Report from Dayenu in California
Dayenu California volunteers are calling on Big Polluters — huge corporations that are drilling and fracking for oil and gas in Long Beach, Santa Barbara, Bakersfield, and other California communities — to pay their fair share for climate damages. With a Climate Superfund, we will raise much-needed revenue for disaster resilience, sustainable infrastructure, and recovery for the working families and communities who’ve suffered through wildfires, droughts, floods, atmospheric rivers and other climate super-storms.
The Climate Superfund offers the greatest opportunity our state has seen in a generation to make life in California more affordable and resilient. Taxpayers and working families should not continue to bear the full cost of rebuilding after climate disasters. We call on the California Legislature to make polluters pay.
60+ RABBIS OF CALIFORNIA HAVE SIGNED A CLIMATE SUPERFUND SUPPORT LETTER
Jewish Californians concerned about climate change have volunteered with Dayenu and the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism (RAC) to collect signatures from more than 60 California Rabbis, Jewish spiritual leaders or clergy, that calls on Legislators and Governor Gavin Newsom “to act now to ensure a livable planet so that all people may continue to live and thrive l’dor v’dor, from generation to generation.”
VOICES FROM CALIFORNIA
MAYA GOLDEN-KRASNER – LA JEWISH MOTHER & LAWYER
The Altadena synagogue where Maya Golden-Krasner worshipped and recently had her daughter’s Bat Mitzvah burned to the ground in the 2025 LA wildfires.
Maya says, “I’m worried about the effects of climate change, which we know exacerbated this insane fire. It’s time that we hold polluters accountable and use some of that money to make our communities climate resilient.”
Maya’s daughter adds, “I have a lot of memories here. After the fire…it’s just an empty dirt lot. It’s really sad and depressing for me to see. I want to make polluters pay for what they did.”
RABBI RUTH SOHN – HEBREW UNION COLLEGE FACULTY
One of more than 60 California Rabbis and other Jewish religious leaders calling on the state Legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom to create a Climate Superfund.
“We are Jewish clergy from across the state of California. We support our Jewish communities through major life cycle events, joyous holidays, and times of loss.
“As clergy in California, we have seen firsthand the impact of the climate crisis on our congregants and communities – including devastating fires, floods, toxic smoke-filled air, and the grief of facing a world on the brink of ecological collapse. Guided by the Jewish values of being shomrei adamah (protectors of our earth) and rodfei tzedek (pursuers of justice) we call on you to act swiftly and boldly to address the climate crisis.”
ELIANNA H. LITOV – YOUNG DAYENU CA VOLUNTEER
A young Jewish person volunteering as Dayenu California’s Solidarity Lead is raising the call, “Enough! No more will the largest polluters in our state profit off of our local and vulnerable communities suffering.”
Elianna says, “I have been a member of IKAR and Temple Beth Am communities for a few years now, and in the last year, I have become more involved in the Jewish environmental organization Dayenu, learning about growing environmental fears among Los Angeles Jews. More and more of us are becoming anxious about the potential for worsening man-made climate change to damage our communities and threaten our health.
The evidence from the November-January fires showed us that climate change is not a future problem; it’s here in our city now. [We are calling on our] leaders to stand with our Dayenu circles to say, “Enough!”