Op-Ed | I am the great-granddaughter of Jewish immigrants. Without climate action, the New York they imagined is slipping away

Passover is here and one word keeps coming to mind: dayenu. Dayenu, translated from Hebrew as “enough,” is the song that Jews around the world sing at their Seder tables as they tell the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt.

Enough already! Enough fossil fuels, enough climate change. It’s time for New York to commit to its climate goals. Surely this should be the message our Democratic leaders in Albany share. After weeks of delays at the state capital, our elected leaders finally passed their $237 billion budget Saturday afternoon. But incredibly, Governor Hochul and leaders in the General Assembly have failed to include two urgent pieces of climate legislation: the NY HEAT and the Climate Change Superfund Acts. The cost of this choice is higher than they realize. They must reverse course and pass these bills in the remainder of this year’s legislative session.

Three generations ago, my great-grandparents left the unlivable conditions of their shtetl in Poland and took the biggest risk of their lives: coming to America. Life on the Lower East Side at the turn of the century was far from luxurious. They lived with five people in a bedroom in a busy residential building without indoor plumbing. But they did what they set out to do: change their fate and offer their children opportunities they never had in pogrom-ravaged Eastern Europe. It is difficult for me to imagine how challenging the lives of my ancestors must have been at the time. But they fought to change their reality. That’s what we need to do now in New York.

The HEAT and Superfund Acts can help us achieve a safer, more livable reality here in New York. As many of us know, New Yorkers are facing an energy affordability crisis and a climate crisis. The HEAT Act deals with both. It ensures that no household pays more than 6% of its annual income on gas and electricity bills. It also eliminates government subsidies for building new natural gas infrastructure. The Superfund Act, meanwhile, makes the state’s worst polluters pay to address the damage they cause. The Superfund Act could raise up to $3 billion annually from major polluters to directly fund statewide climate adaptation projects, such as building flood defenses in Manhattan and combating erosion on Long Island’s beaches.

Now that I live in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, I struggle to imagine the kind of future my great-grandparents built when they first arrived on the Lower East Side. Every day we don’t take dramatic climate action is a day we move one step closer to climate catastrophe. It’s hard to imagine living in the self-proclaimed “greatest city in the world.” When I look outside, I see a reality where childhood asthma rates – caused by fossil fuel pollution – are among the highest in the country; where we live under the threat of another superstorm that could overwhelm our city’s infrastructure; where extreme heat claims the lives of friends and neighbors every summer; where utilities are so expensive that working-class families in our city struggle to make ends meet.

It’s time for our state to clean up its act. It’s time we hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the lasting damage they have caused and chart a course toward renewable energy. Our elected officials here in New York have a unique opportunity to move us forward by passing the HEAT and Superfund Acts before the end of the legislative session. Governor Hochul has an opportunity to fulfill her promise as a climate champion. It’s time for her to get up.

As a climate activist, I have already taken action. Earlier this month I attended a climate organizing meeting with a local chapter of Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action. As we discussed the environmental justice issues facing our communities and called the governor’s office, I realized I was not alone. By organizing with others, I felt empowered to continue fighting for an equitable, climate-resilient future for all New Yorkers because I saw New Yorkers of all ages fighting alongside me.

Our leaders have a responsibility to make fossil fuel companies and polluting corporations – not taxpayers – pay the bill for the damage they caused by passing the Superfund Act. And they have an obligation to pass the HEAT Act so their constituents can pay their energy bills as we transition to renewable energy. These two projects are not contradictory. They are codependent.

As I write from my apartment in Brooklyn, I feel deeply connected to my ancestors, yet so far away. When my great-grandparents stepped off the boat at Ellis Island, New York City seemed like a brighter future. Three generations later, we must renew that promise for all New Yorkers. It’s time for our lawmakers to take action.

Madeleine Dickman is a writer and activist based in Brooklyn, NY.