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
In June, JYCM co-hosted a session with Central Synagogues' Central Climate Initiative Kvutzah, learning about urban farming, food justice issues within cities, and a program called The Green Bronx Machine. JYCM was also featured in a program with Romemu about Jewish Climate Change Advocacy. To co-host an event or have a member of the Jewish Youth Climate Movement speak to your community, reach out to us at jycm@hazon.org.
Our summer teams are working on building and supporting JYCM Kvutzot across the country, our Strategy Team is working on finalizing the JYCM Style Guide, and our Programming Team has some exciting plans in the works for community vegan cookouts -- stay tuned to get involved! Additionally, we have extended our spring fundraising campaign through the end of July -- we're less than $2,500 away from our goal of $10,000! Continue reading to learn how to donate.
Welcome to our new JYCM Kvutzot!
We now have 24 Kvutzot (chapters) - welcome to our newest member:
Abraham Joshua Heschel High School, New York, NY
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!
We were also featured in the Cleveland Jewish News, highlighting our upcoming in person Leadership Board Retreat!
A Word from a Board Member
Hi, my name is Asher Sochaczewski I use he/him pronouns and I live in Fort Lauderdale Florida on Seminole and Tequesta land. I am also going into 11th grade. Apart from being an environmental activist, I enjoy cooking, biking, swimming, and running. I joined the Jewish Youth Climate Movement (JYCM) because I want to do everything in my power to help the environment before it’s too late. I joined JYCM because the environmental groups I was in and still am in have a lack of Jews and I wanted to work with other young Jews from across the country to tackle climate change. Finally, I joined JYCM because I wanted to connect my religion with my effort to help the environment.
My favorite thing about JYCM is the people because everyone in JYCM is so nice and is determined to help save the world like me. JYCM allows me to form amazing friendships. I hope that JYCM continues to grow and inspire more Jews and Jewish institutions to take action to help the environment.
Sharing Our Stories
"Tick tock tick tock… wildfires rage, hurricanes decimate coastal communities, smokestacks puff out toxic fumes, and waterways clog with plastic. Wars rage over scarce resources and contagious diseases plague the earth. It sounds like a trailer for an action film: combating evil villains and racing against all odds to save the world. An “on the edge of your seat” thriller. But this is reality. As the clock ticks down the hours, minutes, and seconds until our predicted doom, we are racing to find a solution to the most pressing and complex issue facing humanity: climate change."
Over the course of our storytelling campaign, we 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 who just graduated, Bella. You can read her full story here.