Opinion

‘Who By Fire?’ Isn’t Just A Metaphor This Year — But

We Still Have Time To Change Course

By Rabbi Jennie Rosenn

The Bobcat Fire continues to burn through the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County, north of Azusa, California, September 17, 2020. (Kyle Grillot / AFP via Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — As the founder of a new organization building a Jewish movement to confront the climate crisis, the leadup to the High Holidays this year was painfully resonant.

“Who by fire?” the Unetaneh Tokef prayer asks. “Who by water?”

This year, we will recite the prayer amid unprecedented fires, destruction and toxic smoke in the West and flooding in the South, where a series of slow-moving storms have left communities underwater.

Both of these disasters are fueled by climate change and the policies and inaction that continue to make it worse. Most years, the shofar blasts awaken us. This year, we are already painfully awake.

Millions of Americans are living through the unimaginable. Those of us in other parts of the country are pierced by daily images of destruction and surreal statistics. We talk with family, friends and colleagues out West who tell us it is “apocalyptic.” We catch a glimpse of what will soon be our reality — if not by fire then by water, or heat, or drought. The devastation of climate change is not a distant future. It is now.

During the month of Elul leading up to Rosh Hashanah, we read in the Torah that God gives us the choice of blessing or curse, and enjoins us to choose the path of blessing.

This is the painful question before us: Now that we are awake, will we choose blessing? Will we put our nation and world on a path of blessing, or will we continue to stand by and watch the curses unfurl?

Scientists explain that what is happening right now with our climate is the cascade effect, in which a series of quickening trends overlap, triggering and amplifying each other.

And there is another cascade effect: the painful convergence of the climate-fueled fires, racial justice and COVID-19. The climate crisis does not affect everyone equally. Communities of color and economically marginalized people are overburdened with toxic air and water, heat and lack of access to health care. These challenges are compounded by the fires, disproportionately sickening Black, Brown, Indigenous and low-income people and further increasing their risk of contracting the respiratory virus COVID-19.

We are awake. Half of Americans now rank climate as a top political priority, up from roughly one-third in 2016, and three out of four now describe climate change as either “a crisis” or “a major problem.” The numbers are even higher for Jewish Americans, with 80% saying they are “concerned” or “very concerned” about the climate crisis.

This year, the sounds of the shofar ask what we will do now that we are awake. How will we commit our lives — our time, our skills, our resources — to the work of redeeming our world? This year, how will we contribute to the creation of a more just, livable and sustainable world for all people for generations to come?

There is no question that changing our personal behaviors and greening our institutions is necessary. But even if every Jew and Jewish organization reduces its car- workers in polluting industries. bon footprint, we will not avert the Finally, we must vote with climost catastrophic impacts of cli- mate at the front of our minds. Last mate change. To do this, we must week, the new Jewish climate orgamake change on a systemic level. nization Dayenu launched Chutz-

We can do this in four ways: pah2020, mobilizing Jews across

First, we can advocate for com- the nation to call on elected leaders mon sense policies at the federal, to have the chutzpah to take big, state and local levels that sharply cut bold, urgent action to confront the demand for energy for coal, oil and climate crisis and educating and gas, mandate aggressive timelines to mobilizing voters across the counreach net zero greenhouse gas emis- try ahead of Election Day. sions and protect communities most On Rosh Hashanah we were impacted by climate change and wide awake, and now must each other historical inequities. ask ourselves what we will do to

Second, we can move our money. put us on a collective path of blessWe must leverage the power of ing — one where our actions can Jewish institutional investments begin to avert the evil decree so and pressure banks and other firms clearly facing our Earth and everythat are financing the drilling, min- one on it. ing and burning of fossil fuels. To This year, when we heard the avoid more climate disasters like plaintive notes — tekiah, shevarim, mega fires and supercharged teruah — how will we heed the storms, we must keep coal, oil and shofar’s call? ì gas underground, where it belongs.

Third, we can build a movement to confront the climate crisis and change the political landscape. By joining together and showing up when it counts, the Jewish community can bolster broad-based efforts to drastically reduce emissions, create millions of living-wage clean energy jobs and ensure a just DeWayne Williams Jewish Lite 4.9x3.1 Ad2.qxp 10/6/20 1:09 PM Page 1 transition for

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