Published: 12 November 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
“I DON’T KNOW if you’ve heard of the idea of a rocking chair test?” Joel Lazar asks rhetorically.
“It’s like I’m sitting on a rocking chair when I’m 80 on a porch with my old mate and we’re looking back and we’re asking, ‘did we do a good job of life? Did we do exactly what was right in the moment?’”
Lazar, 31, hopes his new role will answer that test. Last month, he was appointed as inaugural CEO of the Jewish Climate Network (JCN), which was established by the Jewish Ecological Coalition in 2019 to bring together Jewish people who are concerned about climate change.
Over the past year JCN has worked with and reached over 1500 people, facilitated community discussions in person and online through its Climate Conversation Program, organised workshops, community events, and talks on sustainable investing.
Lazar was formerly Head of Operations at charity organisation The Man Cave, which runs programs to foster healthy masculinity and mental health in young males; before that he was a commercial litigator at a Melbourne law firm.
He says this new role offered him the chance to pass his rocking chair test by pursuing his passion for climate change advocacy. From JCN’s perspective, he says the creation of a CEO role helps it become more established as it pursues its agenda of “educating, empowering and connecting the Australian Jewish community around solutions for a safe climate”.
Specifically, it focuses on encouraging members of the Jewish community to take action in their “natural contexts and networks” such as families, schools, workplaces, businesses and youth movements.
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While JCN started out as a grassroots movement in people’s lounge rooms, its horizons are large. On November 22, Lazar will moderate a panel discussion, titled Your Place in the Clean Economy, with former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, CEO of Australian Energy Market Operator, Audrey Zibelman, and president of JCN, Eytan Lenko, who is also Executive Chair of Beyond Zero Emissions.
On November 22, Lazar will moderate a panel discussion, titled Your Place in the Clean Economy, with former prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, CEO of Australian Energy Market Operator, Audrey Zibelman, and president of JCN, Eytan Lenko.
It’s a formidable panel, but Lazar assures me JCN does not promote any particular political agenda. “We are not aligned with any side of politics because the risks to our lives and our environment are well beyond and above any politics,” he says.
“Our hope for this event is to give young Jewish adults - especially those now considering their first or next career paths - a special insight into the rapidly changing clean economy from leaders who are or have been, at the very top of their industries.”
Asked about how his background prepared him for his new role, Lazar describes how the “classic” experiences of his Jewish upbringing converged with a growing realisation of the critical impact of climate change.
“A lot of my earliest memories of growing up in the Melbourne Jewish community were really positive, memories of warmth and care and safety. My nanna and zaydeh used to live next door, it was a bit like [the US television series] Everybody Loves Raymond.”
We are not aligned with any side of politics because the risks to our lives and our environment are well beyond and above any politics.
Lazar is animated as he relays experiences like Pesach seders, attending Leibler Yavneh College and being a leader of Hineni Youth movement. At Monash University he studied Arts/Law before commencing work as a commercial lawyer.
“Everything was kind of on track for a pretty typical career; it all started to change a couple of years ago when I just immersed a bit more in the science and experience of climate change.
“The number of times I would hear in the media about how Melbourne had another ‘hottest day on record…seeing the bushfires in Victoria last year - it actually felt very real in Melbourne.”
Lazar describes a “tipping point” as watching young people, especially Jewish youth, participating in last year’s school strikes for climate change. He emphasises how the strength of Jewish networks makes the community “perfectly suited” to take action to respond to climate threats.
“I came across a whole body of social science that says people achieve more as a group when they have a shared language, history and context.
Jewish communities all over the world, including Australia, have really robust community frameworks, institutions and resources. There is a huge untapped potential.
“Jewish Climate Network is essentially harnessing that shared language, history, context. Jewish communities all over the world, including Australia, have really robust community frameworks, institutions and resources. There is a huge untapped potential.
Lazar sees the key is to involve people from across the political and religious spectrums. “The Australian Jewish community is across that full spectrum. We’ve got lots of Liberal voters, Labor voters, and we’ve also got Greens voters. We’ve got religious Jews, we’ve got secular Jews, we’ve got everyone in between.”
Lazar is now starting to lay out a roadmap for the coming years. He says JCN will be looking at ways it can harness business, philanthropy, politics and community around meaningful climate action.
In particular, he hopes to build on the enthusiasm of Jewish youth who are passionate about climate change, a group he describes as a “jewel in our crown” in generating a Jewish response to climate issues.
“We might look to equip young Jews to consider careers that are part of the solution for climate change, and through their youth groups to support them with campaigns and inspire [them] to take action.”
On a more global scale, Lazar is excited about the climate opportunities that will flow from the US election result, which will transcend political divisions.
“What gives me the greatest hope is all Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike, benefiting from a two-trillion-dollar investment plan that will create millions of new jobs in a clean, decarbonised economy,” he says.
“On top of that, there are opportunities that can flow to Australia and Israel when America is a robust economic and trading partner, as well as a partner that continues to work for Israel's safety and security in the region.
“What's not to be hopeful about?”
It’s a world away from working in a city law firm, and the rocking chair test. Was it daunting for Lazar to leave behind the security of career progression prospects in commercial law and switch into working for social organisations?
He admits that it was scary but describes how rewarding it has been to push through the fear. “I reflected that a lot of that ‘set pathway’ that exists in commercial law and a lot of careers like that are driven by the feeling of scarcity: that there is not enough security, there are not enough jobs, not enough money, so I need to cling to this pathway otherwise I will be out in the cold. Stepping outside that path was like me being in the savanna or in the wilderness.
“What allowed me to take the leap was realising that I created a little bit of an illusion for myself. The Jewish community and my education had given me a lot of tools and the world was a lot bigger than I had led myself to believe. Things weren’t as scarce.”
“There’s a lot of opportunity working in all kinds of different fields like companies generating solutions to climate change, not-for-profits, social organisations and…I’m not out on the streets, I’m not in the savanna.
“I’ve learnt a lot and I’ve grown.”
