DECEMBER 31 • 2020 | 17
C
oncerns about climate change and
its impact on our world “loom like
big clouds” over everything for
Josh Bender of Ann Arbor. The Michigan
State University graduate, now in his sec-
ond year of rabbinical school at the Jewish
Theological Seminary in New York, says
he’s made environmentally focused changes
in his daily life like eating less meat and
avoiding single-use plastics.
But he wanted to do some-
thing to tackle the global prob-
lem on a larger scale.
“With big societal changes
you can sometimes feel pow-
erless to do anything about
them,
” Bender says. “I remember during the
election, I wanted whoever the nominees
were to be people who got what a serious
generational issue this is.
”
Josh became an intern with the group
Dayenu, a new movement of American
Jews confronting the climate crisis “with
spiritual audacity and bold political action.
”
The group was formed in April and in
the months and weeks leading up to the
presidential election, Josh helped facilitate
volunteer events. Participants made phone
calls and sent text messages to more than
270,000 Jewish climate-concerned voters in
Michigan urging them to go to the polls.
“When I think how small the margins
were, especially in places like Michigan, I
know we had an impact,
” he says.
The group’s nonpartisan campaign called
“Chutzpah 2020” targeted Jewish voters in
Michigan and five other key states: Arizona,
Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina and
Pennsylvania. The idea was to pilot an
innovative get-out-the-vote effort centered
on faith.
“Studies show 80% of American Jews are
concerned about climate change, but most
don’t really know what to do about it,
” says
Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, Founder and CEO of
Dayenu. “Religious voices play an import-
ant role in shaping our national narratives
and solutions, ensuring the centrality of
human dignity, social justice and the public
good.
”
Rosenn, whose mother,
Sally Teitelbaum, grew up in
Detroit, attended Mumford
High School and was a long-
time member of Congregation
Shaarey Zedek, has spent more
than two decades leading
Jewish nonprofit organizations advocating
for social change.
“Climate change affects everyone but
not everyone equally. It disproportionally
impacts communities that have been his-
torically marginalized,
” she said. “I started
Dayenu because with the climate crisis
bearing down, we need all hands on deck,
and the Jewish community is not yet show-
ing up with all its people and power. What
is at stake is the very concept of living l’dor
v’dor [from generation to generation].
”
Moving forward, Rosenn and Dayenu’s
supporters would like to see our leaders pri-
oritize environmental justice and move the
country toward 100% clean energy by 2030
and net zero emissions well before 2050.
“President-elect Joe Biden will be inau-
gurated on Jan. 20, in the midst of a global
pandemic, a deepening economic recession,
accelerating climate change, and with a
mandate to address racial injustice,
” Dayenu
said in an emailed statement. “These con-
verging crises demand urgent action on
Day One of his term, and a team with the
chutzpah to do what science and justice
demand.
”
The statement applauded the climate
team Biden has assembled so far.
For Bender, who has now completed his
internship, working with Dayenu was espe-
cially fulfilling here in his home state, sur-
rounded by the largest supply of freshwater
on Earth.
“There are a lot of big and small ways
climate change affects Michigan,
” he says.
“I’ve never worked in any political capacity
before, and it was meaningful to feel like I
had more of a stake and the chance to make
an impact.
”
For more information, visit: dayenu.org.
New Jewish climate
justice group
“Dayenu” mobilizes
Michigan voters.
ROBIN SCHWARTZ
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Rabbi Jennie
Rosenn
DAYENU FACEBOOK
Josh Bender
Turning
Heat
Up the
Dayenu volunteers across the
country hold up signs that
together spell out a message.