2020 Vision Rides

How did you start at Hazon?
After being ordained as a rabbi at Hebrew College in Massachusetts and then serving as the Jewish Emergent Network Rabbinic Fellow at IKAR in Los Angeles, it was time for my wife and I to figure out our next life chapter. She is from Flint, MI and her family is still all living in Michigan, which made a move to Detroit appealing. Additionally, I had been deeply intrigued by the urban agriculture, food justice, and cultural activism that seemed to be emanating from Detroit. After some conversations with the then-Hazon Detroit Director, Sue Sallinger, and watching a remarkably inspiring Ted Talk by local food justice activist, Devita Davison, it became clear that joining the team at Hazon Detroit was the right next step for me. Rooted in food justice work and urban agriculture, in meaningful partnership with Detroit-based movement leadership, and also focusing on Jewish suburban earth-based education and sustainability initiatives, the role of Associate Director, Spiritual & Program Director seemed like a perfect fit. Add to that the fact that the climate catastrophe is the single most significant issue facing humanity in the years and decades to come, and that Jewish tradition has a rich and expansive wellspring of wisdom related to nature and the climate, working at Hazon became my next step!

What’s your favorite Hazon memory?
My favorite Hazon memory came when I was sitting in a neighborhood-based meeting at a local urban farming partner, representing Hazon. Community members had come together to discuss self-determination and development in the North End of Detroit on a cold and snowy winter day. As snow fell around us, a local rockstar chef had prepared a hearty and delicious hot lunch to keep the attendees warm. As we enjoyed our food, an elder neighbor began sharing about her experience as a 20-something in Alabama, serving as Dr. Martin Luther King’s direct secretary. She talked about strategy in the Civil Rights Movement and how her decades of experience could apply to the work of community-based development in the surrounding blocks. While that lasted only a couple of hours, I could have sat there listening and learning for weeks.

Can you share Hazon’s impact on you?
Hazon has had a tremendous impact on me, allowing me the opportunity to dive deeply into the earth-based roots of Jewish tradition. I always knew they were there and was aware of the foundational nature-based elements of Jewish life and Biblical text from my rabbinical school learning, but getting to focus so consistently and concertedly on exploring our tradition through the lens of nature and climate has been incredibly fruitful for me intellectually, religiously, pedagogically, and spiritually. Add to that the immensely humbling opportunity to engage in a deep and meaningful way with Detroit’s historic Black community and contemporary food justice, urban agriculture, and cultural activism scene, and I have been able to learn robustly from incredible wisdom at the intersection of prophetic community and ancient tradition.

What excites you about the 2020 Vision Rides?!
Detroit is known as the Motor City, given its history as the home of the automobile. But we know that while at one time owning an automobile was the paradigm of the middle class dream, a car for every person has come at a tremendous cost to society and the earth itself. When White Flight hit Detroit throughout the 60s and especially after the Rebellion of 1967, major disinvestment tore through Detroit. Factories shut down and relocated and the Black community was abandoned on many levels. The positive legacy of the automobile in Detroit is strong. But the negative legacy lives on in the abandoned factories, the disinvested communities, and the earth itself. To embrace alternative forms of transportation – such as bicycles, walking, and public transportation in a city that spans 140 square miles – is an act of defiance, an act for equity, and an act for the environment.

What’s your favorite mile-logging activity?
Throughout the Pandemic, it has been nourishing to be outside walking. Whether it’s with my wife, my dog, or both, getting into the neighborhood and taking long strolls has been wonderful.

What led you to go green?
In his recent book We Are the Weather, Jonathan Safran Foer asks: “Is there anything more narcissistic than believing the choices you make affect everyone? Only one thing: believing the choices you make affect no one.” Are the issues of climate massive? Absolutely. Do we need deep societal and structural change to make a real difference on climate? Absolutely? Do our individual micro-changes feel tiny in comparison to the scope and scale of the problem of climate? Absolutely? Should we still act in our tiny individual ways? Absolutely. I don’t believe that making small personal sustainability choices will ultimately fend off the worst of climate change, without the other pieces also present. But I do believe that the more of us that make small changes, the more the movement grows. I believe in the concept of fractals, in the way that Detroit activist adrienne marie brown writes about them: “the whole is a mirror of the parts. fractal – the health of the cell is the health of the species and the planet.” And I also believe that the greater momentum we can build as individuals, organizations, neighborhoods, and communities, the more we’ll be ready – on a massive scale – to embrace and fight for the kind of large-scale structural changes that are needed, as they are put on the proverbial table. The more of us that make our small-scale changes at home, the closer we are to adopting a holistic set of policies that would comprise a Green New Deal and adhere to values of a Just Transition. I go green because it’s better than any alternative. I go green because I believe in fractals. I go green because it bolsters and amplifies the work I try to be part of with Hazon to seed a large-scale revolution of values around issues of climate, equity, and the sacred.

What are your sustainability commitments?
I have committed to composting all of my food scraps, growing my own food, donating portions of my harvest, and reducing my industrial dairy intake.