JYCM In The Making
We are growing! We have had three JYCM Kvutzot begin to form since the launch of the Chagim Campaign - one at Temple Isaiah in Lexington, MA, one at the Barnard Zell Anshe Emet Day School in Chicago, IL, and one at Congregation B'nai Emunah in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After the Chagim, we will be launching a storytelling campaign, so stay tuned for that! On behalf of the JYCM board, we would all like to wish you a sweet new year.
Chagim Campaign
On September 21st, we had a panel on the voice of youth in the climate movement with guest speakers, all young activists, Emanuelle Sippy, Nichole Ruiz, and Elijah Manley as our panelists. On Wednesday the 22nd, we hosted a partnership GOTV event with United Synagogue Youth and Dayenu. On September 30th, we held a panel on environmental racism, where we were joined by panelists Yoshi Silverstein, Nate Looney and Zebulon Hurst. Next week, we will be livestreaming a Sukkot Song and video from the Comms team - check out our FB or Instagram on Wednesday, October 7th from 7-7:30pm ET!
Working Group Updates:
PR Team Last week the PR team had the event we had been planning with a teen-led panel. We learned about the importance of the youth in the fight against climate change. We had three amazing speakers, Nichole Ruiz, Elijah Manley, and Emanuelle Sippy. The JYCM PR team has also been working on developing a partnership with BBYO and USY, through Get out the Vote events. On Yom Kippur, we also had the opportunity to meet with teens from the Jewish Emergent Network, to learn and discuss the ways Yom Kippur can teach us about environmental repair and improving our relationships with the environment in the year to come.
Actions & Advocacy Team The Actions and Advocacy team put on another great Get Out The Vote event with Dayenu as well as United Synagogue Youth (USY) this past week. On Wednesday, we featured Jewish leaders Nate Looney, Yoshi Silverstein, and Zeb Hurst in a panel on environmental racism. We are also looking forward to the next campaign and presenting more awesome events!
Comms Team
The Comms Team has been working to promote and uplift the work of the other groups, sharing each Chagim Campaign event on our Instagram page, as well as live-tweeting some events. In addition to checking the online calendar we have developed on our website, you can also find the registration links for an upcoming week's event on our LinkTree. If you happen to not register in time, each event is also streamed on both our Facebook and Instagram pages! Also, if you share something you’ve learned at one of our events on Facebook or Twitter, tag us and use the hashtag #jycmchagim2020, and we’ll repost you! Our Newsletter team has been working hard to update our subscribers each month with general working group updates, Chagim Campaign Updates, and wisdom and writings from fellow board members.
A Word From a Board Member
Hi, I'm Tali Deaner! I'm 17, I'm from Grand Rapids, MI, and I use she/her pronouns. Some of my fondest memories as a kid are of going to nature camp every summer- learning how to identify a sassafras leaf, running through the creek to find frogs, and identifying animal tracks in the dirt. Later, as a counselor at that same day camp, I got to help instill that same curiosity and love for nature with my young campers.
I'll never forget how excited they were when I showed them which berries in the clearing you can eat and how to pick up a chicken without hurting it. There, I discovered what the outdoors and teaching others about nature means to me - a whole lot. However, not everyone has access to nature, healthy food, or clean air and water. My Jewish values have taught me that I need to help fix this through climate activism: I know that pursuing tzedek (justice) is my obligation. As a member of JYCM, I am able to combine this passion for justice with climate education, advocacy, and action, as well as learn a lot of leadership skills and make new friends. As we've seen from the recent fires across the west coast, climate change is here and now, and we have very little time left to act. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once said, "We can be whatever we have the courage to see", and I believe that together through JYCM, we can envision and create a better world.
"We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." - Unknown
The Second Great Flood by Leadership Board Member Anna
“And the Lord said, “I will erase man,
whom I had created,
from the face of the earth.”
I dreamed about the Second Great Flood.
Incessant rain swept through the city,
a puddle swallowing the concrete.
I sat in the attic, huddled with my family,
but my eyes were on the window, as
outside, shrouded in resolute fog,
a car skidded
flipped
in the shadowy water.
I thought, no one will come
because it is the end of the world.
But—
A flash of red! An emergency vehicle
Tore through the storm,
spilling firefighters who sloshed through the knee-high water,
unearthing the victims of the car accident.
The last hour of life
and humans still saved each other.
So when my hope is shrouded in resolute fog,
I remind myself that we are the firefighters
on hand at the end of the world.
Support Our JYCM Vision Rides Team!
Over the summer, Hazon launched The 2020 Vision Rides, and we have created a JYCM Rides Team! Join our team and participate in a communal effort to ride, bike, walk, run 60,000 miles and raise $120,000. 80% of funds raised will go directly to JYCM, 10% to an organization of the Leadership Board's choosing and the last 10% into general Hazon funds. You can join our team on Strava to track your miles and have any outdoor activity you do be counted as part of the Vision Rides. We have raised over $7,000 - will you help us reach our goal of getting to $10,000!?