Alliance takes action as part of Adamah’s Climate Leadership Coalition

Last month Jewish communities around the world celebrated Tu B’Shevat, the 15th of the month of Shevat (this year coinciding with Feb. 13 and 14), which is traditionally known as the new year of the trees. In modern times, Tu B’Shevat has been embraced as a day of renewal and celebration for the Jewish environmental movement. In 2022, Adamah launched the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition, a network that has grown to more than 400 Jewish community organizations who recognize the existential threat and moral urgency of the climate crisis and commit to take action.

The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island is proud to begin its third year as a coalition member.

All coalition members, including us, have committed to developing organizational climate action plans that focus on reducing our institutional emissions and mobilizing our broader networks to engage in climate action. Some highlights from the past three years include moving the Bonnie & Donald Dwares JCC building to receive our energy from off-site solar, beginning to collect and compost food waste on site, and hosting a native plant sale for our community and neighbors.

We look forward to sharing more of our work with the broader community through a quarterly column in Jewish Rhode Island, which will offer our community tangible and meaningful ways to address climate change.

The strength of Adamah’s Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition comes in part from the collective action of the entire network! Over the last two years, the Coalition has grown to include over 400 Jewish organizations in North America. Each organization identifies what meaningful action it can take according to its capacity. We draw on educational and financial resources to help further our impact, and as a community we make an actual, measurable difference.

Tu B’Shevat is ultimately a Jewish day of nature accounting, taking stock of the past year and looking toward the future. On this date we account for our climate action work each year. We note the ways we are working to ensure the future health and abundance of the natural world. What better way to honor the new year of the trees than by sharing our collective Jewish community response to the climate crisis?

To learn more about the coalition visit adamah.org/coalition.

STEPHANIE HAGUE (shague@jewishallianceri.org) is the chief strategy officer at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.