‘The environment is an issue the whole community can get behind’

Addressing the children in attendance, Wittenberg shared Maimonides’ advice to love and learn about the world but also realise that we are just one part of an interconnected and interdependent web of creation.

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg[Missing Credit]

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said we have a “sacred responsibility” as Jewish people to “tackle the climate and nature crisis in the most effective possible way”.

With so much of the world aligned with a religion, he went on, faith “has a role to play” in caring for the planet. “In our Jewish faith, we have a divine imperative, not just to work in the world but to look after it,” he said.

The Chief Rabbi (Photo: EcoJudaism)[Missing Credit]

Short speeches about the importance of being environmentally conscious were also given by Mete Coban, Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy, Shanon Shah, director of Faith for Climate, Jo Grose, chief executive of United Synagogue, and Rafi Addlestone of the Jewish Climate Professionals Network.

One of the younger participants of the vigil organised by EcoJudaism (Photo: EcoJudaism)[Missing Credit]

As well as speeches, the event saw homemade kosher cookies meant to encourage sustainable practices being handed out to attendees, followed by a “climate kiddush”, the prayers of which focused on environmental responsibility, and the blowing of the shofar to symbolise the need for us to “wake up” to the climate crisis.

The students of Alma Jewish Primary each took turns to read out a poem of their creation calling for the “protection of the earth God has given us”, while JCoSS 6th former Joel Brahams and Samantha Lewkowicz from the Union of Jewish Students also  spoke.

Naomi Verber from EcoJudaism[Missing Credit]

Naomi Verber, CEO of EcoJudaism, said the purpose of the vigil is to show “growing consensus across the UK Jewish community that human-caused climate change is real and that as Jews, we have a religious obligation to act.” EcoJudaism, she said, “gives the community the way to channel that action.”

Attendees also heard from a representative of a regional community, Michele Benn from Neve Shalom in Leicester, who shared how her community is employing environmentally-friendly practices, such as installing solar panels on the roof of their shul.