Electrification plan to help improve 100 homes

The Jewish Climate Network is urging Australian Jews to take practical steps in the fight against climate change.

This follows last month’s release of the National Climate Risk Assessment.

Joel Lazar, CEO of the Jewish Climate Network, said the Jewish community will be affected like all Australians, with higher extreme heat days, more flooding and increased tropical cyclones expected in areas where Jews live, including Caulfield and Bondi.

He also said climate change will “affect Israel’s security and prosperity” because he said climate change weakens militaries.

Lazar said there are some specific examples, such as a “runway that a jet might take off from gets too hot on an extreme heat day, and can’t take off”.

He believes the Australian Jewish community can tackle both antisemitism and the environment.

“I think there is space for us to think about and act on more than one issue at the same time. It’s not as though the community is a monolith, where all of us are thinking about only one thing at one point in time,” Lazar said.

“There is space for us to both fight for and care about the things that we traditionally need to stay focused on, but also to have space for [climate issues].”

Lazar believes that working on climate issues alongside other environmental groups within the broader Australian society helps combat antisemitism by demonstrating that the Jewish community shares the same concerns.

“When we’re continuing to fight for climate issues, we are constantly reminding Australia that we’re just like you, that we experience the same fate, and we have the same aspirations and the same hopes,” he said.

And in his experience, this has been the case.

“We’ve had opportunities to share lived Jewish experience with a lot of these groups and the senior leaders … and the vast majority have been really receptive to that,” he said.

The organisation’s flagship practical initiative, “It’s Time,” aims to electrify 100 Jewish homes across Melbourne and Sydney.

The project partners with social enterprise Goodbye Gas to help households switch from gas to electric appliances, install solar panels and access available subsidies.

Lazar said the benefits extended beyond environmental impact, including cost savings of up to $5000 a year, health improvements from removing gas from homes, and quieter, cleaner air outside schools.

Community members can host a workshop or connect directly with Goodbye Gas through the organisation’s website: jcn.org.au