Environmental Justice Subscribe
A selection of initiatives, blogs, resources and communities on Jewcology which focus on environmental justice.
From the Blogs
Reject Keystone XL
- December 2, 2014
Dec. 2, 2014 Thirteen Jewish organizations, under the umbrella of the Green Hevra, have issued the following joint statement today publicly calling on the U.S. government to reject the Keystone XL pipeline: It has become abundantly clear that we are consuming far too many fossil fuels. In this Sabbatical/Shmita year, when the Torah calls for deeper gentleness toward the Earth, we are especially conscious of the dangers to the Earth from the drilling, transporting and burning of tar-sands oil. The resources that would be devoted to the Keystone XL ...
Climate Change and Elections
- November 6, 2014
Over the past few months, most of us have been inundated with television, internet, and paper advertisements in connection with the 2014 elections. Certainly there are a variety of important issues, but unfortunately, even though the majority of Americans believe that climate change is real, a very minor percentage rank it as priority issue when making a decision how to vote (see http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/23/most-americans-believe-in-climate-change-but-give-it-low-priority/). This is somewhat disheartening, and is an area where I believe Jewish ...
Out of the ark and into the garden: The story of Noah in the Sabbatical year
- October 24, 2014
There are three places in the Torah which talk about human beings and the animals – including wild animals – sharing one food supply. In Eden, in the ark during the flood, and in the Sabbatical year or Shmita. There’s a lot more to these stories, but you don’t really need to know much more to understand the basic message of the Torah. We lived with the wild animals once, rather than carving out separate spaces for us and our domesticated fellow travelers. According to the Torah, that is the real truth, and all the owning and property and buying and selling is an ...
Religious Environmentalists
- October 14, 2014
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This month I want to highlight the various groups that continue to do amazing work throughout the various faith communities. Coming together as Jewish environmentalists to collaborate and share ideas is crucial, but I am also a strong believer in working with other faith communities, especially when it comes to advocacy. The following are several groups I think do fantastic work and can be excellent partners and/or resources in connection with environmental learning and activism: GreenFaith (http://greenfaith.org/): GreenFaith has an amazing fellowship program ...
Cranberry Shabbat with Mayan Tikvah
- October 5, 2014
Cranberry Shabbat Saturday, October 25, Raindate, November 1 Wachusett Reservoir, Boylston Join us for our annual Cranberry Shabbat. We will intermix songs and prayers with wild cranberry picking, and share a picnic lunch at the end. Please bring something to share and your own drinks and utensils. (Warm soup sounds good for a picnic in October!) Also bring containers for the cranberries. Most of our pickings will be given to a homeless shelter for their Thanksgiving dinner. There may be muddy spots, so be prepared footwear-wise, and it could be windy and chilly ...
Al Chet – Confession for the Earth
- October 3, 2014
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by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Eternal God, You created earth and heavens with mercy, and blew the breath of life into animals and humans. We were created amidst a world of wholeness, a world called "very good," pure and beautiful, but now your many works are being erased by us from the book of life. Not by our righteousness do we plead our prayers before You, Holy One of All, for we have sinned, we have despoiled, we have destroyed. And so we confess together our collective sins, and ask for forgiveness: For the sin which we have committed before You intenti...
Outdoor High Holiday Services with Ma’yan Tikvah
- September 25, 2014
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Outdoor High Holiday Services with Ma’yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope Rosh HaShanah Day 1, Thursday, September 25, 9:30 AM, Cedar Hill Camp 265 Beaver Street, Waltham, (accessible by MBTA bus) Click here to carpool to this service. Rosh HaShanah Potluck Dinner and Shmita Seder, Thursday, September 25, 6:30 PM, Location TBD, in Wayland Rosh HaShanah Day 2, Friday, September 26, 10 AM, Greenways Conservation Area, 60 Green Way, Wayland Kol Nidre Service, Friday, October 3, 6:45 PM, Church of the Holy Spirit, 169 ...
Earth Etude for Elul 29- Shanah Tovah
- September 24, 2014
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photos by Gabi Mezger text by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen May you find yourself in the new year constantly in motion... surrounded by love like a seal in water... reflecting light visible even in the light of those around you... moving slowly when necessary, yet always steadily... raging ferociously against the ills and injustices of the world... with unending energy, unceasing in your efforts like the constantly moving waves... zeroing in on what is most beautiful and most nourishing... &nb...
Climate on Rosh Hashanah – an existential threat to Israel
- September 23, 2014
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Protecting Israel doesn't just mean getting off of Arab petroleum, it means getting off of all petroleum. If you're not advocating for that, you might as well be calling for the destruction of the state.
Earth Etude for Elul 28- Sweet and Sour Grapes
- September 22, 2014
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by Rabbi Robin Damsky I am in my favorite place at my favorite time: in the garden, in the morning, before the cars have started up, before the noise of lawnmowers and leaf blowers. The crickets are singing, the birds responding. The rising sun’s light filters through the leaves. A beginning. It has been a tough year in the garden. An endless winter caused a late start and temperatures have been cooler than usual. A call from critter to critter that I cannot hear lets them know there is bounty on my corner. Maybe it’s because the peach tree lost its ...
Earth Etude for Elul 26- We Will be the Change We Want to See
- September 20, 2014
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We will be the change we want to see I am squatting I am wringing laundry with my hands I am picking chunks of dirt from the soles of my feet I am learning to smell the open sewer when I breathe in and out I am walking I am jostling in a vikram, in a small car that must have the air conditioning switched to off in order to make it up the Himalayan Mountain where love calls I am exhausted I am exhilarated I am joyful I am fretting as we weave ourselves up the steep slope and you can ...
Interfaith Conference on Environmental Action
- September 17, 2014
The Green Zionist Alliance and GreenFaith are jointly hosting an interfaith environmental conference in advance of the U.N. climate summit. Registration is scheduled to open mid-summer. In the meantime, save the date and spread the word!
Earth Etude for Elul 22- “Yeah, I Think We Should Kill Them All”
- September 16, 2014
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By Alexander Volfson I wasn't sure visiting Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial, would leave an impression on me; after all, I had heard it all before. Not only that I had absorbed the notion that all of humanity's reckless violent ways were behind us. Genocide, alas, is so common that it has its own major in college, which, unfortunately, does not fall under archaeology. Remarkably, this practice continues to this day. The typical story arc of the Holocaust goes like this: those awful Germans wanted to murder all the Jews and almost got away with it. ...
Earth Etude for Elul 21- What Does Atoning and Returning to God Mean?
- September 15, 2014
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by Rabbi Judy Weiss Ps. 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my rescue. Whom should I fear?" For an entire month before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we focus on atoning and returning to God. But what exactly, in real life terms, does atoning and returning to God mean? We plan our path to return by adding Psalm 27 to our daily prayers. This psalm repeatedly affirms hope in God. It ends with: Ps 27:14 "Let your heart be firm and bold, and hope for the Lord." As Robert Alter comments, the Psalm opens and closes with the same sentiment "It begins by affirming trust in God ...
Earth Etude for Elul 16- The Compost Bin in Our Hearts
- September 11, 2014
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by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen My compost bins are so much more than just a place where compost happens. The area beside the three wire and wood bins is place where I often feel my father’s spirit – he was raised on a farm, and though he became a professional, gardening was in his blood, and he spent much of his spare time in his garden and his orchard. Yet, it is not just the reminders of my father or the sense of his hovering spirit that gives meaning to my compost bins. They are symbolic of so much – which may be more the truer reason that I think ...
Earth Etude 15- Looking at the Whole Picture
- September 9, 2014
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By Susie Davidson As a writaholic, I am also a readaholic. As we move forward in our chosen missions toward creating communities that feed, nurture and sustain (while protecting) all the inhabitants of the earth, I believe that it is also incumbent upon us to remain informed about the news of the day and the topics that affect underlying societal infrastructures. Certainly, some of these infrastructures seem entrenched to the point of impermeability, none more so than the economic systems that govern world relations and, therefore, virtually every facet of ...
Earth Etude for Elul 14- Elul’s Comin”
- September 8, 2014
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by Judith Felsen In days of Av anticpatin’ I have done my exploration searching, seeking digging deeper all to clear the space as greeter. From the bottom of my looking I can sense great times are coming soon our King will sure arrive and in fields we both will thrive. Therefore now and always ever will this earth be seen as heaven by all those who now know its glitter shimmering sparks both there and hither. May we join in joyful meeting in all lands we’ve tilled this season. Welcome King, we greet your visit ...
Earth Etude 13- The Flood
- September 7, 2014
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by Rabbi Dorit Edut The meteorologists predicted a possible heavy rainstorm and suggested bringing an umbrella to work. But as I drove home from an interfaith conference, I got a call from my husband announcing: “ You’ll have to swim home – everything is flooded here.” My heart stopped beating for a minute when I heard this, realizing that all my rabbinic books and papers, many photograph albums including those from my parents’ lives in pre-Holocaust Europe, all our children’s albums and memorabilia, my father’s award-winning black and ...
Earth Etude for Elul 12- Growing Teshuva
- September 6, 2014
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by Maxine Lyons I am often looking for ways to connect to teshuvah even during the leisurely days of summer. Teshuvah for me is turning to those thoughts and actions that help me to become my better self, following those practices that nourish my growth to know peace - shalom - and to reach greater wholeness - sh'lemut. As I pursue personal growth, I resonate to the Hebrew word, hitpatchut, growth through an openness and receptivity to change.This summer I have focused on ways to practice with greater compassion in how I spend my time and focus my energy as I take on ...
Earth Etude for Elul 10- Topsy Turvy Bus
- September 4, 2014
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by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein The world seems a little topsy turvy these days. A plane missing. 223 girls kidnapped in Nigeria. 3 teen agers kidnapped and murdered in Israel. A plane shot out of the sky. Israel in Gaza. Rockets in Israel. Too many children killed in the streets of Chicago. Too many deaths. When does it stop? In the Fox River Valley, Illinois, after a punishing winter of epic proportions, it is nice to be outside. Six congregations, part of the nascent Prairie Jewish Coalition, sponsored the Topsy Turvy bus. What is a ...
