It was a second of spiritual reflection, maybe a uncommon one, in a Washington federal constructing.
Lee Zeldin, the primary Jewish administrator of the Environmental Safety Company, on Thursday affixed a mezuza — a parchment scroll inscribed with Jewish prayers, encased in a small rectangular case — to the door body of his wood-paneled govt workplace on the company’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The grandson and great-grandson of rabbis, Mr. Zeldin invited the media, saying he needed to supply others “a second to take a break from their regular routine, and to replicate and take into consideration another non secular points of their day and their life.”
He was joined by different members of the Trump administration and representatives from a number of Jewish organizations. A rabbi hooked up a second mezuza to a different door body contained in the workplace suite.
A mezuza has verses from the Torah, which instructions Jews to inscribe these Hebrew phrases “on the door posts of your home.” A mezuza shouldn’t be required within the office, however they’re more and more widespread in Washington. A number of members of Congress have positioned mezuzas at their workplace doorways. And, in the course of the Biden administration, Doug Emhoff, the husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris, affixed one on the entryway of their official residence.
Many Jewish non secular leaders praised Mr. Zeldin for publicly celebrating his identification. However for Jewish environmental activists, the reflection was on one thing completely different: Mr. Zeldin’s function in weakening guidelines designed to restrict air pollution and world warming.
The duty to restore the world, or tikkun olam, is a central idea of Judaism. However in his place as chief of the E.P.A., Mr. Zeldin is overseeing a profound overhaul of the company. He’s searching for to cut back staffing to ranges final seen in the course of the Reagan administration and dealing to weaken or repeal greater than 30 rules — all of that are thought of burdensome by oil, fuel and coal firms — that shield the air, water and local weather.
These rules embrace limits on greenhouse fuel air pollution from cars and energy vegetation; restrictions on mercury, a neurotoxin that may trigger developmental issues in infants and youngsters; and limits on effective particulate matter, one of the vital widespread and deadliest types of air air pollution. Mr. Zeldin has stated lowering rules would decrease prices for Individuals to personal a house, purchase a automotive or run a enterprise.
“His repealing dozens of environmental protections is an assault on Jewish values, and I might even say a desecration of Jewish values,” stated Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, the founding father of Dayenu, a Jewish nonprofit local weather group.
There isn’t a single interpretation of how Judaism addresses environmental safety. However Jewish custom teaches, as do different non secular teams, that individuals are stewards of God’s creation.
Along with affixing the mezuza, a rabbi on Thursday additionally inscribed on parchment Hebrew passages from Genesis and Deuteronomy which might be associated to the atmosphere and that will likely be integrated into a brand new Torah being created in Washington.
One was a commandment to “work and guard” the Earth. One other passage stated, “Don’t destroy its timber, for man is sort of a tree within the area.”
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, the director of the Spiritual Motion Heart of Reform Judaism, stated he was moved by Mr. Zeldin’s resolution to hold a mezuza by his workplace door and known as it a “lovely factor.”
However he, too, stated he was involved by Mr. Zeldin’s actions as E.P.A. administrator.
“The levers of presidency can both be pulled to guard the planet and to maintain creatures wholesome and thriving, or they are often pulled in a means that might desire both company pursuits or the buildup of wealth on the expense of the planet,” Rabbi Pesner stated.
“Our hope for Administrator Zeldin is that as he refines the rules, that they are going to be grounded in the identical values of not solely Jewish custom however different religion traditions that love this Earth that God gave us,” he stated.
When requested about these criticisms on Thursday, Mr. Zeldin drew a line between religion and policymaking.
“I’m not going to start out analyzing the selections now we have to make inside this constructing primarily based off numerous interpretations of everybody’s faith throughout this nation,” he stated. “It’s primarily based off the legislation, and our obligations, and the deserves and the science.”
Others defended Mr. Zeldin’s actions.
“To the extent Zeldin is saying we want good rules or want to verify the financial system is rising whereas we additionally shield the air and water, that’s not inconsistent with Jewish values,” stated Alex Brill, a senior fellow on the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative coverage analysis group.
“I don’t say that as a Jewish scholar, I say it as a Jewish man” stated Mr. Brill, who has advocated for a carbon value to deal with local weather change. “We have to shield the environment and we have to shield our financial system.”
Consultant Randy Nice, Republican of Florida, who’s Jewish, attended the E.P.A. ceremony and known as Mr. Zeldin’s mezuza “a proud assertion of our religion.” He additionally dismissed the criticism by Jewish environmental leaders.
“Look, I feel there’s lots of people who use Jewish values very conveniently,” he stated, including, “I feel President Trump has been given an amazing mandate to run this nation.”
Herb Leventer, a professor of philosophy and environmental ethics at Yeshiva College in New York, stated he felt a public show of religiosity, notably by a political determine, was inappropriate.
“It’s a standard sufficient factor,” he stated of hanging a mezuza in a workplace. However, Mr. Leventer stated, “The general public ceremony nature of it within the context of politics leaves a foul style.”
Mr. Zeldin’s great-grandfather, Moshe Efraim Zeldin, was an Orthodox rabbi who immigrated from Russia within the early 1900s, and was a frontrunner of the early Zionist motion in Brooklyn. His great-uncle was Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin, who based the Stephen Clever Temple in Los Angeles, and his grandfather, Rabbi Abraham Jacob Zeldin, based Farmingdale Jewish Heart, a synagogue on Lengthy Island.
On Thursday, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the manager vp of American Buddies of Lubavitch (Chabad), who led the E.P.A. ceremony, recited a blessing.
Rabbi Shemtov stated the administrator’s great-grandfather “couldn’t think about in his wildest desires that this might be occurring right here.”
