Sing to Survive: New Jewish Songbook Combats Climate Crisis

Abby Bresler’s motivation to combat climate change is personal.

Bresler, a musician and manager of environmental organization the Jewish Youth Climate Movement at Adamah (formerly Hazon), has a respiratory condition that makes breathing more difficult when the weather is hot. After she had trouble breathing during a heat wave several years ago, Bresler decided that just living sustainably was not enough to engender the kind of change she felt was necessary to her health.

“The future—and present—of me, my disability community, and other frontline communities was going to be this reality, if I and others didn’t come together to make change.”

Now, Bresler works to organize Jewish youth against climate change. At protests—be they outside the headquarters of investment firm BlackRock or inside the Rhode Island State House—singing songs rooted in Jewish culture and prayer is one of Bresler’s key tactics. “I think music inherently helps us build power, because it sustains us in our organizing and wards against burnout,” says Bresler.

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