Rabbi Shoshana Friedman’s Joyful Anthem for Climate Action

Roslindale-based Rabbi Shoshana Friedman combines activism with authorship. Her new picture book, “The Tide Is Rising, So Are We! A Climate Movement Anthem” (Beaming Books) is a call to action for citizens of the world—and a reassuring reminder that we’re all in this together. She’ll stage a musical performance and reading near her home at The Substation event space on April 27. She’s joined by her family, who are Jewish artists and activists in their own right: Her dad is Rabbi Lev Friedman; her siblings form the folk-band duo Ari & Mia.

Friedman graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in environmental studies and later Hebrew College. In 2014, she attended a People’s Climate March in New York City and later appeared on a panel at Harvard Divinity School on sustainability and faith, cementing her reputation as a force within the climate-activism community.

“I was representing Judaism. It was total chutzpah on my part to accept this invitation,” she told JewishBoston at the time. “I was sitting on a panel with luminaries of the interfaith climate-justice movement, where I listened to them articulate climate-justice work as a devotional practice and the way to witness God’s love of the world.”

More advocacy work followed; she also founded Clergy Climate Action, which “offers resources for doing civil disobedience peacefully from the perspective of the climate.”

Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman (Courtesy photo)

Friedman considers climate and Judaism intrinsically linked.

“The entire premise of our religion is climatically based, based in a semi-arid land with extremely vulnerable weather patterns and a very vulnerable water cycle, where sometimes there was rain and sometimes there was drought. From a values perspective, our tradition teaches us to live in a balanced way with the land, and the basic Jewish values of protecting human life,” she says.

The origins of the book took root when she was a newly ordained rabbi, during a 2015 trip to Washington, D.C. At a “Coming Together in Faith on Climate” event, she wrote a song for the interfaith service: “The Tide Is Rising, And So Are We.”

Its simple but powerful refrain—“The tide is rising, and so are we; this is where we are called to be”—captured the plain urgency of the climate movement.

The book expands on the song, and it’s gotten rave reviews from Publishers Weekly (“empowering”) and Kirkus Reviews (“a vibrant ode”).

(Courtesy image)

“We’re called to go on a hard journey together and find lessons and redemption as much as we can through a very dark time. I think of the climate movement as a kind of collective heroes’ journey that we’re on—and I wanted to be able to communicate that to activists of all ages,” Friedman says.

Friedman recalls growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, when the environmental movement was just beginning—and when possibilities for change felt very individual and overwhelming.

“It was: you can change the world, you can stop pollution, you can save the rainforest. There was very little powerful, robust movement-building that was taking on the systemic political and industry issues,” Friedman recalls.

With this book, she hopes to share with kids—and adults—that a “huge global movement is afoot, and you’re welcome to join it. You’re not alone in this. It is not up to you. Your gifts are welcomed and needed, but this crisis is not on your shoulders. You are held in the bosom of a global movement, and if your heart is breaking and if you’re scared, those feelings connect you to millions, hundreds of millions, billions of other humans around the world. You are not the savior of the planet. You are a cell in the immune system of the planet, and we’re in this together,” she says.

Friedman underscores that this isn’t a STEM book, although STEM solutions are certainly essential to fight climate change. Instead, she wants to galvanize readers to march, write letters and to contemplate the activism that’s possible in daily life as we witness fires, floods and food shortages. This mental load is a lot for kids—for anyone, really—to bear.

“This is a mental health tool, too,” she says. “The first line opens with an image of me with other interfaith leaders at a protest in 2016, showing grownups acting. The first line is: ‘Everywhere the oceans rise. You and I will organize, standing up and speaking out. Climate justice is our shout!’ And, on that page, there’s an artistically rendered map of the world with people all over it holding signs and taking climate action,” she says—immediately showing kids that they’re not alone.

Illustrations are by Kiki Kita, for whom Friedman has raves: “She made the book come to life with vibrancy, uniqueness and color. It’s just this sumptuous, physically and aesthetically gorgeous, very powerful item. I hope people put it on their coffee table as a beautiful thing to have in these dark times,” she says.

Doors open for the April 27 launch party at 3 p.m., with snacks, art projects and music. Learn more about the book here.