Australian Jewish students prepare for school climate strike

While some Jewish students will play key organising roles in this Friday’s event, Jewish day schools were mostly lukewarm about the strike. Nell Cohen reports

SCHOOL STRIKE 4 CLIMATE protests will again be taking place across at least 38 cities and towns in Australia this Friday. The last strike action held in September 2019 attracted 300,000 people, according to protest organisers.

Sydney student Bailey Linton-Simpkins attends Epping Boys High School and his family goes to North Shore Temple Emanuel. He has been active in the School Strike movement since the national protest action in September 2019.

Linton-Simpkins, 16, will be involved as a police point of contact and marshal captain at the protest in Sydney this Friday.

“I think it’s incredibly important to attend to show our leaders that we still need urgent climate action, and they can't use Covid as an excuse to splurge on gas, which is destroying First Nations’ land, and fracking our future,” Linton-Simpkins told The Jewish Independent.

“Australia could be a renewable energy superpower, but our leaders have let us let us become a global disappointment.”

Linton-Simpkins said he views Judaism as synonymous with social justice, citing formative experiences such as volunteering at the Asylum Seeker Centre with his mother and grandmother when he was younger.

“I believe there are parallels to be drawn between my experience growing up in the Jewish community and my activism. I think the idea of coming together as a family to share stories, celebrate and connect, as we do on Friday nights for Shabbat, is so similar to the experiences I have at climate strikes and other peaceful protests.”