ACTIVIST SPOTLIGHT: BARUCH BLUM
For most of my life, I never really saw myself as much of an activist. And the truth is, even today, after having been arrested a couple of times at climate protests, I still don't entirely feel like the term fits me. I am, by nature, quite passive politically, so I wonder if I deserve to be known as an activist. In my understanding, a true activist fights for, as the Workers Circle would say, a shenere un besere velt -- a more beautiful and better world, a world that lives up to higher ideals than our current one.
For a long time, I had not joined the struggle in the activist sense to create a shenere un besere velt. I told myself that as long as I'm a ''good'' person, and as long as I support the right things from the sidelines, then I'll have done my part for the world to incrementally become a shenere un besere velt. Not everyone has to be an activist, right? I think I liked the interpersonal freedom not being an activist brought me. I could more easily get along with people from a wide spectrum of political viewpoints and not feel the pressure that I should be proselytizing for a cause. Not being an activist also helps one avoid many accusations of self-righteousness.
And the thing is, this sometimes problematic mentality is still with me in many ways. And my personality is still more go with the flow than go against the stream. What changed for me was not so much a moral awakening that I have to take more responsibility for the state of the world — rather, it was a gradual coming to understand that the state of the world itself is in a lot more danger than I realized. That there is almost nothing I can put my energy toward on this planet that isn't potentially threatened by climate breakdown, whether for family, community, culture, or any social or political cause. This grim realization provided the existential push for me to become a climate activist.
I’ve done a lot of reading and listening to podcasts since the beginning of covid (which itself was a wakeup call for me as to the fragility of the status quo and the life-or-death importance of the precautionary principle), and there are many sources that have influenced my understanding of our climate crisis. Following the climate scientist Peter Kalmus on Twitter, listening to the Drilled podcast by Amy Westervelt, and reading the book Why Climate Breakdown Matters by Rupert Read have had an especially powerful influence on me.
My activism is mostly with Extinction Rebellion NYC. XRNYC often targets the financial institutions headquartered here to demand that they stop investing billions of dollars in fossil fuel expansion. The first time I got arrested was participating in a blockade of the employees’ entrance to Citibank headquarters, and the second time was at a street blockade near Blackrock headquarters. It was a surreal experience for me to sit in a jail cell for a few hours with the other activists – there was a mixture of feeling like I didn’t belong (since when am I one of them, an activist who goes out and gets arrested?) together with the feeling of moral clarity that I was exactly where I belonged. I am hoping that other non-activists like me can also find a place in climate activism. Because, unfortunately, drastic activism by many more people is now necessary not just to create a besere un shenere velt, but even just to preserve the very flawed world we have now.
In addition to the general conversation classes that I teach for the Workers Circle, I’ve also led a “Green Yiddish” course for the past several semesters, where we talk about issues related to climate and environmentalism in Yiddish (for intermediate and advanced students). Since it’s for a good cause, the course is provided for free. You can find it among the other courses in the catalog or email me directly at bblum@circle.org. if you’re interested in being put on the list. Please also reach out if you’re looking for ways to get involved in climate activism, especially if you’re in the New York area.