Since the early 1980s a small group of Jewish environmental activists, educators, religious leaders, and theologians have placed clean water, nuclear waste, biological diversity, climate change, and sustainable development on the Jewish agenda. As a result of their efforts, the Jewish ideal of tikkun olam (“repair of the world”), the Jewish passion for justice, and the Jewish ethics of responsibility have been extended to the physical environment in an attempt to protect humans and other species from environmental degradation. The Jewish environmental movement has yet to produce a systematic environmental ethics and philosophy, but it has already made a cogent case that Judaism can inspire sound environmental policies and that Jewish religious life can be enriched through sensitivity to ecological concerns. The very existence of a Jewish environmental movement suggests that the blame for the current environmental crisis cannot be simply placed at the door of Judaism or the so-called Judeo-Christian tradition. A much more nuanced and informed discussion is needed in order to do justice to the diversity of attitudes toward the natural world in the religious sources of Judaism and in the history of the Jewish people. The Jewish tradition, this essay argues, can be part of the solution to the current environmental crisis, because its deepest religious beliefs are consistent with environmental protection. However, it would be a mistake to assume that Judaism is “environmentally correct,” or to treat the Jewish sources apologetically.
