8 | JULY 14 • 2022

Climate Change and
the Jewish Response
First, I express thanks to your
editors for introducing the subject
via an editorial by David Kalman
(“Jewish Environmental Thought
is Not Ready,
” June 16, page 10).
Kalman does not make light of
the crisis, yet I feel his analysis
lacks the needed sense of urgency.
He puts all his eggs in the “adapta-
tion” basket.
Should we, as he suggests, “let
go” of efforts to prevent future
carbon-driven destruction? Better
not. David’s Plan B (adaptation) is
short term at best, even in the life-
times of our children. Adaptation
will not prevent the disasters our
indifference is sowing.
Perhaps, you have heard the
term “tipping points?” These are
not liberal ghost stories but are
unpredictable and irreversible
breaks with current “linearity” of
impact increases, as we increase
global temperatures. As if dou-

bling and tripling impacts weren’t
bad enough! But, they represent
the potential for a “game over”
future, where adaptation com-
pletely fails.
What are our best moves? It
all boils down to national and
international policy. For example,
in our Congress, HR2307 would
put a price per ton on carbon
(from all primary sources) and
rebate these fees to citizens,
protecting us from higher fuel
prices that result. In this way, we
are charging fossil fuel compa-
nies an “atmospheric dumping
fee,
” which is only fair after they
have dumped the social cost of
their product on us for decades.
Studies (REMI, Columbia,
Resources for the Future) project
cutting emissions in line with
IPCC goals.
What of China and India?
The bill includes a Border Tax
Adjustment to leverage “good
behavior” on exports to the U.S.:

the National “go low” on carbon
or pay a price.
Will this work to lower emis-
sions? We are, after all, relying on
market forces, rather than man-
dates. Yes, say dozens of Nobel
Laureates in economics, the
National Academy of Sciences,
studies at MIT and Columbia, the
IMF and so on.
So, hats off to the Detroit Jewish
News, and let’s continue to hon-
estly face the future, for our kids’
sake, at least!

— Jan Freed, via the web

Disturbing Academic
Support of BDS
The following excerpts are from
the renowned Tammi Rossman-
Benjamin, director of AMCHA
Initiative. “Middle East Professors
Boycott Israel — Where’s the
Moral Outrage?”
(Note that the following is edit-
ed for word count and the entire
article shows that everyone of us

is not immune to the ravages of
Jew hatred confronting us daily
in academia, the media, the U.N.
and many governments. We must
challenge this scourge at all times,
everywhere. — Ed Kohl)
Hours after the American
Studies Association (ASA)
announced its membership
had voted to endorse an aca-
demic boycott of Israel in 2013,
the American Association of
University Professors (AAUP)
issued a statement expressing its
disappointment with the ASA
vote, claiming it represented
“a setback for academic freedom.
”
Fast forward eight years.
In March 2022, the Middle
East Studies Association (MESA)
voted to endorse an academic
boycott of Israel.
MESA has received absolute-
ly no public condemnation of
its boycott from the AAUP
, AAU
or ACE — except for Brandeis
University and NYU.

letters

PURELY COMMENTARY

guest column
The Re-Christening of America
W

hen I was in third
grade in Troy Public
Schools, my teacher
invited us to join her in a weekly,
afterschool Bible study she was
to lead. I came home and shared
with my parents
my desire to join
all my friends in
this club. The next
day we heard from
our teacher that
afterschool Bible
study was canceled.



I later came to
learn that, angered
upon hearing my announcement,
my mother paid a successful
visit to the school principal. In
America, she explained, there is
a separation between church and

state.
There is a good chance that if
my third-grade incident occurred
in today’s America, the princi-
pal would reject my mother’s
concerns about her Jewish son
feeling excluded from the overt-
ly Christian Bible study group.
After all, according to recent
decisions by the U.S. Supreme
Court, what we as Jews perceive
as an American value of separa-
tion between church and state
amounts for our more conser-
vative neighbors to an attack on
their freedom of religion.
We are witnessing the rise
of an emboldened and angry
Christian right wing backed by a
Supreme Court majority. We are
living through the re-christening

of America and the return of
religion to public spaces. Will it
be good for Judaism, too? Will
our children establish separate
prayer sessions and Torah-study
groups so as to not succumb to
the peer pressure they will inev-
itably experience to join their
Christian friends? Will we as
adults likewise pursue the further
expression of Jewish particular-
ism in the public square in order
to “compete” with increased
Christian expressions?
During this re-christening
of America, we continue to live
through an era of a radicalized
left wing that seeks to elevate the
oppressed by punishing anyone
accused of benefiting from our
country’s systems. Antisemitism,

masked as anti-Zionism, is cele-
brated on college campuses, and
Jews are seemingly permitted tar-
gets for physical violence among
those who judge us negatively.
While many Jews appropriately
desire equal rights among all
peoples in America, we rightly
fear that the downfall of the
American meritocracy and the
labeling of Jews as oppressors
by those with whom we seek to
march in defense of others will
create a climate of pariahdom
for our people. If we Jews are
excluded by the right and hated
by the left, can this new period
in America be as “good for the
Jews” as it has been in America
over the last 75 years?
We learn, “Find for yourself

Rabbi
Aaron Starr