Jerusalem — December 3, 2025 — After two years of war, 55 religious figures, clergy, seminary students, and lay leaders came together today at an Interfaith Ecology Summit to explore the essential role that faith communities play in advancing environmental sustainability. Environmental challenges transcend borders and religious affiliations and therefore exist as an arena of joint, urgent concern among people of diverse nationalities and faiths.
The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD) and the FELM Center Jerusalem successfully hosted the Summit at the FELM Center, near the seam line between East and West Jerusalem.
Christian, Jewish, and Muslim figures spoke about the religious foundations for ecological action. Panelists included Rabbi David Rosen KSG CBE, Reverend Fursan Zumot, and Yasmin Barhum. The Summit also included a faith-based ecological walk in Jerusalem, led by Rabbi Yonatan Neril.
The event featured breakout workshops on practical faith-based environmental initiatives, including eco-preaching, integrating ecology into religious seminary education, and promoting green pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Participants also enjoyed a catered kosher vegan lunch, reflecting the gathering’s commitment to sustainability. This was the twentieth interfaith eco conference that ICSD has co-organized since 2010.
The Summit:
- Served to unleash the power of clergy and faith communities as change agents for climate action;
- Promoted greening of Jerusalem houses of worship, as well as environmentally conscious pilgrimage;
- Conveyed a spiritual message from Jerusalem to global political leaders on the
- urgency of ecological action;
- Empowered clergy and seminarians to become ecological champions and integrate eco-theology into their teaching.
Rabbi David Rosen said, “As religions teach that the whole world of which we are a part is the Divine Creation, religious communities should be leading the way in protecting and sustaining it. Through such activity we honor the Creator, just as the degradation of our environment is nothing less than a desecration of the Divine Presence.”
Rev. Dr. Maria Leppäkari, director of the FELM Center Jerusalem said, “As stakeholders in one global ecosystem, faith leaders play a key role in shaping attitudes and supporting the transition to more sustainable ways of living.”
Yasmin Barhum quoted the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change, which states that “Disruption of the global climate is a consequence of our corruption in the earth. We have no right to abuse the creation or impair it.”
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Media contact:
Rabbi Yonatan Neril: 054-723-4973, yneril@interfaithsustain.com
