The 2025 Annual Samuel and Dorothy Frankel Memorial Lecture

Thursday, March 27, 2025, 8:00 PM
Daniel Family Commons, 45 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown, CT

What's Jewish About Jewish Environmentalism?
Speaker: Alon Tal

What is the Jewish approach to environmental protection and conservation? This talk argues that while Environmentalism and Judaism are essentially synonymous, the Jewish perspective has unique insights and idiosyncratic approaches to the global challenges of sustainability. Relying on text study and examples from Israel, the talk offers an interactive exploration of ancient (and modern) perspectives about ecological challenges and traditional Judaism’s formula for ensuring harmony between humans and the only planet we will ever know.

Alon Tal is a visiting professor at the Stanford University. Between 2021 and 2022, he was a member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament and served as chair of the subcommittee for Environmental and Climate Impacts on Health. He is a faculty member and past chair of the Department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University, where he served as scientific advisor to Israel’s State Comptroller in its national Climate Change policy evaluation.

The 2024 Annual Samuel and Dorothy Frankel Memorial Lecture

Over the Edge: A Story of Israeli and Palestinian Failure
Speaker: Roger Cohen