Lee Zeldin, administration of the EPA, a mezuza on his office doorpost — but…

Lee Zeldin, the first Jewish administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in May affixed a mezuza to the door frame of his executive office at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Zeldin commented to a gathering as he did that, he wanted, as The New York Times reported, “to offer others ‘a moment to take a break from their normal routine, and to reflect and think about other spiritual aspects of their day and life.’”

However, as the headline of the article on it by Lisa Friedman said: “E.P.A. Jewish Celebration Has Jewish Critics.”

It noted: “The obligation to repair the world, or tikkun olam, is a central concept of is 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.”

The Times quoted Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, founder of the U.S. movement Dayenu: A Jewish Call for Climate Action, declaring: “His repealing dozens of environmental protections is an assault on Jewish values, and I would even say a desecration of Jewish values.”

Last month, Zeldin was a guest speaker at the Hamptons Synagogue in Westhampton Beach—Zeldin resides in the community of Shirley a dozen miles away on Long Island—and “was heckled and admonished by climate activists,” reported The East Hampton Star.

It quoted one person at the event standing and saying: “We are in a climate crisis caused by the burning of fossil fuels. And Mr. Lee Zeldin…is making it impossible syn these life-threatening emissions.”

Another tells Zeldin “you are destroying our communities and our lives. You think greenhouse gas emissions are not dangerous for us.”

These two are identified by The Star as young men and with a third were removed from the synagogue. The third protester, related newspaper, said: “The Torah commands us to be stewards of the Earth.” And as he was removed, yelled “This man is a monster! He hates the entire human race! History is going to remember you as a monster!”

Zeldin, said The Star, was “grinning broadly…‘Welcome to my world,’ he says.”

As a journalist based since the 1960’s on Long Island, living in a Congressional district previously represented by Zeldin in the House of Representatives, I have known and reported on Zeldin.

He was an unlikely nominee of President Donald Trump to head the EPA. It was established in 1970 with “Our Mission and What We Do” as it says on its website “is to protect human health and the environment. EPA works to ensure that: Americans have clean air, land and water; National efforts to reduce environmental risks are based on the best available scientific information; Federal laws protecting human health and the environment are administered and enforced fairly, effectively and as Congress intended,” and the list goes on.

The environment was never a major concern of Zeldin’s.

When Zeldin was nominated by Trump to be EPA administrator, the League of Conservation Voters in a letter to members of the Senate signed by the Washington-based organization’s president, Gene Karpinski, called on it to reject the nomination. The letter said Zeldin’s “abysmal 14% lifetime score on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard, long history in Congress and the NY state legislature opposing environmental and public health safeguards for our communities, and little environmental experience render him unqualified for the role. Mr. Zeldin has a lengthy voting record and many public statements that raise troubling questions about what he will prioritize, and no experience that prepares him to lead the nation’s foremost agency tasked with protecting public health and the environment.”

“Unqualified,” declared Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, the largest environmental organization in the U.S. He said the nomination “lays bare Donald Trump’s intentions to, once again, sell our health, our communities, our jobs and future out to corporate polluters.”

“Trump Picks New EPA Head Guaranteed to Destroy the Environment,” was the headline in The New Republic magazine. The subhead on its article: “This will be a disaster.”

With Zeldin in office as EPA administrator, Sierra, the magazine of the Sierra Club, ran an article saying his “axing programs and funding intended to address pollution and advance clean energy, are part of a sweeping effort….At the EPA, there has been an exodus of employees, a freeze on funding disbursement—including funds already authorized by Congress—as well as a dismissal of scientific advisory boards and a removal of climate change references from the agency’s website.”

In April, when he came to Westbury, Long Island to speak at an event hosted by the Long Island Association Zeldin faced 100 protesters.

The demonstration was organized by Food & Water Watch and the Long Island Progressive Coalition. At it, Eric Weltman, New York senior organizer at the national group, Food & Water Watch, said “New Yorkers deserve an EPA that protects our health and environment, not one that does the bidding of corporate polluters.”

Zeldin had just announced the EPA was dropping federal limits on four “forever chemicals” in drinking water. The weakening of the rules is “a betrayal of public trust,” charged Adriene Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment based in Farmingdale on Long Island. It “adds a significant threat to public health,” she said.

Still, Zeldin has remained supported by nearly all Republican members of the U.S. Congress. At a hearing in May of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Work, Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, told Zeldin “if you’re successful in eliminating half of our efforts to clean our water and our air, your legacy will be more lung cancer, it’ll be more bladder cancer, it’ll be more head and neck cancer, it’ll be more breast cancer, it’ll be more leukemia and pancreatic cancer…more rare cancers of innumerable varieties.”

Zeldin shot back: “With that wind-up, by the way, I understand that you are an aspiring fiction writer. I see why.”

Schiff responded: “I understand your view that you can cut half of the agency, and it won’t affect people’s

Last month, as The New York Times reported: “More than 270 employees of the Environmental Protection Agency signed a letter denouncing what they described as the Trump administration’s efforts to politicize, dismantle and sideline the main federal agency tasked with protecting the environment and public health. The letter…was a remarkable rebuke of the agency’s political leadership.”

It was sent to Zeldin with copies to members of Congress and Congressional committees and titled a “Declaration of Dissent.”

It began: “EPA employees join in solidarity with employees across the federal government in opposing this administration’s policies, including those that undermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment. Since the agency’s founding in 1970, EPA has accomplished this mission by leveraging science, funding, and expert staff in service to the American people. Today, we stand together in dissent against the current administration’s focus on harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA actions, and disregard for scientific expertise.”

It continued: “Since January 2025, federal workers across the country have been denigrated and dismissed based on false claims of waste, fraud, and abuse. Meanwhile, Americans have witnessed the unraveling of public health and environmental protections in the pursuit of political advantage.” There was a list of “concerns.”

These included:

“Undermining public trust. EPA’s non-partisan nature ensures that all Americans—regardless of political affiliation—are served by an agency guided by scientific expertise, professional integrity, and an unwavering commitment to the public good. For over five decades, EPA’s strength has come from its commitment to science-based decision-making. However, under this administration, the Agency’s communication platforms have been used to promote misinformation and overtly partisan rhetoric. For example, EPA press releases…have referred to EPA grants as ‘green slush funds’ and praised ‘clean coal’ as ‘beautiful.’ The Office of the Administrator has used official EPA channels to liken climate science to a religion…”

“Ignoring scientific consensus to benefit polluters. This administration’s actions directly contradict EPA’s own scientific assessments on human health risks, most notably regarding asbestos, mercury, and greenhouse gases. Health-based regulatory standards are being repealed or reconsidered, including drinking water limits for four PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ that cause cancer…”

“Reversing EPA’s progress in America’s most vulnerable communities. Research

overwhelmingly shows that the country’s most vulnerable communities, including Black communities and other communities of color, poor communities…often face higher exposure to environmental hazards and climate change impacts….Canceling environmental justice programs is not cutting waste; it is failing to serve the American people.”

“Dismantling the Office of Research and Development….The gutting of staff and science and your proposed budget cuts for the coming year will leave ORD unable to meet the science needs of the EPA and its partners and will threaten the health of all Americans.”

Said the letter: “Your decisions and actions will reverberate for generations to come. EPA under your leadership will not protect communities from hazardous chemicals and unsafe drinking water, but instead will increase risks to public health and safety

The New York Times and other media subsequently reported that the EPA placed 144 signatories of the letter on “administrative leave” and Zeldin saying he had “ZERO tolerance policy for agency bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the agenda of this administration.”

The Times has reported that Trump nominated Zeldin to “a post that is expected to be central to Mr. Trump’s plans to dismantle climate regulations.”

The Washington Post has published an article headlined, “Lee Zeldin didn’t ask to head EPA. Here’s why Trump picked him.” It told of “Zeldin’s political evolution from a moderate who occasionally collaborated with conservationists to a MAGA loyalist….Zeldin lacks extensive experience in environmental policy, and he did not seek out the position of EPA administrator, according to two people familiar with the matter….Instead, Trump called Zeldin “and asked him to implement his agenda at the agency, and Zeldin agreed, the two people said. ‘The president-elect tapped someone who he believes will carry out what he wants at EPA,’ said former Congressman Thomas M. Reynolds, a friend of Zeldin’s, adding that ‘Lee has been a guy who Trump knows not only because he was a New York congressman, but also because he was an aggressive supporter.’ Zeldin was one of the first Republicans to endorse Trump’s candidacy in 2016, joining his impeachment defense team and supporting Trump’s efforts to deny the results of the 2020 election. During the 2024 campaign, he appeared regularly at Mar-a-Lago and stumped for the former president in battleground states.”

Last month, Zeldin announced, as The New York Times reported, that the Trump administration “would revoke the scientific determination that underpins the government’s legal authority to combat climate change”—what is called its “endangerment finding.” Zeldin said the move would “amount to the largest regulatory action in the history of the United States.”

Christy Goldfuss, executive director of the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council, said of this: “As Americans reel from deadly floods and heat waves, the Trump administration is trying to argue that the emissions turbocharging these disasters are not a threat. It boggles the mind and endangers the nation’s safety and welfare.”

And Dan Becker of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity, with offices across the U.S., said: “This cynical one-two punch allows Trump’s Flat Earth EPA to slam the brakes on reducing auto pollution and ignore urgent warnings from the world’s leading scientists about the need for climate action. By revoking this key scientific finding Trump is putting fealty to Big Oil over sound science and people’s health.”