Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition Releases Action Plans for the Coming Year

March 9, 2023 Staff Report

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Just last week, Reisterstown’s Pearlstone retreat center and outdoor education campus and Hazon, the New York-based Jewish environmental organization, announced their finalized merger and a new identity — Adamah.

Now, Adamah is rolling up its sleeves and getting down to work.

On Mar. 9, Adamah and 19 other organizations belonging to the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition released their climate action plans for the coming year.

Last March, the former Hazon-Pearlstone convened the coalition with groups representing the major umbrella organizations of Jewish life. The coalition signed a founding statement committing to climate action. “Our coalition represents Jewish organizations engaging millions of people of all ages and backgrounds, across the world,” the statement read. “Together, we recognize the urgency of the climate crisis and our obligation to do more.”

Since then more than 180 Jewish organizations have signed onto the coalition and are developing their own organizational climate action plans to be released next year.

Over the past year, the coalition has met and worked to craft plans establishing strategic priorities for reducing organizational greenhouse gas emissions and mobilizing Jewish communities around climate action. Some examples include:

The Jewish Agency for Israel recently partnered with the Jewish Youth Climate Movement to send a delegation of young Jewish climate leaders in the United States and Israel to the United Nations global climate conference, and plans to expand that delegation in the coming year;

Reconstructing Judaism and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association published a joint climate action plan, including visions of a net-zero campus by 2035, increased electric vehicle charging stations and climate-smart mostly vegetarian food choices (which the organizations have already been doing for more than a decade). Reconstructing Judaism has adopted an investment policy that includes ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) criteria — their investment committee will consider fossil fuels in the organization’s ESG screens;

The Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies is adding climate action to their federal advocacy agenda on behalf of vulnerable populations;

Adamah is launching a Climate Action Fund for Coalition members that includes $1,000,000 in interest-free loans, as well as pools of matching grant money for specific regions such as Orange County, California.

Many of the plans highlight commitments from organizations to encourage their network agencies toward climate action. Many partners — such as the Jewish Federations of North America, the JCC Association of North America and the Foundation for Jewish Camp — are working with Adamah to convene communities of practice that support organizations across the Jewish landscape to share resources, best practices and workshop obstacles on the path to climate action.

“We are so grateful to all our founding partners for leaning into this partnership and engaging in this process over the past year,” said Adamah CEO Jakir Manela. “Climate and sustainability have not been on the list of priorities for the vast majority of Jewish organizations; this coalition and these climate action plans reflect a deep paradigm shift and culture change moving forward.

“We know we have a long way to go, but together we can get there. By supporting each other and convening communities of practice to engage hundreds of member organizations across the Jewish world, this coalition is poised to have a transformative impact on Jewish life — for people and planet.”

For information, visit adamah.org/coalition.