Lunch and learn with Rabbi Bergman

Leah Joshua, Pepper Banki, Rabbi Bergman, Ethan Winter and David Knoll AM

On Friday 4 March, Ethan Winter and I were fortunate enough to have an audience with Rabbi Bergman. Rabbi is an advocate for climate change and is a social activist. He has held the position of Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development in Argentina. He is the only Rabbi who has held a position in parliament outside of Israel. He talked about some of the things that he did to combat climate change and we all need to make a personal commitment to changing some of our habits such as being mindful of how much water we use.

He challenged us to add a 5th question to our Seder this year – “What can we all do to combat climate change?”. It was such a wonderful opportunity to be included in this event and we have taken away a lot of food for thought as to how we can look after our School community in a more sustainable way. By Pepper Banki, Year 6 Environment Leader

Meeting with Rabbi Bergman was an educational and exciting experience. I really loved the discussions we had about climate change and the UN global goals. The Rabbi shared some insightful and unique ideas, expanding my knowledge of the path we need to take to ensure a sustainable future. By Leah Joshua, Year 7

On Friday we were given the privilege of meeting with Rabbi Bergman, a very engaging and insightful experience. One of our key takeaways was his analogy of climate change being a symptom of an illness, as opposed to the illness itself. This made us realise that in order to remedy the disastrous impacts of climate change, we have to start at the root of the problem, not simply put a band aid on the wound. From the discussion, we also reflected on what we as a school are doing well, such as composting and soft-plastic recycling, and how each of our small actions can affect the big picture. By Lilly Goldberg and Eden Grynberg

Meeting the Year 11 students

Rabbi Bergman had the Year 11 students contemplating profound ideas around Jewish living to improve the world. He explained that he did not leave Judaism behind when he left his position as a community rabbi to become Argentina’s first ever Minister of the Environment, rather his Jewish service and Jewish values were forefront in helping him make Argentina a better place for all Argentinians, not just Jews. He challenged the students to find what they are passionate about, what they want to do in the world, and use that to initiate their contribution to the Tikkun Olam plan – using Jewish values as one of the ways in which humanity can truly make a difference.
By Daphna Levin Kahn, Acting Head of Jewish Life