“A little child shall lead them,” foretold the prophet Isaiah (11:6) in one of his visions of the messianic age of world peace, including peace with and within the natural environment.
Well, some Jewish college students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison certainly are not “little children” any more, but they definitely have been leading the way for their elders in creating a Wisconsin-based Jewish environmental movement.
About two years ago, students Udi Lazimy (now graduated) and Maryland native Jeremy Manela founded the Wisconsin Environmental Jewish Initiative, which has since become “one of the leading Jewish groups on campus working on environmental issues,” according to Mark X. Jacobs, executive director of the New York-based Coalition on the Environment in Jewish Life.
WEJI has about 25 “active members,” according to Tamara Berger, a sophomore from Los Angeles majoring in elementary education and Jewish studies and a leader in the informally organized group. Nevertheless, it already boasts several impressive achievements.
It has run “eco-Shabbats” and Tu B’Shevat seders — its next one of those is planned for Jan. 26 (Tu B’Shevat falls on Jan. 18 this year) — at the Hillel Foundation University of Wisconsin. Its members have done “everything from writing to members of Congress to volunteering on an organic farm to going on hikes, going camping, gardening,” according to Manela, a junior majoring in Jewish studies and international environmental studies.
Perhaps most significantly, WEJI has led the other student environmentalist organizations on the campus in a drive to get the entire university to use 100 percent recycled paper. “To my knowledge,” said Jacobs, “that’s the first time a Jewish group took the lead on a campus-wide environmental issue. Which is terrific…. It’s a new level of leadership.”
In fact, Manela is now the only college student on the COEJL national board, said Jacobs. “Jeremy is a very talented and inspiring campus activist,” Jacobs said.
Beyond the campus
Now, the cause is moving beyond the campus. On Dec. 2, Jacobs spoke in Madison at an event open to the general community and organized by Manela and Janice Simsohn, a longtime environmental activist and program director at Temple Beth El, Madison’s Reform synagogue.
“From the very beginning, WEJI was primarily a student group, but we knew there were wonderful COEJL-type people in Madison who would love to start a Jewish environmental group of their own,” said Manela.
Simsohn thought so, too. Before moving to Madison, this Chicago-raised and Camp Olin-Sang-Ruby veteran had participated in a “Jewish environmental bike ride” from Seattle to Washington, D.C., in 2000.
The riders made a stop in Madison, spoke at Beth Israel Center, Madison’s Conservative synagogue, and generally were well-received, Simsohn said.
“I was struck by how much interest there was here in that crossroads point between Jewish and environmental ethics,” said Simsohn. “It seemed a fertile ground for some organizing in the Jewish community around environmentalism.”
Simsohn said a steering committee of “about eight people” has been meeting to create this as yet unnamed new group, but the effort has been receiving “a lot of support” — including from such existing bodies as the Wisconsin Jewish Conference, which has already been working on environmental issues with Wisconsin Interfaith IMPACT, according to WJC executive director Michael Blumenfeld.
It also has uncovered “some pretty interesting players in the community,” said Simsohn. They include James Schauer, an environmental engineer and assistant professor of engineering at the university who is studying environmental chemistry and air pollution. He also is a veteran of the Young Judea Year Course in Israel and was an unelected candidate on the Green Zionists Alliance’s list for last year’s Zionist Congress.
Though he considers himself more scientist and engineer than activist, Schauer is “very much interested in being involved” in a Madison Jewish environmental group, he said. “I think it is a good cause and if there is a way I can offer my expertise, I’m willing to do that.”
Another “interesting player” is Michael Rosenblum, director of community outreach for the Madison Jewish Community Council. He said he came from a family in St. Louis that was recycling before that became popular. Today he drives a hybrid gas-electric automobile, and he and his wife are in the process of renovating their home in an “environmentally friendly” way, including using “geothermal heating.”
“I’m interested in finding out if there is interest in the Jewish community in Madison and Wisconsin in general,” Rosenblum said. “I know what COEJL has done in other places. I’d like to see environmental issues raised more on the Jewish radar screen here.”
The next meeting of the Madison group is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 30, 7 p.m. at Temple Beth El. For more information, contact Chris Herb, 608-437-1212, or cm_herb@yahoo.com.
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