About Me
I have long thought that the climate crisis was a spiritual crisis, a crisis in how we think and what we value. It is a reflection of a fundamental breakdown in the way we treat each other and the earth. In 1988, I founded the first national Jewish environmental organization, Shomrei Adamah, Keepers of the Earth.
We are moved most powerfully by our emotions. Science alone will not move us to care about the earth. Religion at its best can help us to get in touch with our deepest selves, and inspire us to see the godliness in everything. In the end, we will only save what we love. I believe that the Hebrew Bible can help us see the beauty and aliveness of the earth. The poetry of religious language can speak across political divides and call us to care and to act.
In the last two decades, I have been reflecting on the Hebrew Bible’s understanding of the earth/the land. The fruit of this labor is contained in my writings and creative work. I am currently writing a book that explores the ecological meaning of the biblical creation narratives and traces the idea of the earth/the land throughout the Torah.
Religious and spiritual communities can be vitally important in organizing, inspiring, and sustaining individuals in the repair of the world, If we could engage religious leaders in care for the earth we could create a powerful infrastructure by which to mobilize masses of people as earth citizens. We could also help to serve the many people suffering from climate grief and anxiety.
I am involved with a variety of religious environmental organizations including Third Act Faith and the Green Sabbath Project, and I serve as an advisor to the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology.
My Journey
As a young person, I spent long hours in the woods near my home in Massachusetts, and explored the rivers and mountains in New England during the summers. I despaired that the adult world was flattening landscapes for housing developments, polluting the atmosphere in an effort to develop more and more commodities for our consumption, and ruining our waterways. Yearning to preserve the natural world, I was fortunate to take an environmental studies class in high school and attend one of the first environmental studies programs in the country at UC Berkeley (CNR). Upon graduation I led wilderness river trips in the summer and taught high school biology during the year.
In my mid-20’s, I began searching for a spiritual path that could integrate my ecological passion and began studying the biblical portion of the week with a friend. I was stunned to find what seemed to me an ecological manifesto in Genesis I, and became intrigued with the possibilities that religion might offer. For many years I looked for a Jewish environmental organization, but to no avail. In 1988, I founded Shomrei Adamah.
Over the years, I received advanced academic credentials including a Teaching Credential in Life Sciences from San Francisco State University, a MA in Biology from Southern Oregon State University, a MA in Jewish education from Hebrew College and rabbinic ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion (NY).
