Introducing our 2021-2022 National Leadership Board
We are so excited to be welcoming 19 new Jewish climate activists to our National Leadership Board this upcoming year. We cannot wait to work with you as we further our collective goal of mitigating the catastrophic effects of climate change by mobilizing our community to take action. Please join us in congratulating all of our new board members!
General Updates
One of our Board members, Penelope, led a session on environmental justice alongside Rabbi Adam Allenberg from HUC-JIR. She spoke about the Jewish context within environmental justice and Repair the World wrapped up with a call to action!
On Thursday, June 10th, JYCM will be co-hosting a session with our newest Kvutzah, Central Synagogues' Central Climate Initiative group, learning about urban farming, food justice issues within cities, and a program called The Green Bronx Machine. Register for this incredible event at bit.ly/3c0PKDI. The flyer is below.
We are so excited to be bringing new leadership board members onto our team! We recently had a meeting to welcome our new members and bid farewell to our outgoing seniors.** This summer, we are launching new projects - a Kvutzot Team, a Strategy Team, and a Programming Team. Additionally, we have extended our spring fundraising campaign through the end of June -- so far, we’re more than halfway to our goal of $10,000! Continue reading to learn how to donate.
**To our graduating seniors:
Mazel tov, congratulations on this great accomplishment! We at JYCM are so excited for you as you enter this next chapter of your life and can't wait to see the difference you make in this world as the incredible Jewish climate activists that you are. Thank you so much for all you have done to build and shape this movement over the past year - we couldn't have done it without each and every one of you.
Welcome to our new JYCM Kvutzot!
We now have 22 Kvutzot (chapters) - welcome to our newest members:
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy - Bryn Mawr, PA
The Frankel Religious School at Herzl-Ner Tamid - Mercer Island, Washington
To learn more about building a JYCM Kvutzah, visit our Kvutzah page here.
In the Media!
One of our leadership board members, and founding member of the Ann Arbor Kvutzah, Sofi Maranda, wrote an article about JYCM, which was published in the Washtenaw Jewish News, on page 7!
A Word from a Board Member
Hi everyone! My name's Sasha Kalvert and I'm a junior at Brookline High School. I got involved with JYCM through doing environmental work with my temple and engaging in decentralized and sporadic climate justice work. I realized I was passionate about climate justice and wanted to make real, concrete change, and so when my rabbi recommended me for JYCM it seemed like the perfect fit!
Currently I'm on the actions & advocacy team for JYCM and while I absolutely love doing policy work, my favorite part of JYCM is the community we've built. My hope for JYCM is that we are able to constantly learn and grow, and are able to always be adapting to our circumstances
Sharing Our Stories
"March 14th, 2020 was my cousin Max’s Bar Mitzvah. This was a week after my mom went to Key Food to stock up on dried beans, rice, and toilet paper. Three days after my parents’ offices shut down. Two days after my school closed to make the transition to Zoom. One day after I hugged my friend as I was leaving her house, and her mom remarked that it would probably be a while before I could come back. As I walked through my neighborhood, the streets were empty. My world shifted in one week.
My aunt and uncle decided to reduce the event’s capacity to just extended family-- in my large, close-knit family, that is still a pretty big group. My parents didn’t know what to do but eventually decided that we couldn’t miss such an important family milestone.
During an emotional car ride from Brooklyn to Westchester on Friday night, my sister and I argued relentlessly with our parents, scared of being exposed and terrified of endangering our grandparents.”
Over the course of our storytelling campaign, we've learned the importance of storytelling in the climate movement. We gave everyone a chance to learn how to tell their story and share it with everyone. In the coming months we will be sharing people's climate stories in JYCM's monthly newsletters. If you're interested in having yours featured, please reach out to jycm@hazon.org. Without further ado, we'd like to introduce this month's story written by one of our board members, Penelope. You can read her full story here.
Climate Activism Training Wrap-up
MAZEL TOV to our members across the country who have completed JYCM's Climate Activism Training!
Over the past two months, we have learned about power within the Jewish world from Emanuelle Sippy (Future Coalition) and Madeline Canfield (JYCM), DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and Disability Justice from Abby Bresler (JYCM), the basics of organizing from Kayla Neumeyer (Never Again Action), LGBTQIA+ inclusivity from Ami and Jaimie (Keshet), Environmental Racism from Kristy Drutman (aka Brown Girl Green), how to harness and work with power from Talia Kaplan, and organizing skills in action from Lincoln Bacal (Bridgemakers, formally known as Minnesota Young Champions).
We are so grateful for your presence and insights over the past 8 weeks. It has been an honor to learn and grow alongside you and from you and we are ecstatic to see where your futures as young Jewish climate activists take you. If you missed this training series, don't worry! Keep your eye out for more opportunities in the future.
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