Dori, Judaism

On Sustainability

It’s been a week,” Dori says when she sits down.

Dori is the Interim Executive Director of an interfaith climate organization based in Indiana, her former home before she moved to Long Beach two years ago.

Last week, one of the younger members of Dori’s organization went to the Glasgow climate summit and returned, disillusioned. For the first time, her colleague doubted if the change they’ve been pushing for will ever happen.

“It’s a grieving process,” Dori explains of the first time despair over climate care hits a climate activist. “It’s hard to see someone new experience it for the first time.”

Dori is also the partner of a Long Beach rabbi. She got hooked on the environment when, after synagogue growing up, her family would go for long, rambling walks through big, underground concrete tunnels in North Carolina that were intended for animals and water to travel in between forests without being run over by cars.

As Dori puts it, that "spiritual underground connected me with a different landscape and universe than the concrete and grass one above."

The interfaith climate space gives her a healing experience Dori can’t seem to find in Jewish spaces alone. 

She tutors me in how to make better compost: “It’s like making lasagna,” she explains. 

I find myself speaking a lot, as she asks questions and listens attentively to the stories of my life. I’m here to hear about her, yet what I learn is how magnificent she is at holding space for  me.