Jewish environmental organizations help Jews cope with ‘climate anxiety’
By Ruben Brosbe
eJewish Philanthropy
April 21, 2023
Drawing on Jewish history and tradition, groups look to build emotional resilience against growing phenomenon of excessive fears over climate change
For Rabbi Zelig Golden, climate change is a very real and present crisis. It’s also personal. Golden, the executive director of Wilderness Torah, lives in Northern California, which recently experienced historic flooding. And the future home for Wilderness Torah, the Center for Earth-Based Judaism, will be at Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, Calif., which was devastated by wildfires in the 2017 Tubbs Fire.
“In the moment when you’re evacuated, or the moment when you’re threatened, or in the moment you hear that your friend’s land has been burned down or your neighbor’s summer camp has burned down, it is scary. It is traumatizing. It is real,” Golden told eJewishPhilanthropy.