Jewish Groups Vow To Cut Greenhouse Gases
Fifty Jewish leaders signed a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in advance of Tu b’Shvat.
The communal leaders and rabbis from the Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Reform and Renewal movements on Monday signed The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life’s “Jewish Environment and Energy Imperative” declaration.
In the declaration, signed during an official ceremony in Manhattan, the leaders set the goal of significantly lowering greenhouse-gas emissions, advocating for energy independence and security, and reducing the Jewish community’s energy consumption 14 percent by 2014.
“The need to transform the world’s energy economy while addressing global climate change is not only a religious and moral imperative,” the declaration states, “it is a strategy for security and survival.”
The year 2014 is the next sabbatical, or seventh year, on the Jewish calendar, a traditional time to refrain from impacting the earth.
Tu b’Shvat, the New Year for Trees, begins Tuesday night, with tree plantings the next day.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.