Torah Essay Contest: What does the Torah have to say about the climate crisis?

February 6, 2023

YCT Torah Climate flyer - details in post

Torah Essay Contest

Prompt: What does the Torah have to say about the climate crisis? How can it inspire us to mitigate it?

Winning essay will receive $1,000 and be featured on YCT website!

Entry Info:

  • Anyone ages 18-35 may enter
  • English or Hebrew accepted
  • 1,500 word limit

Deadline to Submit:

Earth Day, April 22 @11:59pm EST

Send essays to climate@yctorah.org

Winner announced by Shavuot

Photograph of UCLA (university of California, Los Angeles) Hillel building. Image of a grey stone building made up of large rectangular blocks arranges vertically with small window-like gaps spread throughout. The building appears to be about 3 floors tall with a large windowed balcony section on the top left and what might be a large square garage entrance on the bottom right and a big stone arch main entrance. To the right and left of the building are some scraggly trees with an asphalt road/ walk-way leading up to and past the building. The sky behind the structure is a bright, cloudless blue.How Hillel at UCLA Moved beyond Tolerance to Embrace Difference
Photograph of Rabbi Aaron Lerner with Surfboard. Image of a man, from the knees up, turned to the right with head facing the camera and appears to be middle aged. He has a beaming smile, half-closed eyes, and pinkish tan skin. He has thick black hair that is greying on the sides, seems to be clean shaven and is wearing a navy blue sweater with a white button down shirt underneath and blue jeans. He is carrying a surfboard horizontally at a slight upwards angle under one arm. The surfboard is depicting a city-like map grid with the land mass being being yellow with broad white grid lines criss crossing throughout. There are a few splotches of green on the map and on the top left section of the map is blue representing a body of water with 2 smaller rivulets going into the city on the right vertically and on the left horizontally. Slightly past the half-way point, to the right, are 4 navy blue, circle logos. The one furthest to the right has the white silhouette of a bear. Side by side, with the top one just below the bear, is a white city logo with the abstracted images of 4apartment buildings with windows, and a logo which looks like an overlapping "" forming a shape similar to a Magen David. The last logo, to the left of the previously mentioned one, looks like a white Roman helmet with a visor and a horse-like mane/ crest. On the far left side of the surfboard are the words "ללכת עם הזרם" (the letters are on their sides because the surfboard is being held horizontally) with a white wavy pattern to the left and a navy blue section to the left of that. Behind Rabbi Lerner are 2 tall bookshelves filled with Jewish books in various colors and sizes and to the left of the shelves is a grey wall.Finance, rabbinics and practical experience fuel L.A. Jewish community foundation’s new top exec