Do you remember those wonderful 1950’s science fiction movies? There was always a terrifying monster threatening humanity! Great minds would come up with a new high tech gizmo they claimed would be able to destroy the awesome threat! Somehow, in the final reel, it was always the courage and heroism of an ordinary individual that would beat back the evil force and save the world.
Let’s flash forward to the present day where we are faced with many, seemingly insurmountable problems. Once again, we look to high tech to cure what ails us. We expect great minds to present us with solutions for global warming, overpopulation, world hunger and myriad other evils. Dr. Schwartz shows us in his book, Judaism and Global Survival, that great minds already delivered a solution and the hero for survival is us. By employing the basic tenets of Judaism, we can help correct much of what is threatening our planet and its inhabitants.
Tikun Olum – is the Jewish concept of restoring and redeeming the earth. Each of us, as Jews has the responsibility to make our world a better place. Dr. Schwartz emphasizes the idea of individual responsibility. When we see a wrong, we must protest it and take action to correct it. It is up to us as individuals to sound the alarm and motivate society to help itself.
Many of us expend enormous amounts of energy in areas over which we have little control. For example, have you ever listened to a show biz or sports fan rattle off every single statistic imaginable about their favourite celebrity or team? These kinds of issues have their place, but let’s face it, they are third party concerns at best. Nothing is going to change and no one is going to benefit from the energy we spend on those discussions. By using just a fraction of that time and energy in the goal of changing things about ourselves, we can have tremendous influence on the overall condition of the world.
To me, the essence of Dr. Schwartz’s message is KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid. Let’s not always look for the most complicated and high tech solutions to our problems when so often good old common sense will do the job. Science and technology present us with tools to identify and expedite possible solutions, but it is up to us to determine what needs to be done. We must then motivate ourselves and those around us to take the necessary action.
This book helped me to understand how looking towards Jewish teaching and ancient wisdom can bring about a greater sense of social justice and compassion. I wholeheartedly recommend Judaism and Global Survival, as a source of spiritual and social motivation and as an instruction manual as to how we, as Jews, can Keep It Simple and accomplish enduring good.

Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the College of Staten Island, New York. He is the author of Judaism and Vegetarianism and Mathematics and Global Survival. He lives in Staten Island, New York