Sun Jul 15, 2007 at 20:09:59 PM EDT
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Over the last year the issue of the environment has exploded into the public eye. In response to growing interest, here on Jspot we have been working to highlight, document and debate the role of the Jewish community in this broader national conversation.
We have seen firsthand that concerns about energy and environment make it to the top of the list of the Jewish community's domestic priorities both in the AJCommittee's analysis and in our own.
The response of the organized Jewish community has been varied, from symbolic steps such as COEJL's public campaign to switch from incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent bulbs (which I critiqued) to promising endeavors such as energy audits and green building (which I praised).
If we can be faulted for something it is for not offering a coherent analysis of the Jewish community's engagement with this timely urgent issue. This is where we can all benefit last week's article in the Jewish week which provides an important perspective on the issue. |
| Lenny :: The Jewish Community and the Environment: What's to be Done? |
According the article, while in the last few years a growing consensus has developed in the community around the twin issues of energy and the environment, "that concern hasn't been matched by surging political action in Washington." A range of sources appear to indicate that in spite of grassroots demand, the leadership of the organized Jewish communty has been doing little to...well...lead on the issue. If anything, "congressional sources say that overall, Jewish lobbying has been limited."
Rabbi Leonard Gordon, spiritual leader of the Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia, said that Jewish activism on energy and the environment is hampered by "two levels of complexity."
On one level, we have the objective complexity of the issue, with conflicting factions, recommendations, and personalities.
On another level, there may be a particular case of our self-interest getting ahead of doing what is right.
Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, a Conservative rabbi and Baltimore environmental activist, said that big Jewish organizations "don't want to threaten relations with donors" by taking strong environmental stands.
She said the environmental movement is full of Jews -- but "the leadership has not been engaged in a significant way. For the first time, we are allowing our comfort, our luxury, to influence how we engage in social policy lobbying in Washington."
In Baltimore, Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin is starting to work with local business leaders--many who are contributors to Jewish organizations--to make the case that environmental activism doesn't need to hurt their pocketbooks.
Cardin's astute observations can be a jumping off point for a lengthy tirade about the Jewish community's leadershp disconnect from the grassroots membership, but I will leave that exercise for others.
Rather, my question is: What is to be done?
My answer is twofold:
1-We, the Jspot community of progressive Jews should continue plugging the fact that the Jewish grassroots demand action not only from our political leaders but also from our community leaders. We are in need of new creative tactics, such as the recent survey and the associated press work, that illustrate that demand and capture the public attention. Perhaps you, the readers, can weigh in with your own suggestions.
2-For their part, the organized Jewish leadership can be creative as well. If building trades unions, venture capitalists, and environmental groups with their historical distrust and disparate interests can come together in the Apollo Alliance, then the Jewish community should surely come together around a common agenda that meets the needs of Jewish security hawks and Jewish carbon-conscious liberals. I suggest that campaigns around public investment in clean energy, smart growth, and green building can generate that level of consensus. |
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