Rodger Wolff, Jewish Cultural Society for the A2J CC
A2J CC welcomes the Jewish Cultural Society (JCS) as our newest member organization. JCS is Ann Arbor’s Humanistic Judaism congregation, with a thriving Social Action group, and is beginning its journey toward greater environmental sustainability.
JCS member Rodger Wolff has joined our advisory panel as its representative. For more information about JCS, visit JewishCulturalSociety.org. To help introduce JCS’s new partnership, newly appointed advisory panel representative Rodger Wolff shares his perspective on why he joined A2J CC:
Despite mixed messages in the media, climate change remains more than a persistent concern for our well-being; it remains an existential ecological threat. Two Jewish concepts frame our life choices in this age of climate change.
First, Tikkun Olam is a continuing effort by Jews, individually and collectively, to “repair the world.” A myriad of human choices, made by the 8.5 billion people who have inhabited Earth, have increased waste in our environment, approaching saturation, leading to increasing temperatures, aberrant weather, and biological crises. In our times, we must remediate and adapt to this accumulated environmental wound.
Second, Shmirat HaGuf is defined as “guarding the body”, collective efforts on the part of Jews to promote social and environmental health. Thus, our individual choices must be evaluated by their total ecological effect. Today this means promoting moderation in consumption and lifestyle choices that sustain humanity and all life on earth.
JCS, under the leadership of Julie Gales (madrikha) and Evan Strube (president), is embarking this year on a path to collectively engage in climate-related activities that remediate, adapt, and heal society and our ecology, consistent with the efforts of A2J CC. These A2J CC goals are to educate, motivate, and activate Ann Arbor Jewish individuals on climate change. The education aspect is conveyed through talks, potluck dinners, and readings like this one in the Washtenaw Jewish News. Motivation comes from a hopeful assessment that efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change will ultimately turn the tide.
Finally, the activation is the effort by the circle to inspire our whole society to “Think Globally, and Act Locally”. This often means engaging in waste reduction and recycling, local zero-waste initiatives, making energy-saving improvements to buildings, and generally reducing our carbon footprint.