Secular climate activism has a problem with Jews - The Jewish Chronicle

I left my corporate life to work in the environmental sector because of the universal utility of the job. The scale of the existential threat posed by unchecked global warming transcends geographic, political and religious boundaries. It is the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced and regardless of who we are and what we believe, we’re all in this mess together. I naively assumed that the global climate movement would therefore be one of the most inclusive spaces on Earth. Wrong.

As an Orthodox Jew and CEO of EcoJudaism, the UK Jewish community’s response to the climate and nature crisis, my experience working within the global climate movement has shown two radically different sides of the same coin.

The first is the world of the “faith climate movement”. This is a smaller but growing subset of the global climate movement, where religious groups see their faith as the moral and spiritual catalyst for taking climate action. EcoJudaism falls into this category as a charity whose environmental work is deeply rooted in Torah teachings. EcoMosque, EcoSikh and EcoChurch are similar.

Despite fundamental theological and political differences, when we come together, we park our world view and focus exclusively on playing our part in tackling the poly-crisis. Humility, mutual respect and the intellectual ability to simultaneously hold complex, disparate concepts are the common denominators that make the faith climate movement a genuinely inclusive and productive space. Two weeks ago, I attended the Raising Hope faith climate conference hosted by Pope Leo at his summer palace. I was asked to attend because I was a Jew. The Vatican went out of their way to accommodate my religious needs. Not once over a three-day conference was I asked about Israel/Gaza or anything other than the Jewish perspective on climate change. This focus is the norm within the faith movement.

At secular climate events, I’m relentlessly and aggressively asked where I stand on Israel/Gaza

Then there is my experience of the “secular climate movement”, the world of NGOs and activists who work without a religious imperative. While there are some honourable exceptions, such as WWF, the Woodland Trust and others with whom EcoJudaism is proud to work, generally speaking, the secular climate movement has a problem with Jews.

At secular climate events, I’m relentlessly and aggressively asked where I stand on Israel/Gaza and rarely receive interest in our actual environmental work. Attendees wear keffiyehs and Palestinian flags and hand out “Globalise the intifada” leaflets, creating a hostile atmosphere.

Some climate movements have publicly refused to work with Jewish organisations they deemed Zionist (ie all of them). Extinction Rebellion founder Roger Hallam infamously set the tone by downplaying the Holocaust as “just another f***ery in human history”, while the Green Party recently passed a motion calling for the IDF to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation. Climate professionals speak of suppressing their Jewish identity – and don’t get me started on Greta. This appalling situation is due to the leading role “intersectionality” plays in the secular movement, where climate justice is connected to other social justice issues such as racial justice, decolonisation and anti-capitalism.

All of these are serious, legitimate issues but are rarely understood by the secular climate activists beyond simplistic slogans. These ideas are then dangerously conflated with antisemitic tropes so that Israel is seen as uniquely evil: “white” Jews are “racist colonisers” obsessed with capitalism. Jews are seen as synonymous with “Zionists supremacists” and, unless they publicly disavow Israel, are excluded from the movement.

This explains why some of the loudest voices use their privileged platforms not to mobilise urgently needed international climate action but to mobilise international hatred of Israel. As a result, global climate action is stalling as the movement distracts itself with divisive ideological issues. As they cruise to Gaza, Greta and gang have abandoned the mission of responding to the climate emergency.

In faith-climate work, there is no hate, no villain, no blame. It’s about finding solutions so that every being can thrive. This is why faiths are unifying and inspiring change, while the secular movement is alienating the public and failing its raison d’être This must change – not just for Jews, but for the future of humanity itself.

Naomi Verber is CEO of EcoJudaism

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