This Earth Day shabbat, "be." Then, "do!"
Earth Day this year falls fittingly on Shabbat - a sacred day of rest to restore our connections to and reverence for Earth’s beauty and perfection. While tomorrow may be a time to sit back and relax, we know that the work to ensure a livable home for humans and the more than human world requires our dedicated inspired action.
That’s why, leading into Earth Day tomorrow, The Shalom Center is pleased to share with you two upcoming opportunities to live out your dedication to a thriving Earth and all of creation within. One day a year America celebrates Earth. We Jews do so all year round. One day a week Jews “be.” The other six, we “do.”
Join with The Shalom Center as we act in the weeks ahead.
The Shalom Center partners with Greenfaith on their No Faith in Fossil Fuels Climate Finance Summit.
Register for the summit HERE
Rabbi Waskow will have the honor of offering the opening blessing at the summit’s opening session, May 8 from 12-1:30.
Climate destruction is being bankrolled by large corporations and their executives who choose to act against what is right and good, at the expense of our planet’s future. The climate crisis is a crisis of greed.
From May 8-11, people of faith will gather to learn about how banks and asset managers continue to invest in the fossil fuel industries that are destroying communities in the U.S. and around the world – and then find out how to hold these financial institutions accountable. Together, we can commit to taking the bold steps necessary to effect real change.
This summit is for you if you’re just making the connections between faith, finance, and climate, if you’re a money manager rooted in just climate values, or if you are part of a community wrestling with these questions.
We will build on the momentum sparked with the 2022 launch of GreenFaith’s Climate Finance Campaign. This year we have a lot to celebrate, and the work continues! We hope you will join us and a growing number of partner organizations as together we:
Root in our faiths for resilience, inspiration, and joy for the journey ahead
Learn more about Indigenous-led campaigns in the U.S. and East Africa
Find out how to move your money
Take action in our closing Action Hour
The Shalom Center supports the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s (RAC’s) Power for Purpose 2023 Campaign for Climate Justice and their D.C. Day of Action May 10-11.
Stay tuned for an upcoming event with The Shalom Center, the RAC, and CCAR Press, promoting Power for Purpose, the D.C. Day of Action, and CCAR’s Press’ forthcoming book, The Sacred Earth: Jewish Perspectives on Our Planet, which includes chapters written by The Shalom Center’s Rabbis Waskow and DeGroot.
The D.C. Day of Action is a peak moment in the RAC’s newly launched Power for Purpose Campaign!
This event is an opportunity to hear from Members of Congress as well as keynote speakers including LaTosha Brown, who leads Black Voters Matter and will talk about the intersection of climate change and voting rights. We will spend time in smaller cohorts, building community among justice leaders and activists across our networks. The Day of Action will culminate with lobby meetings on Capitol Hill, during which we will advocate for climate change policy. Our advocacy will also include pressing the Biden administration to adopt strong regulations to limit climate pollution.
The Day of Action is also an opportunity to engage with social justice leaders and activists from across the Reform Movement for learning, connecting, and acting together. This is one step in a series of important actions we will take in our own communities and across the Movement to create change and build our collective power. Whether you are a seasoned Reform Movement social justice leader or new to the Movement, we hope you will join us for this important opportunity to act for justice.
In addition to looking forward, we are also looking back, just a bit, to earlier this week. The Shalom Center was proud to support Earth Quaker Action Team’s (EQAT’s) intervention action at the Malvern, PA, headquarters of Vanguard — one of the world's biggest investors in coal, oil, and gas, who have not responded to customer and activist calls for change, and have even recently withdrawn from their own biggest climate commitment. Representing the Shalom Center, Rabbi Waskow participated in the action, part of EQAT's Vanguard SOS campaign, demading that Vanguard take action in the climate crisis.
See a few of EQAT's photos below from the action, and visit EQAT on Facebook or Instagram for more!
The Shalom Center wishes you a peaceful Earth Day Shabbat and an active post-Earth Day period of climate justice engagement!