What are the spiritual and practical resources that Jews bring to the urgent movement to heal Earth and ourselves? The Sacred Earth: Jewish Perspectives on our Planet, includes over 40 essays, rituals, and poems that explore Jewish perspectives on the relationships between humans, the rest of creation, and the Divine. This book is a deep and urgent call for action rooted in Jewish text, ritual, and history.
Join seven DC-area authors whose contributions are included in this thought-provoking collection for an inspiring discussion about how Jews are rising up to respond to the urgent challenges posed by the changing climate.
Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the program.
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MODERATED BY LAWRENCE MACDONALD
Lawrence MacDonald is the author of "Am I Too Old to Save the Planet? A Boomer's Guide to Climate Action." A former foreign correspondent, he worked as a communications expert at the World Bank and served as vice president of two international think tanks, the Center for Global Development and the World Resources Institute. He is active in several climate advocacy groups, including Dayenu, a Jewish call to climate action; Th!rdAct, experienced Americans working to protect democracy and a livable planet; and ClimateDefiance, a youth-led group that stages surprise, disruptive protests. He is an active member of Temple Rodef Shalom, Virginia's largest Jewish congregation, where he serves as co-lead of the TRS Dayenu Circle. His book, which invites fellow boomers to join the growing global movement to save a livable planet, is packed with practical tips and includes a chapter titled: What's Faith Got to Do with It?
PANELISTS WILL INCLUDE
Rabbi Eric Abbott earned his rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in 2018, as well as an MA in Hebrew Literature in 2017 and an MA in Religious Education in 2016. After ordination, Rabbi Abbott served as the Senior Jewish Educator at Johns Hopkins Hillel in Baltimore, Maryland. At Hopkins Hillel, Rabbi Abbott tripled the size of the Reform Jewish community, introduced the Jewish Learning Fellowship to campus, helped students found a Jews of Color affinity group, expanded the Jewish LGBTQ+ group, advised the J Street U chapter, and mentored student interns and other leaders. He taught many classes, including "Forbidden Judaism," "#MeToo and Torah," and "[Netflix's] Unorthodox Unraveled." He also increased the amount of community service and social justice programming at Hillel, including developing the Tikkun Olam Fellowship for Service, Leadership, & Justice. He is currently the Spiritual Leader of Bethesda Jewish Congregation in Bethesda, MD.
Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin is co-author, with her husband, Rabbi Avram Reisner, of the Conservative movement’s teshuvah (legal opinion) on the imperative of sustainability. Most recently, she founded the Maryland Campaign for Environmental Human Rights. Part of the first class of women ordained as Conservative rabbis, Nina Beth Cardin embraced the unconventional path of a “community pulpit” by founding healing centers and creating new ways to approach miscarriage and loss. Cardin created the Jewish Women’s Resource Center in 1978 before joining the first group of women admitted to the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1984. She later turned to environmentalism, founding the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network and the Baltimore Orchard Project, which grows and distributes food to the needy, and served as a consultant to COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life.
De Fischler Herman is a 42-year member of Temple Emanuel and in 1990 co-founded the temple’s Green Shalom committee as well as Shomrei Adamah of the DC Area. Green Shalom initiated an environmental policy for the synagogue, approved by the Board of Trustees. Ordained as Rabbinic Pastor in 2009, De served as hospice chaplain in Washington, DC before retiring to pursue climate activism, writing, bicycling, art making, and gardening. De is married to Jan Herman and lives in "Tree City" Takoma Park.
Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith is an environmental psychologist, educator, and activist. She is an expert in how to change human behavior to solve environmental problems and build a sustainable future. Mirele co-founded Jewish Earth Alliance, a grassroots network calling on Congress to act on climate. She has shared Jewish environmental teachings from Kathmandu to the Salisbury Cathedral, and written for the Jerusalem Report, Jewish Week, Times of Israel, Forward, Shma, and Huffington Post.
Rabbi Devorah Lynn was born and raised in D.C. In the 1990's she was the Director of Elderhostel (now Road Scholars) for the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, whose research is focused on the state of our planet’s ocean and climate. She was ordained by HUC-JIR, NYC in 2006. In 2019 Rabbi Lynn co-founded, with Dr. Mirele Goldsmith, Jewish Earth Alliance, a national grassroots network calling on Congress to act on climate in a loud Jewish voice. Her life long partner is a senior scientist for the US Global Change Research Program.
Rabbi Avram Israel Reisner is rabbi emeritus Congregation Chevrei Tzedek in Baltimore, MD.
Rabbi Reisner is a member of longstanding on the Conservative Movement’s Committee of Jewish Law and Standards, was an editor of the two-volume Siddur Sim Shalom published in 1998-2003, and is the creator of the triennial haftarah cycle. He serves as an appointed member of the Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission.
Rabbi Warren Stone, a longtime Jewish environmental activist represented the URJ and CCAR at the Kyoto (1997) and Copenhagen (2009) United Nations Environmental conferences where he blew the Shofar calling for environmental activism. Rabbi Stone served as Co-Chair of the National Religious Coalition on Creation Care for 3 decades. He currently serves as Rabbi Emeritus at Temple Emanuel in the Greater Washington, DC area where for over 30 years the community worked on “greening” the synagogue.
Thank you to our community partners, The Jewish Earth Alliance, Temple Emanuel, Interfaith Power and Light, Adamah and Bethesda Jewish Congregation for helping bring this program to our community.
