CA
Rabbi Ruth Sohn HUC-JIR, Yedidya Center for Jewish Spiritual
Direction Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Wendy Spears Congregation Or Ami / RabbiWendy.com Los
Angeles CA
Rabbi Naomi Steinberg Temple Beth El Carlotta CA
Rabbi Gershon Steinberg-Caudill Ohr Shekinah Richmond CA
Rabbi Ron Stern Stephen Wise Temple Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Rachel Timoner Leo Baeck Temple Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Shifra Weiss-Penzias Temple Beth El Santa Cruz CA
Rabbi Tali Zelkowicz Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion Los Angeles CA
Rabbi Birdie Becker Temple Emanuel, Pueblo Centennial CO
Rabbi Deborah Bronstein Congregation Har HaShem Boulder CO
Rabbi Sandra Cohen Rodef Shalom Denver CO
Rabbi Brian Field Judaism Your Way Denver CO
Rabbi Bernard Gerson Congregation Rodef Shalom Denver CO
Rabbi Hannah Laner Jewish Renewal Nederland CO
Rabbi Shoshana Leis Congregation Har Shalom Ft Collins CO
Rabbi Marc Soloway Congregation Bonai Shalom Boulder CO
Rabbi Stephen Fuchs Congregation Beth Israel West Hartford CT
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman Temple Beth El, Stamford CT Stamford CT
Rabbi Stanley Kessler BethEl Temple/Emeritus/ W.Htfd CT w.htfd CT
Rabbi Joshua Ratner JCRC of New Haven New Haven CT
Rabbi Jeremy Schwartz Temple Bnai Israel Willimantic CT
Rabbi Devorah Lynn CCAR Washington, DC DC
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation;
COEJL Washington DC
Rabbi Alana Suskin Americans for Peace Now Washington DC
Rabbi Michael L. Kramer Reform Hockessin DE
Rabbi Gabriel Ben-Or Gulfport Congregation Beth Sholom webster FL
Rabbi Shaya Isenberg Aleph Gainesville FL
Rabbi David Kaiman Congregation Bnai Israel Gainesville Florida
Gainesville FL
Rabbi Peter Kasdan temple Emanuel-El of West Essex Longboat Key
FL
Rabbi Richard Klein Temple Emanu-El Sarasota FL
Rabbi Jerry Levy Congregation Etz Chaim Pompano Beach FL
Rabbi Fred Natkin Mateh Chaim; Palm Bay FL Boynton Beach FL
Rabbi Jason Rosenberg Congregation Beth Am Tampa FL
Rabbi Judith Siegal Temple Judea Coral Gables FL
Rabbi Daniel Treiser Temple B'nai Israel Clearwater FL
Rabbi Cheryl Weiner Community Rabbi/Chaplain Hollywood FL
Rabbi Joshua Lesser 5 Krog St NE Atlanta GA
Rabbi Alexandria Shuval-Weiner (as of July 1) Temple Beth Tikvah (as of
July 1) Roswell GA
Rabbi Stanley M. Rosenbaum Sons of Jacob Synagogue Waterloo IA
Rabbi Daniel Fink Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel boise ID
Rabbi Marc Belgrad B'Chavana Congregation Buffalo Grove IL
Rabbi Lisa Bellows Congregation Beth Am Buffalo Grove IL
Rabbi Robin Damsky WSTHZ Melrose Park IL
Rabbi Laurence Edwards Congregation Or Chadash (Emeritus) Chicago
IL
Rabbi Cindy Enger Congregation Or Chadash Chicago IL
Rabbi Josh Feigelson Hillel International Skokie IL
Rabbi Sam Feinsmith Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning
Evanston IL
Rabbi Roy Furman DePaul Un TOMADO DE ENVIO EN RED FOROBA
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