Prayer for Burnt Forests, the latest video in the My Golem series, presented by The Contemporary Jewish Museum, extends upon the Jewish imperative of tikkun olam (to heal the world) by upholding the land’s right to rest and recuperation, after having suffered for humanity’s sins. Together with Rabbi Zach Fredman, Julie Weitz has created a prayer intended to be read and delivered in nature as a gesture of respect, restoration, and genesis. In the video, Weitz’s golem traverses the recently-charred landscape of Tongva land in Southern California, performing the prayer as a ritual dance.

In Prayer for Burnt Forests, ecology is framed within the traditional Jewish concept of fire as a force for hope and as a foundational element in spiritual ritual. In a modern twist, however, Golem’s fire is specifically a decolonizing “cultural fire,” which connects her religious awakening to California’s Indigenous practices of fire ecology. As a diasporic justice seeker, Golem adapts her culture’s ancient traditions with contemporary urgency, while honoring local communities, the land, and long-established local practices. At stake is the larger conviction that advocacy for traditional ecological knowledge, combined with ancient Jewish practices, can be a powerful means of healing and reshaping climate and land management policy.

To pay respect and recognize Native Nations, consider learning about the indigenous land you reside on and looking into indigenous land rematriation.