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| COALITION ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND JEWISH LIFE |
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| COEJL is the leading Jewish environmental organization in the United States. Since its founding in 1993, COEJL has helped tens of thousands of Jews make a connection between Judaism and the environment. COEJL has put environmental protection on the agenda of the organized Jewish community and made the case to elected officials and decision-makers that protecting the environment is a moral and religious obligation.
Today, COEJL represents 30 national Jewish organizations spanning the full spectrum of Jewish religious and communal life and serves as the voice of the organized Jewish community on environmental issues in Washington, D.C. and around the country. COEJL has its headquarters in New York and an office in Washington, D.C. and a national board of 23 trustees. COEJL operates within the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA).
COEJL is working to transform synagogues into centers of environmental awareness, stewardship, and justice. With COEJL’s help, congregations are applying green building principles in managing their facilities, and instilling ethical environmental practices into ritual life, educational programming, and social action. An eventual goal of this project is to influence the sustainable choices of other Jewish institutions such as JCCs, Hillels, and Jewish day schools.
COEJL seeks to expand the contemporary understanding of such Jewish values as tikkun olam (repairing the world) and tzedek (justice) to include the protection of both people and other species from environmental degradation. COEJL seeks to extend such traditions as social action and g’milut hasadim (performing deeds of loving kindness) to environmental action and advocacy, and shalom (peace or wholeness), which at the very core of Jewish aspirations, is in its full sense, harmony in all creation.
Web Site: www.coejl.org
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