In the past, when Shoshana Meira Friedman thought about climate change, she felt helpless.
Friedman: “I got more and more overwhelmed seeing how terrible the environmental crisis really was, and it was actually when I was in my young adulthood that I met people who were working on climate from a faith perspective and that helped me get out of the sense of overwhelming paralysis that I had been suffering through.”
She’s now a Rabbi at Temple Sinai in Brookline, Massachusetts. She says her faith helped her engage the problem.
Friedman: “One of the things that I feel that Judaism has given me as an activist is the importance of framing what’s happening in a way that inspires instead of shuts down.”
Friedman: “I try to reach into our traditions and find stories of overcoming hardship, you know, from Judaism, wandering in the wilderness coming out of Egypt. It’s a very inspiring history.”
Today, she campaigns for clean energy, and helps engage other religious leaders in climate action.
She says qualities like persistence, faith, and hope are important for building and sustaining the climate movement.
Friedman: “When we come together from a sense of spirit and from a mindset of hope, we create stronger communities, who can then better weather what’s going to come.”
Reporting credit: Jill Gorey/ChavoBart Digital Media.
Image graphic: Created by David McCarthy. Photos: Courtesy of Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman.