It was a moment of religious reflection, perhaps a rare one in a federal building in Washington.
Lee Zeldin, the first Jewish manager of the Environmental Protection Agency, applied a Mezuza on Thursday-a parchment roller registered with Jewish prayers, encapsulated in a small rectangular case to the door of his wood office at the head office of the office of the office Op Pennsylvania
The grandson and great -grandson of rabbis, Mr. Zeldin, invited the media and said he wanted to offer others “a moment to take a break of their normal routine, and to think and think about some other spiritual aspects of their day and their lives.”
He was accompanied by other members of the Trump government and representatives of various Jewish organizations. A rabbi attached a second mezuza to another door frame in the office suite.
A mezuza has verses of the Torah, who orders Jews to describe those Hebrew words “on the door posts of your house.” A mezuza is not required in the workplace, but they are increasingly common in Washington. Various members of the congress have placed Mezuzas in their office doors. And during the Biden government, Doug Emhoff, the husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris, has arranged one at the entrance of their official home.
Many Jewish religious leaders praised Mr Zeldin for the public celebration of his identity. But for Jewish environmental activists, the reflection on something else was: the role of Mr. Zeldin in weakening rules that have been designed to limit the pollution and global warming.
The obligation to repair the world, or Tikkun Olam, is a central concept of Judaism. But in his position as leader of the EPA, Mr. Zeldin supervises a profound revision of the agency. He tries to reduce the workforce to levels that is last seen during the Reagan administration and work on weakening or withdrawing more than 30 regulations – all of which are considered heavy by oil, gas and coal companies – which protect the air, water and climate.
These regulations include limits for the pollution of greenhouse gases due to cars and power plants; limitations on mercury, a neurotoxin that can cause developmental problems in infants and children; And boundaries on fine particles, one of the most common and deadliest forms of air pollution. Mr. Zeldin said that reducing the regulations would lower the costs for Americans to possess a house, buy a car or run a company.
“His withdrawal dozens of environmental protection is an attack on Jewish values, and I would even say desecrocation of Jewish values,” said Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, the founder of Dayenu, a Jewish non -profit climate organization.
There is no interpretation of how Judaism tackles environmental protection. But the Jewish tradition learns, just like other religious groups, that people are stewards of God’s creation.
In addition to attaching the mezuza, a rabbi on Thursday is also registered on parchment Hebrew passages by Genesis and Deuteronomy that are related to the environment and that will be included in A new Torah created in Washington.
One was a commandment to ‘work and guard’ the earth. Another passage said, “Don’t destroy his trees, because man is like a tree in the field.”
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, the director of the religious Action Center of the Reforming Judaism, said he was moved by Mr. Zeldin’s decision to hang a Mezuza on his office door and called it a “beautiful thing.”
But he also said that he was worried about Mr Zeldin’s actions as an EPA manager.
“The levers of the government can be pulled to protect the planet and to keep beings healthy and flourishing, whether they can be drawn in a way that would prefer business interests or the accumulation of wealth at the expense of the planet,” said Rabbi Pesner.
“Our hope for manager rarer is that while he refines the instructions, that they will be based on the same values of not only Jewish tradition, but other faith traditions that God gave us,” he said.
When asked for that criticism of Thursday, Mr. Zeldin drew a boundary between faith and policy -making.
“I’m not going to start analyzing the decisions we have to make in this building based on various interpretations of everyone’s religion in this country,” he said. “It is based on the law, and our obligations, and the merits and science.”
Others defended Mr. Zeldin’s actions.
“As far as rarer says that we need smart regulations or have to ensure that the economy grows while we also protect the air and water, that is not inconsistent with Jewish values,” said Alex Brill, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a research group for conservative policy.
“I don’t say that as a Jewish scholar, I say it as a Jewish man,” said Mr. Brill, who argued for a carbon prize to tackle climate change. “We have to protect our environment and we have to protect our economy.”
Reporter Randy Fine, Republican of Florida, who is Jewish, attended the EPA ceremony and called the Mezuza of Mr. Zeldin “a proud explanation of our faith.” He also rejected the criticism of Jewish environmental leaders.
“Look, I think there are many people who use Jewish values very handy,” he said, adding to it, “I think President Trump got an overwhelming mandate to run this country.”
Herb Lavener, a professor of philosophy and environmental ethics at Yeshiva University in New York, said
He felt that a public display of religiosity, in particular by a political figure, was inappropriate.
“It’s much enough,” he said about hanging a mezuza in a workplace. But, Mr Lavener said, “The nature of its public ceremony in the context of politics leaves a bad taste.”
The great -grandfather of Mr. Zeldin, Moshe Ephraim Zeldin, was an orthodox Rabbi who emigrated from Russia in early 1900 and was a leader of the early Zionist movement in Brooklyn. His overcame was Rabbi Isaiah rarin, who founded the Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles, and his grandfather, Rabbi Abraham Jacob Zeldin, founded Farmingdale Jewish Center, a synagogue on Long Island.
On Thursday, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch, who led the EPA ceremony, recited the Shema, a central prayer in Judaism, with Mr. Zeldin.
Rabbi Shemtov said that the great -grandfather of the manager “could not imagine that this would happen here in his wildest dreams.”
- Advertisement -
