Joelle Novey leads Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA), through which synagogues and congregations of many faiths are responding to climate change, and serves on the advisory board of Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action. She speaks widely about the role of religious communities in responding to the climate crisis. She is a member of the Bnot Esh Jewish feminist spirituality collective, a past participant in the Selah Leadership Program and a recipient of the Heschel Vision Award from Jews United for Justice (2008). She lives in Silver Spring, Md., and davens at Minyan Segulah, Tifereth Israel Congregation and the New Synagogue Project.
Why can’t religious leaders and institutions say, with clarity, that the grotesque violence against a trapped civilian population in Gaza is indefensible and wrong?