"I think it finally feels like the beginning of a breakthrough on climate in the community.” 

Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, the Rabbi Emeritus of Finchley Reform Synagogue (FRS), was a vehement and tireless campaigner against climate change long before the world had ever heard of Extinction Rebellion or the Green New Deal. 

He left the synagogue for a period in 2000, during the era of the Millennium Development Goals and the Earth Charter, when he first became aware of the ecological perils facing the planet. 

The past 19 years have been spent learning, lecturing, campaigning, contact-building and travelling in the name of the fight against climate catastrophe. 

And after so long as one of the few voices in the community speaking out on the issue, he believes his views are finally entering the mainstream among British Jewry. 

“The Jewish world has been very slow on this. But, to me, it now seems part of the zeitgeist,” he says.

“Now we have to act as if we can do something about it. And I know that we can as a community, because one of the important things is being able to build community and trying to look beyond the individual.” 

But the crisis does not prompt much hope. “I’m not optimistic. I think that the situation is pretty dire,” he says. 

One of the indications of the community’s attitude shift, he says, was a video recorded in January this year by the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, for the Commonwealth Jewish Council (CJC), in which he spoke of the importance of a “Jewish foreign policy for the 21st century”, and called upon Jewish communities to help protect the environment. 

The CJC itself is a prime example of a communal body for which the climate has become a central issue in a relatively short period.  

Its flagship campaign is Small Islands: Big Challenges, which seeks to support countries particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change — some of which are already clearly observable. 

Almost all communal bodies in the UK have taken steps to respond to the threat. Dozens of congregations across the country have stopped using — or are phasing out — disposable materials in their kiddush, and some have signed up to the Eco Synagogue, a resource to help shuls reduce their carbon footprint, which comes with the offer of a free “green audit”. 

This involves participants taking a survey of their green credentials, including questions such as how often environmental issues are discussed in shul, how energy efficient the synagogue building is, and whether their kiddush is locally sourced.

The Eco Synagogue’s first fully fledged members are Alyth (North Western Reform Synagogue), Muswell Hill Synagogue, New North London Synagogue, Finchley Progressive Synagogue, FRS, Belsize Square Synagogue and Kol Nefesh Masorti Synagogue. 

FRS has announced it will demolish its current building in order to erect a new £4 million low-carbon, eco-friendly shul — one of the first purpose-built religious buildings of its kind in the country. 

Plans have been designed according to the environmental building standards laid down by the Passivhaus movement, which aims to provide “high-level occupant comfort while using very little energy for heating and cooling”.

Features of the building, which was given the green light by Barnet Council in April, will include extensive solar panelling on the roof, and “below-ground labyrinth technology”, which cools air, thus eliminating the need for air conditioning.

Most of Anglo-Jewry’s larger charities and institutions are taking their own measures. The Community Security Trust (CST), for example, has shifted to using hybrid and low-CO² cars and has encouraged the use of video conferencing to reduce transport between its offices in London, Manchester and Leeds. 

Jewish Care is phasing out single-use plastics and has stated that it is aiming to have all its care homes and other sites recycling food waste by the end of the year. 

Norwood, the charity for children and families, is undertaking its own “energy audits… transportation and fuel consumption audits, utility consumption reviews and reduction programmes, waste stream evaluations and recycling”. 

UJIA says that a number of its social programmes in Israel have adopted schemes to reduce their carbon footprints, while the Jewish Museum in London says it uses “biodegradable cups in the cafe, uses local providers, and has an energy efficient building management system”. 

Special mention must be made of JW3, which designed its cutting-edge building in north-west London — opened in 2013 — to be as ecologically sound as possible. 

Jacob Forman, JW3’s social action and volunteer programmer, explains that its air-conditioning system is based on “natural ventilation”, while most of the plumbing runs on recycled waste water. 

As a cultural centre, it is also increasing its focus on the environment, and sold out an event in July focused solely on climate action, which included discussions featuring representatives of XR Jews, the Jewish bloc of Extinction Rebellion, and Sadeh Farm, the Jewish environmental centre in Kent.

Forman says: “We believe here that there’s a Jewish moral imperative to take action on climate change and do our bit. It’s consistent with the Jewish ethos — and obviously there are imperatives to not destroy. 

“The Jewish world is part of the wider world, and as the wider world is becoming more and more aware of the damage we’re doing to the climate, we become more and more aware. We’re trying to make the changes we need to make.” 

That climate action will be the theme of Mitzvah Day 2019, coming up in November, is emblematic of the Jewish community’s increased awareness of the issue in recent years, mirroring wider society. 

Laura Marks, the Mitzvah Day chair, says while it “has taken the community a long time to catch up to Jeffrey Newman… the current political situation is so hot on it now, and Extinction Rebellion really brought it to life”. 

Mitzvah Day’s launch event took place in June and was attended by approximately 300 guests and well-wishers at the Jewish Vegetarian Society in Golders Green — another communal organisation with a proud record of environmentalism. 

Marks says: “One of the beauties of this theme is that we know it’ll enable us to reach out to people from other faith groups. 

“There’s quite a lot in Halachah and in the scriptures about the need to support the environment, as there is in other faiths. 

“We may be tiny as a community but we’ve got a lot of friends. If we can get the Hindus and the Muslims and the Christians doing it with us, we multiply the effect massively.” 

Andree Frieze, the lead coordinator and the first point of contact for the Eco Synagogue, as well as a Green Party councillor in Richmond upon Thames, says that uptake of climate awareness in the Jewish community has been “a little bit slow”, although she agrees with Rabbi Newman that views are changing. 

Frieze attributes the awakening to increased publicity, most notably centred on teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, pupil strikes, Extinction Rebellion protests and the work of such figures as Sir David Attenborough — but also on extreme climate events, such as “45°C weather in France, which should not be happening”. 

Rabbi Mark Goldsmith, who runs a service advising Jewish firms and organisations on ethical investments, also feels disappointment at what he regards as the community’s “slow” response. 

The senior rabbi of Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue says: “I feel passionately that Jewish organisations should be exemplars of good employment, investment, and good sustainability practice. 

“I think the people who are trustees of Jewish organisations are very concerned that nothing happens while they’re trustees that might be a risk. 

“I don’t know if the tide is turning. I’d definitely love to see it.”