It was a moment of religious reflection, perhaps a rare one, in a Washington federal building.
Lee Zeldin, the first Jewish administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, on Thursday affixed a mezuza — a parchment scroll inscribed with Jewish prayers, encased in a small rectangular case — to the door frame of his wood-paneled executive office at the agency’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The grandson and great-grandson of rabbis, Mr. Zeldin invited the media, saying he wanted to offer others “a moment to take a break from their normal routine, and to reflect and think about some other spiritual aspects of their day and their life.”
He was joined by other members of the Trump administration and representatives from several Jewish organizations. A rabbi attached a second mezuza to another door frame inside the office suite.
A mezuza has verses from the Torah, which commands Jews to inscribe those Hebrew words “on the door posts of your house.” A mezuza is not required in the workplace, but they are increasingly common in Washington. Several members of Congress have placed mezuzas at their office doors. And, during the Biden administration, Doug Emhoff, the husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris, affixed one at the entryway of their official residence.
Many Jewish religious leaders praised Mr. Zeldin for publicly celebrating his identity. But for Jewish environmental activists, the reflection was on something different: Mr. Zeldin’s role in weakening rules designed to limit pollution and global warming.
The obligation to repair the world, or tikkun olam, is a central concept of Judaism. But in his position as leader of the E.P.A., Mr. Zeldin is overseeing a profound overhaul of the agency. He is seeking to reduce staffing to levels last seen during the Reagan administration and working to weaken or repeal more than 30 regulations — all of which are considered burdensome by oil, gas and coal companies — that protect the air, water and climate.
Those regulations include limits on greenhouse gas pollution from automobiles and power plants; restrictions on mercury, a neurotoxin that can cause developmental problems in infants and children; and limits on fine particulate matter, one of the most common and deadliest forms of air pollution.
“His repealing dozens of environmental protections is an assault on Jewish values, and I would even say a desecration of Jewish values,” said Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, the founder of Dayenu, a Jewish nonprofit climate organization.
There is no single interpretation of how Judaism addresses environmental protection. But Jewish tradition teaches, as do other religious groups, that people are stewards of God’s creation.
In addition to affixing the mezuza, a rabbi on Thursday also inscribed on parchment Hebrew passages from Genesis and Deuteronomy that are related to the environment and that will be incorporated into a new Torah being created in Washington.
One was a commandment to “work and guard” the Earth. Another passage said, “Do not destroy its trees, for man is like a tree in the field.”
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said he was moved by Mr. Zeldin’s decision to hang a mezuza by his office door and called it a “beautiful thing.”
But he, too, said he was concerned by Mr. Zeldin’s actions as E.P.A. administrator.
“The levers of government can either be pulled to protect the planet and to keep creatures healthy and thriving, or they can be pulled in a way that would preference either corporate interests or the accumulation of wealth at the expense of the planet,” Rabbi Pesner said.
“Our hope for Administrator Zeldin is that as he refines the regulations, that they will be grounded in the same values of not only Jewish tradition but other faith traditions that love this Earth that God gave us,” he said.
When asked about those criticisms on Thursday, Mr. Zeldin drew a line between faith and policymaking.
“I am not going to start analyzing the decisions we have to make inside of this building based off various interpretations of everyone’s religion across this country,” he said. “It’s based off the law, and our obligations, and the merits and the science.”
Others defended Mr. Zeldin’s actions.
“To the extent Zeldin is saying we need smart regulations or need to make sure the economy is growing while we also protect the air and water, that’s not inconsistent with Jewish values,” said Alex Brill, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy research group.
“I don’t say that as a Jewish scholar, I say it as a Jewish guy” said Mr. Brill, who has advocated for a carbon price to address climate change. “We need to protect our environment and we need to protect our economy.”
Representative Randy Fine, Republican of Florida, who is Jewish, attended the E.P.A. ceremony and called Mr. Zeldin’s mezuza “a proud statement of our faith.” He also dismissed the criticism by Jewish environmental leaders.
“Look, I think there’s a lot of people who use Jewish values very conveniently,” he said, adding, “I think President Trump has been given an overwhelming mandate to run this country.”
Herb Leventer, a professor of philosophy and environmental ethics at Yeshiva University in New York, said it was difficult to specify what Judaism says about sustainability since the Torah has “a zillion complexities” and apparent contradictions. For example, he said, there is a justification in the Torah for chopping down trees, but it also says that, even at a time of war, a tree that bears fruit must not be felled.
Mr. Leventer, who is Orthodox, criticized Mr. Zeldin’s event and said he felt a public display of religiosity, particularly by a political figure, was inappropriate.
“It’s a common enough thing,” he said of hanging a mezuza in a place of work. But, Mr. Leventer said, “The public ceremony nature of it in the context of politics leaves a bad taste.”
Mr. Zeldin’s great-grandfather, Moshe Efraim Zeldin, was an Orthodox rabbi who immigrated from Russia in the early 1900s, and was a leader of the early Zionist movement in Brooklyn. His great-uncle was Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin, who founded the Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles, and his grandfather, Rabbi Abraham Jacob Zeldin, founded Farmingdale Jewish Center, a synagogue on Long Island.
On Thursday, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch, who led the E.P.A. ceremony, recited the Shema, a central prayer in Judaism, with Mr. Zeldin.
Rabbi Shemtov said the administrator’s great-grandfather “couldn’t imagine in his wildest dreams that this would be happening here.”
Lisa Friedman is a Times reporter who writes about how governments are addressing climate change and the effects of those policies on communities.
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