Excerpt:

Adopted by the 116th Annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis
Houston, TX
March, 2005

Background

…The following Jewish and secular moral principles serve as the foundation for the Conference's position on the development of agreements and policies to address climate change:

Responsibilities to Future Generations: "Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live." (Deuteronomy 30:20) Humankind has a solemn obligation to improve the world for future generations. Minimizing climate change requires us to learn how to live within the ecological limits of the Earth, so that we will not compromise the ecological or economic security of those who come after us.

Integrity of Creation: "The human being was placed in the Garden of Eden to till it and to tend it." (Genesis 2:15) Humankind has a solemn obligation to protect the integrity of ecological systems, so that their diverse constituent species, including humans, can thrive.

…Together, the people of the world can, and must, use our God-given gifts to develop innovative strategies to meet the needs of all who currently dwell on this planet, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

THEREFORE the Central Conference of American Rabbis resolves to:

1. Call on the United States Congress to take leadership on the issue of Global Climate Change and support the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act…
2. Urge the federal government to immediately adopt a variety of policies to accomplish emissions reductions, including…
5. Urge institutions within the Jewish communityh to promote and provide resources to conduct energy audits of private homes and communal facilities, including synagogues, schools, community centers and commercial buildings and to promote eco-friendly purchasing.

Learn more at http://rac.org/advocacy/issues/issueenv/issuecc/action/.

NEW NORTH AMERICAN ENERGY STRATEGY

Excerpt:

Adopted at the 61st General Assembly
November, 1991
Baltimore, MD

BACKGROUND

"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" reminds us that we are only stewards of nature, obliged to cherish and preserve it. Jewish tradition is emphatic that human dominion over nature does not include a license to abuse the environment.

…During the last ten years, reliance on imported oil increased from less than 30% in 1980 to nearly 50% in 1990. During the same period numerous successful programs that would have reduced our use of oil and energy were undercut or underfunded.

…Conservation and efficiency are needed in all sectors of our economy, however, few sectors offer greater potential gains than transportation.

THEREFORE, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations resolves to:

1. Reaffirm our 1979 resolution supporting the development of a national energy policy centered on conservation of energy and development of alternative energy sources and reaffirm our opposition to the further expansion of nuclear energy until the unanswered questions regarding safety and disposal of nuclear wastes are satisfactorily resolved.

   ….4. Oppose off shore-drilling, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and drilling in other environmentally sensitive areas until it has been demonstrated that it can be done in an environmentally sound manner and until it has been approved both federally and locally in the affected areas, after public debate.

Learn more at http://rac.org/advocacy/issues/issueenv/issuecc/action/.

Excerpt:

Adopted at the 61st General Assembly
November, 1991
Baltimore, MD

BACKGROUND

The Jewish community's mandate to cultivate, protect, and nurture the environment is deeply rooted in our tradition. The commandment "Bal Taschit" enjoins "Do not destroy things from which humanity may benefit" (Deuteronomy, 20). The warning against idolatry founded in Deuteronomy reminds us that if we abuse the environment, displaying contempt for the integrity of God's creation, purse rain will cease to fall and the ground will cease to yield its produce.

…As we continue to better understand environmental issues, it becomes clearer that, while in the long term environmental problems affect us all, in the short term they have a greater adverse impact on minorities and the poor. Three out of five trash incinerators in the United States are located in poor or minority neighborhoods.

…THEREFORE, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations resolves to:

1. Call upon the federal, provincial, state and local governments of the United States and Canada to protect our current wilderness areas, create new ones, and work to protect ecologically sensitive and endangered bioregions of the world.
2. Call upon the federal, provincial, state, and local governments of the United States and Canada to ensure the continuation of animal and plant species…

Learn more at http://rac.org/advocacy/issues/issueenv/issuecc/action/.

Exceprt:

Submitted by the Commission on Social Action to the Union for Reform Judaism’s 70th General Assembly

…For more than forty years the Reform Movement has advocated in defense of our environment and all those species — from the smallest creatures to humankind itself — that rely on our shared natural habitat and resources for survival.

…We now face the unprecedented challenge of climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions, and the need for serious and urgent action on this issue has never been clearer. This growing threat, along with our rapidly decreasing supply of fossil fuels, further illustrates the need for strong energy and environmental policies at every level.

…THEREFORE, the Union for Reform Judaism resolves to:

1. Support U.S. and Canadian domestic climate and energy policies that:
   1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions through properly constructed governmental policies — such as cap-and-trade, a carbon tax or other methods to achieve these ends — that ensure that the price of energy reflects its true costs, including costs to our environment;…

Learn more at http://rac.org/advocacy/issues/issueenv/issuecc/action/.

Learn more at http://rac.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=2215&pge_prg_id=12704&pge_id=2403.

Reform Jewish Movement and the Environment

Exceprt: As heirs to a tradition of stewardship that goes back to Genesis and teaches us to be partners in the ongoing work of Creation, we cannot accept the escalating destruction of our environment and its effect on human health and livelihood. It is our sacred duty to alleviate environmental degradation and the human suffering it causes instead of despoiling our air, land, and water.

For more than 40 years, the Reform Movement has been committed to protecting the environment. Relevant Resolutions include:

Learn more at http://rac.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=2215&pge_prg_id=12704&pge_id=2403.

Excerpt: The work of tikkun olam does not just happen at home. When we travel, we can help build a more just, more sustainable world, rather than make travel choices that tread heavily on our environment and our fellow human beings. As we work to green our Movement and continue to champion the rights of all our neighbors, especially those with the greatest need, we can use travel as a way to honor our Jewish values.

The URJ is committed to traveling justly, and we hope you will join us in this effort! Learn more about the impact travel has on others and the world around us and help us all makemore just travel choices.

Learn more (and to offset your travel-based carbon footprint!) at http://rac.org/advocacy/specialresources/neutral/

Sample Programs:

A Life-Long Commitment to Food Justice: Beth Haverim Shir Shalom (Mahwah, NJ)

Counting the Omer: Main Line Reform (Wynnewood, PA)

Learn more at http://resources.rj.org/rac/food/.

Learn more at http://rac.org/pubs/holidayguides/shavuot/.

Learn more at http://rac.org/_kd/Items/actions.cfm?action=Show&item_id=2620&destination=ShowItem.

Learn more at http://rac.org/pdf/index.cfm?id=2069&pge_prg_id=10096&pge_id=3010.

Excerpts:

This sermon was originally delivered in July, 2010 by Rabbi Alexandra Wright, Senior Rabbi at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St. John's Wood, London, England.

One of the peculiarities of being Jewish is that we live across two time zones. We live in the world of the secular calendar from January to December in the year 2010, but we also live within the Jewish calendar in the year 5770 and currently in the month of Tammuz. T

…Last Tuesday was the Fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz, a day to which Jewish tradition ascribes a number of catastrophes, most notably the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70 CE. The day inaugurates a three week period of mourning known simply as the Three Weeks, culminating in the major fast of the 9^th Av which commemorates the destruction of both Temples and more recent tragedies in Jewish history, including the Holocaust.

…But even as we rejoice…it might be appropriate during these Three Weeks of solemn commemoration, to draw our attention to one of the greatest tragedies that is unfolding before our very eyes even as we speak.

I am referring to one of the worst environmental catastrophes in history: the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig on the night of April 20^th and the spillage of thousands of tons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico that remains unstoppable even until today.

Learn more at http://rac.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=21545.

Learn more at http://rac.org/advocacy/issues/issueenv/issuecc/action/.

Learn more at http://rac.org/pubs/holidayguides/chanukah/.

Summary: The goal of this guide is to give individuals and congregations a resource that helps them integrate and incorporate social action programming related to the environment within their Tu B’Shevat holiday practices. Three distinct aspects of the environment are examined: natural resources, health issues and endangered species. For each theme, there are suggested activities for individuals and families, as well as program ideas for congregations, youth groups and religious schools.

Learn more at http://rac.org/pubs/holidayguides/tubshvat/.

Community Garden, Temple Israel

Creation of a community garden to harvest and donate produce to area food banks.

Eco-Friendly Sukkot: Greening the Harvest Festival

Suggestions on making Sukkot celebrations environmentally friendly.

Eight Sites of Chanukah

Visit a different social action website each night of Chanukah. Use these sites as a springboard for volunteer work and charitable giving.

Environmental Advocacy Forum

Congregation holds Environmental Advocacy Forum.

Fair Trade Purim

Fill your mishloach manot baskets with Fair Trade products and create a more just and sustainable world while enjoying tasty treats.

Shavuot: Reconnecting to the Land and its Produce

Confirmation class presents a Shavuot meal, researching how and where it was harvested.

Tikkun Olam: Social Action for All Congregants

The Temple revamped its social action program and in doing so, motivated congregants to make commitments and contributions to social action at new unprecedented levels.

Excerpt:

Ecological Kavannah

For the sake of the earth, for the sake of generations to come, and for the sake of all the waters and creatures and plants,

For the sake of all who are hungry, for the sake of thankfulness, and for the sake of our own souls,

May we have the wisdom and courage to protect and restore, and not diminish, the integrity of creation.

May we always open our hearts and our hands to share the bounty of the Earth with all who are in need.

-Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL)

Consider the work of God: for who can make straight that which has been made crooked?

Ecclesiastes 7:13

Learn more at http://rac.org/social/worship/environment/.

Learn more at http://urj.org/holidays/sukkot/?syspage=document&item_id=11473.

Exceprt: Water has played a role in virtually every major story in the bible. Isaac’s wife was chosen for him at a well. The baby Moses was saved after floating down a river. The Israelites were freed when the red sea parted. Miriam will forever be remembering by her gift of water to the Jewish people in the desert. The history of the Jewish people is the history of our relationship with water.

Learn more at http://rac.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=2035&pge_prg_id=8862&pge_id=3003.

Excerpt: Specific concern about the destruction of a species was expressed centuries ago, as Nachmanides interpreted the following passage:

Do not take the mother bird with her young. (Deuteronomy 22:6)

Scripture forbids a destructive act that will cause the extinction of a species even though it has permitted the ritual slaughtering of that species.

Learn more at http://rac.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=1856&pge_prg_id=8610&pge_id=2405.

Exceprt: We are commanded to preserve the earth and all its varied life for our own sake and for generations yet unborn…In our time, it is our obligation to preserve human life by educating ourselves about the dangers of environmental health risks, and working to prevent them for all humanity.

Learn more at http://rac.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=2326&pge_prg_id=12598&pge_id=2400.

Excerpt: Jewish tradition emphasizes many values that speak to our nation’s need for energy policies that are environmentally responsible and that pay due attention to the public health and safety of both present and future generations. Humankind has a solemn obligation to improve the world for future generations.

…The countries most responsible for climate change should be those most responsible for finding a solution to the problem. Judaism also underscores the moral imperative of protecting the poor and vulnerable…

Learn more at http://rac.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=1800&pge_prg_id=8131&pge_id=2925.

Exceprt: Similarly, Jewish tradition teaches us that human domain over nature does not include a license to abuse the environment. The Talmudic concept bal tashchit, “do not destroy,” was developed by the rabbis into a universal doctrine that dramatically asserted God’s ownership of the land. This concept came about in a commandment to preserve the foliage of city even during a war, "When in your war against a city you have to besiege it a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees, wielding the ax against them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you under siege? Only trees that you know to not yield food may be destroyed; you may cut them down for constructing siege works against the city that is waging war on you, until it has been destroyed. (Deut. 20:19-20)”

Learn more at http://rac.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=2254&pge_prg_id=12599&pge_id=2409.