Voices from Community Green Sabbath, London, July 2019

Below are two articles written about the 2019 London Community Green Sabbath. For information about the upcoming 2020 London Green Sabbath, please check our events page.

The First Green Shabbat, Jodi Coffman

On Saturday 6th July 2019, the first Green Shabbat took place across several synagogues in the UK, scheduled to coincide with London Climate Action Week. It enabled many synagogues to come together and support a common and crucial goal of promoting sustainability. The aim of the Green Shabbat was to stimulate more permanent changes within synagogues and to raise awareness of key environmental issues such as climate change and waste.

One aspect of the weekend was a focus on making Kiddush as sustainable as possible. Synagogues aimed to compost or recycle any waste; eliminate use of single use plastic containers and stop using throw away plastic such as cups. These changes set a precedent for future Kiddushes and events as it was clear how possible it was to minimise waste. Synagogues were also encouraged to provide food that was locally sourced, in season to minimise energy use in transport, and to use vegan food, as this reduces methane released from meat and dairy. These actions meant a sizeable reduction in each synagogue’s contribution to the greenhouse effect. It has been great to see how many of these changes have been continued since the Green Shabbat took place.

In order to get synagogue members on board, films such as David Attenborough’s Climate Change -- the Facts were screened to provide evidence as to the importance of reducing carbon emissions and to highlight the fragile ecosystems that are at risk if we continue with business as usual using large amounts of energy and producing so much waste.

More permanent actions were also catalyzed over the Green Shabbat weekend. This included informing synagogues about green energy suppliers to which synagogues could make the transition. “Green audits” were also offered which provided a more detailed summary of exact actions each synagogue could take, such installing more efficient appliances and assessing the possibility of installing renewable energy, such as solar panels. These audits kick-started the efforts of synagogues towards sustainability.

New North London Synagogue welcomed Deborah Colvin to speak after the Shabbat service. She led the environmental work at St James’ Church which was the first church in London to achieve the Eco Church gold award. Her passionate talk demonstrated that it is possible for places of worship and religious communities to make huge steps towards sustainability in a short amount of time. This collaboration across faiths allowed ideas to be shared and lessons to be learnt about how to make practical changes as well as how to educate and inspire congregants. Since then, many synagogues (including NNLS) have reached the next Eco Synagogue award through their strong efforts.

The event further ignited the passion of many young people to fight for change in national and local government policy as well as discussing with their families and communities about smaller scale local changes that can be made to act more sustainably.

It is hoped that the Green Shabbat will become an annual event and that more and more synagogues will take part and collaborate to promote sustainability and raise awareness of environmental issues. It is so important that synagogues and communities promote these fundamental issues in order to encourage governments to take action.

Jodi Coffman is 18 years old. She has been part of the Green Team at NNLS for over a year and is extremely passionate about environmental sustainability and educating people on green issues such as climate change.

How I Got involved in London’s Green Shabbat, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg

How did I get involved in so many things green? Eco Synagogue, JTree.global, campaigning, gardening, teaching.

It began because I have always loved plants and animals. My parents taught me to sow seeds and find wonder in a garden. Judaism taught me to seek God as much among the trees and in the hills as in the Siddur and the Synagogue. So my passion for nature became ever stronger and, as it grew, morphed also into a deep fear. Why were there droughts in London—in the land where they say it always rains? Why appeal after appeal to save the rhino, tiger, pangolin, even the once ubiquitous cockney sparrow? “Teach them diligently to your children,” insists the Shema. But how is that doctrine to be fulfilled if there is no safe world of beauty and marvel for our children to seek God in, or survive in at all?

Then I met the right people. I encountered the leader of Eco Church at a seminar for faith leaders who cared about ecology. With their agreement, we translated their ideas into a Jewish framework. Through mutual friends, I got to know the key person behind London Climate Action Week. Last year it turned out it was to run from Saturday to Saturday, which presented two Shabbat opportunities. One of them simply had to become “Green Shabbat.”

When I spoke to the Chief Rabbi of the United Synagogues, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, he said simply: “This issue is too big and too important for us all not to have a voice and share the call to action.” The Jewish Chronicle gave us a double page spread, with appeals not only for the leaders of almost every stream of Judaism, but also with articles from committed teenage activists. As part of London Climate Action Week, a call was issued by the London mayor’s office for congregations to participate. For most congregations, the event began with Kiddush, the communal blessing over wine and snack, offered after prayers. They encouraged an end to throw-away plastics and food bought in wasteful single-use containers. They committed to recycle and compost any food waste.

I've joined a couple of the pupils' strikes, above all to learn, and to support the passionate urgency of the young in transforming our world. They are transforming education, politics, economics, and almost every aspect of our society into something greener, and in harmony harmony with the nature to which we are, after all, subservient and on which our very lives depend.

I traded in our diesel for an electric car. I've spoken to my community about cutting air travel severely. I didn’t know then that Covid 19 would do this for us - not that I see it as anything other than a disaster, a horror, and a warning. I'm waiting for the synagogue to put up solar panels, which we've long had on our home.

With a deep love of trees, I worked with Hazon and American colleagues to set up JTree.global, for the Jewish community worldwide to do its share of root work: planting trees through environmentally and ethically sound organizations at home and in the global south.

I am sadly aware of being at only the very beginning of an urgent journey. In some ways, this journey will curb and limit, and certainly humble, but also re-inspire our lives. For God is in the green world, present in the wonder, and in the love and in a more modest and harmonious relationship with creation.

On the Green Shabbat itself, a number of synagogues instituted green kiddushim, with environmentally conscious foods and care for how they were packaged. In my own New North London Synagogue community, we invited a member of the green team of St James Church in Piccadilly, the only building in London to have so far won a gold award in Eco Church, to speak about the path they followed to attain this level of environmental sensitivity. It is key that you take the community with you on the journey. The establishment of a “green team,” which is bottom up and down is essential. It must include the rabbi and at least one key board member, as well as several enthusiastic congregants, ideally of different ages from children and teens upward, to take the project forward. Since a key report by Professor Crowther and endorsed by the UN had just been published, stressing not only the huge value of planting trillions of trees, but also where they need to be planted and how this might be achieved in a truly beneficial manner. I aim for 50,000 trees to be planted for my community over the coming years. This led to the birth of JTree.global, in the UK and the US.

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg is leader of the New North London Synagogue, Senior Rabbi of Masorti Judaism UK, and a popular author and teacher.