From Anxiety to Action: Telling the Story of the World We Want
Part of the Learning Series, Seasons of Responsibility: Interreligious Conversations on Environmental Justice and Repair
With Rabbi Laura Bellows, Director of Spiritual Activism & Education, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, and Joe Blumberg, Rabbinical Student, JTS
At the heart of Passover is a question that feels urgent today: how do we move forward when the future feels uncertain and frightening? This session explores the Crossing of the Sea through midrash and contemporary thought, treating imagination as a muscle that must be strengthened in times of crisis. As we conclude Seasons of Responsibility, we’ll shift focus from individual anxiety to collective responsibility, inviting participants to consider how shared storytelling, community, and action help bring the world we long for into being.
About the Speakers
Rabbi Laura Bellows works to build climate-resilient, spiritually-rooted, justice-seeking communities centered in Jewish wisdom. She has served as a curriculum and ritual designer, outdoor experiential educator, program manager, artist, and facilitator in Jewish and inter-religious spaces. Laura studied Environmental Studies at Oberlin College and was ordained at Hebrew College, where she recently lead Prozdor and Teen Learning programs. She moonlights as a soferet (scribe) and freelance rabbi for couples and communities throughout the Boston area.
Joe Blumberg is a fourth-year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and the Senior Rabbinic Fellow at B’nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He previously worked as an educator at Brown RISD Hillel and spent a year as a Fulbright scholar in Jerusalem, where he also studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Joe was a 2022-2023 rabbinical student fellow at Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, where he advised Jewish communities on their climate justice work. He has served as a teacher and prayer leader around the country, most recently as a rabbinic intern at Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas, Texas, and Beth Israel Congregation in Bath, Maine. Joe holds a B.A. in American History from Yale.
About the Series
Across Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions, spring is a season of reflection, renewal, and ethical commitment. Grounded in holidays from Tu Bishvat and Lent to Ramadan, Holi, and Passover, this interreligious series explores responsibility, repair, and leadership in the face of urgent ecological challenges. Together, participants consider how religious wisdom can inspire ethical action and collective hope.
