- Global Climate Change Campaign
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL)
Since its founding in 1993, COEJL has helped tens of thousands of Jews make a connection between Judaism and the environment. COEJL has put environmental protection on the agenda of the organized Jewish community and made the case to elected officials and decision-makers that protecting the environment is a moral and religious obligation. Today, COEJL represents 29 national Jewish organizations spanning the full spectrum of Jewish religious and communal life and serves as the voice of the organized Jewish community on climate change and energy policy in Washington, D.C. and around the country. Through its chapters, national partner agencies, and electronic advocacy network, COEJL mobilizes the Jewish community to advocate on a wide range of environmental issues, with a particular focus on global climate change and energy conservation. Much of COEJL’s advocacy work occurs with other members of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment: the National Council of Churches, the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, and the Evangelical Environmental Network. The COEJL Web site provides a wealth of information including a description of COEJL’s 2006 four-part Climate Change Campaign, information on greening synagogues, information on energy conservation and clean car campaings, and rabbinic groups’ climate resolutions (including the one linked below.)- 2005 Resolution on Climate Change - by the Central Conference of American Rabbis
- Beyond Oil Campaign: Helping America Break the Oiloholic Addiction
The Shalom Center
The Shalom Center grew out of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, under the leadership of Rabbi Arthur Waskow. Its energies have crystallized around these concerns: the Iraq war and its by-products, especially including the emergence of torture as a tool of US policy and of top-down, unaccountable presidential power; “Beyond Oil,” an effort to address the dangers American addiction to over-use of oil poses to the planet through the climate crisis of global scorching and other dangers; the creating of deeper connections among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim teachings and communities in Abrahamic mode; an interfaith effort to identify and encourage the use and marketing of “Sacred Foods”; peacemaking in the broader Middle East; gay rights, especially in marriage and other sacred contexts; and immigrants rights. The Shalom Center’s Beyond Oil Campaign attempts to reduce America’s depedence on fossil fuels to increase national security and reduce anthropogenic climate change.


