“If we wait for the governments, it’ll be too little, too late; if we act as individuals, it’ll be too little; but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.”
Rob Hopkins
Last Friday, we hosted a dinner to kick off London Climate Action Week 2026 in partnership with EcoJudaism’s Jewish Climate Professionals Network.
Joining us as guest speakers were EcoJudaism founder Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg and EcoJudaism’s CEO, Naomi Verber
We were delighted to mark the start of London Climate Action Week by promoting veganism, sustainability, and community-building, all integral to our work at JVS. We know that our food choices are one of the most impactful things we can do as communities and individuals to combat the climate crisis. Research shows that full veganism can save nearly 1 ton of CO2 annually, while even just reducing meat intake captures 40% of that impact.
We started the evening with people gathering in the garden where we could also admire the hard work of our garden club volunteers and where the Rabbi led
Our JVS chef and volunteers planned a seasonal menu based on what we could source that was growing locally. Whilst we harvested some greens from our own garden, it is just the start of the growing season for us in our gardening club, so we worked with Kentish Town Veg Box scheme who sourced organic veg for us from various UK farmers.
On the menu was Claudia’s chilled beetroot and yogurt soup (recipe provided by Claudia Roden)
Roasted veg and spinach lasagne with garden pesto and leafy salad with toasted seeds
Frozen parfait of seasonal strawberry, hibiscus and rose, served with orange and pistachio biscuit.
When presenting the menu, we were delighted to receive direct feedback from Claudia Roden herself regarding the successful execution of her soup recipe. She said she was happy to take credit for it because it tasted so good. She joked that if it had not been successful, she would have blamed the chef—while Chef Zoe quipped that she would have blamed the recipe author!
Rabbi Wittenberg had just come back from the Austrian World Summit in Vienna organised by Arnold Schwarzenegger and spoke about his experiences there. He reflected on the messages of hope and collective action that emerged throughout the summit and connected these themes to the natural world and the teachings of the week's Torah portion. Drawing in particular on the verse describing Aaron’s staff sprouting and blossoming overnight, Rabbi Wittenberg highlighted the importance of strong leadership in stabilising the climate and restoring ecosystems.
Naomi Verber shared more about EcoJudaism’s work and ambition for the coming year and beyond - including a regeneration project to transform the “dystopian” Brent Cross flyover, just down the road from JVS,into a rain garden.
It was a lovely gathering of people from the JVS community and from the climate professionals network community and some who crossed over both communities.
Huge thanks to Eco-Judaism for collaborating with us on this event and all the volunteers who helped cook, greet guests, serve, organise, and pack away. And huge thank you to mother nature for providing us with an abundance of plants to nourish us - and fine weather on the evening, allowing our guests to mingle outdoors. We look forward to later in the growing season when we can harvest more vegetables from our own garden.
Article by Yifa Yaakov, community member and Zoe Marks, community and events manager