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Hazon Detroit: Food Festival This Sunday!

By on August 12, 2019 in Detroit, Food, Food Festival, Food Justice

Dear Friends, This Sunday, we will gather as a Jewish community for the 4th Annual Hazon Michigan Jewish Food Festival – the largest event annually in the Michigan Jewish community. This event, which takes place at Eastern Market in Detroit from 11am-4pm, is truly one-of-a kind. It spans geography, age, race, interest, denomination, and so much more. For four years running now, we have been able to bring a message of sustainability and food justice to the metro Detroit Jewish and city-based community, while inspiring a reconnection with the city, with one another, with the food we eat, and with the earth itself. Jewish tradition is full of references to food. In the Torah, food is part of our service to God. Growing it is how we make an income and harvesting it is cause for celebration. Throughout the ages, as Jews have migrated from place to place, food has followed us. And at the same time, we have followed food, adapting and evolving our culinary traditions to intertwine with the surrounding communities wherever we’ve dwelt. And today, food is central to our family holidays, our contributions to popular culture, and our interaction with the world around us, serving as […]

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Summer Feature – Teva Educators: Where Are They Now?

By on August 2, 2019 in Teva

As we begin approaching Teva’s 25th Anniversary, we will be spending the summer months featuring former Teva Educators who were once Teva students. They are from different Teva seasons and have different stories, experiences and memories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane with us! Noah Slovin came to Teva in 1998 as a student with Solomon Schechter Day School of Worcester and came back as a Teva educator in the Fall of 2010. Noah is now working for a consulting company as a Planner focusing on helping communities prepare for natural disasters. What do you remember about Teva as a student? Which moments/memories/stories stand out? 1. I remember singing “The River is Flowing” every evening, and one of the educators told us to think about it every day and try to figure out what it meant. I think I figured it out on the last day but then I wasn’t called on so never got to prove myself. 2. I remember being led to the overlook in a blindfolded trustwalk line – we walked in a line for a bit, then stopped, and our Morah Derech (trail teacher) led us one at a time to stand in a spot, and […]

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apple honey bundt cake

Recipe: Apple Honey Bundt Cake

By on July 29, 2019 in Food, Food Conference, Recipes, Vegetarian

Want a bigger taste?  Join us at the Rosh Hashanah Retreat! Apple Honey Bundt Cake This recipe & photo come from Allrecipes.com Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 55 minutes Total time: 1 hour and 15 minutes Servings: 12 pieces Ingredients 1 cup white sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 2 eggs 3/4 cup honey 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice 3 apples – peeled, cored and shredded 3/4 cup chopped walnuts Instructions Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).  Grease and flour a 9-inch Bundt pan or 2 loaf pans. In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and oil. Beat in the eggs until light, then stir in the honey and vanilla.  Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice; stir into the batter just until moistened.  Fold in the apples and nuts.  Transfer batter to prepared pan or pans. Note: If you’re baking the cake in loaf pans, reduce baking time to 45 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center of each pan comes out clean. Bake Bundt […]

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Sustainable Vacation Tips

By on July 23, 2019 in Uncategorized

by Ariel Marantz and Rebecca Silver Summer is vacation time! Here are some tips to think about when planning your next vacation. Traveling: Are there ways that you can travel without flying? Try to use public transportation, including buses or trains, as much as possible. If you must fly, travel non-stop, choose coach seating, and pack lightly. Click here to find out why, and explore green airports and airlines. Bring your own plane snacks in reusable containers to avoid the plastic-wrapped meals!  Pack reusable water bottles, reusable coffee cups, containers, and silverware with you before you go.  Secure any travel liquids in silicone reusable bags instead of plastic – you can find them here or by going on stasher’s website. Say Tefilat Haderech (traveler’s prayer), have fun, and appreciate the nature around you! Hotels: If staying in a hotel, bring your own shampoo, conditioner, and soap bars to avoid using the provided plastic containers Be sure to not throw your towels on the floor unless they truly need washing Request that your bed sheets not be washed each night (washing unnatural materials causes microplastic sheds!) Be mindful of turning off lights when leaving the room, and try to use the […]

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Hakhel Spotlight: Zooz, Melbourne

By on July 18, 2019 in Hakhel Blog, Hakhel Blog, Jewish Intentional Communities

Zooz is a community in Melbourne, Australia which is run by for and young Jewish adults, aiming to provide these individuals with a framework for meaningful engagement with Judaism, Israel, and the wider community. Zooz members meet weekly on Wednesday nights to engage with their Jewish identity and connect with like-minded people. This is achieved through peer-run sessions and community leaders lending their time to teach, inspire, and encourage the next generation of young Jewish people. Zooz also has a shul where services are run every Friday night and on chagim. The Zooz shul is highly regarded in the community as a place of meaningful tefillah (prayer) and beautiful singing. Zooz Members are constantly involved in leadership within a range of Jewish schools in the community, helping out as madrichim on camps and as part of other programs. Zooz also hosts a range of communal events throughout the year, most notably their famous Tikkun Leil Shavuot, which brings hundreds of people together in community and is a place for learning. With a strong core leadership, good governance, and proud members Zooz is very excited for what the future holds. We plan to increase our reach in the community and hope […]

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Summer Feature – Teva Educators: Where Are They Now?

By on July 17, 2019 in Teva

As we begin approaching Teva’s 25th Anniversary, we will be spending the summer months featuring former Teva Educators who were once Teva students. They are from different Teva seasons and have different stories, experiences and memories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane with us! Aliza Hertzmark came to Teva in 2000 as a student with Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, MD and came back to be a Teva educator in the Fall of 2009. Aliza currently works as a civil engineer in Baltimore, MD. What do you remember about Teva as a student? Which moments/memories/stories stand out? I remember singing the psolet song. After about two days of steadily declining psolet weight, the weight of the psolet bucket shot up on the third day. Someone on staff (either Teva or from our school) tried to say that the scale was broken. I also remember sitting by the pool pavilion as my kvutza (group) discussed what change each of us was going to do in order to earn our earth bead. What do you think Teva taught you as a young person? Teva inspired me to feel that one small act of change could make a difference. When you grew up […]

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Fast Fashion

It’s time to Slow Down our Fast Fashion

By on July 16, 2019 in Hazon Seal News and Announcements, Hazon Seal of Sustainability

By Ariel Marantz We are in an era of “fast fashion”, defined as “inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends” (Waste Advantage Magazine). What effect does buying and quickly discarding apparel have on our Earth? Hold onto your socks…. According to Forbes’ Making Climate Change Fashionable – The Garment Industry Takes on Global Warming, the clothing industry follows oil as the second largest industrial polluter, and is the second largest polluter of freshwater resources on Earth. It makes up 10% of ALL carbon emissions! What can we do to help? Here are some tips: Go through your entire closet to see what you already own. If you need something else, borrow from a friend or swap your clothing with theirs. When you want to buy, buy from a thrift store. And if you choose to buy elsewhere, only opt for natural materials. Why? According to Forbes, synthetic fibers emit potent gases that contribute to climate change such as N20, which is 300X worse for the Earth than CO2 is. Plus, the production of these synthetic fibers results in over 70 million trees cut down annually. Cotton (when not organic) is the biggest pesticide-consuming crop […]

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Summer Feature – Teva Educators: Where Are They Now?

By on July 11, 2019 in Teva

As we begin approaching Teva’s 25th Anniversary, we will be spending the summer months featuring former Teva Educators who were once Teva students. They are from different Teva seasons and have different stories, experiences and memories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane with us! Sabrina Shapiro came to Teva in 1998 as a student with Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School and came back to be a Teva educator in 2011. What do you remember about Teva as a student? Which moments/memories/stories stand out? The best part about Teva, for me, was that I was with all my school friends, learning, but in a place I’d much rather be, the forest.  I remember Salamander Tag, “fox walking” and singing and dancing really loudly in the cafeteria. What do you think Teva taught you as a young person? It wasn’t so much what I was taught, but just having a great time in nature was so valuable to me. When you grew up and thought about Teva, before you came back to be an educator, what sentence would you have used to describe it? The best time at school ever because we didn’t have to sit down and (be quiet) for […]

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Hazon Seal @ Chicago: Training Day

By on July 9, 2019 in Hazon Seal News and Announcements, Hazon Seal of Sustainability

The Hazon Seal of Sustainability cohort in Chicago held an in-person training day on June 30th, 2019 – and boy it was a good one!  Shout out to our awesome cohort members who made this a priority and came to learn: Skokie Valley Agudath Jacob, Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, Beit Yichud, Northwestern Hillel, and SketchPad!   Curated by our very own local coordinator Asia Sageman, the training included a series of three talks, a DIY upcycle activity using old Hazon Ride T-shirts, and a vegetarian-vegan lunch. Jeff Henderson from the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern University (ISEN) gave a talk on sustainability policy at large institutions. Participants also heard from Brad Sageman, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, on the science of climate change. Ilana Braverman from Jewish Initiative for Animals (JIFA) also taught the Chicago cohort about how to create a sustainable food policy at their respective organizations. Talks were recorded and will be added to our resource bank, to be shared with the Hazon Seal network. Want to join our awesome network of Jewish institutions and communities dedicated to respond to the environmental crisis? Learn about the Hazon seal of Sustainability program here: Hazon.org/seal Big thanks to […]

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Summer Feature – Teva Educators: “Where are they now?”

By on July 5, 2019 in Education, Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Reflections, Teva

As we begin approaching Teva’s 25th Anniversary, we will be spending the summer months featuring former Teva Educators who were once Teva students. They are from different Teva seasons and have different stories, experiences and memories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane with us! Neshama Sonnenschein came to Teva as a student with Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan in the 4th grade. She returned as a Teva educator for the Fall 2017 and 2018 seasons and is currently the Teva Education Coordinator. Neshama, left, as the worm during Resource Revolution What do you remember about Teva as a student? Which moments/memories/stories stand out? I have a few memories that stand out to me from being a Teva Kid. The first is that I took a packet of butter one morning and realized that I didn’t like it, so I went to an educator and asked what to do with it. They patiently, and without judgement answered that the butter can be scraped off from the packaging and put into the psolet bucket and the packing could go in the trash. I remember thinking that my question and action had value, even if I was adding to our psolet for that meal. The […]

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Woodstock Brunch

Hazon Seal Spotlight: Movie Series, Sustainable Kiddush and More!

By on July 2, 2019 in Food, Food Justice, Hazon Seal of Sustainability, Hazon Seal Spotlights

Woodstock Jewish Congregation (NY) By Gail Albert Please see below for an article about the Woodstock Jewish Congregation movie series and other sustainable initiatives. This is a prominent example that no matter where you on your sustainability journey – the Hazon Seal is here to support you. The Woodstock Jewish Congregation was ahead of the game, yet continuously works to increase its impact and inspire us all. For any questions or comments for Woodstock Jewish Congregation, please reach out to us and we are happy to make the shidduch! Background The Woodstock Jewish Congregation is a 350 member non-affiliated synagogue in Woodstock NY.  Most of us have come from the NYC metropolitan area, and many are still week-enders, but the county is semi-rural, and has only two or three other synagogues. We are generally active around social justice issues, but we have not made environmental activism—particularly in regard to climate change—as much of a priority, nor have we linked it as much with Jewish values. Some of this imbalance is rooted in Jewish history, but it has also arisen from a sense of powerlessness—even despair–in the face of our government’s inaction to what most of see as looming disaster. Before […]

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Harvesting and Baking our Heritage | D’varim HaMakom: The JOFEE Fellows Blog

By on June 28, 2019 in Activism, Climate Change, Detroit, Education, Farming, Food, Food Justice, Jewish Texts, JOFEE, JOFEE Fellowship, Reflections, Spirituality, Weekly Parsha

by Hannah Fine – Hazon Detroit Parshat Shelach In parshat Shelach, Moses sent twelve spies to scout out the land of Canaan and report back to the Israelites. All of the spies returned with the same objective report. It was a land of milk and honey brimming with fruit and sustenance. There were grapes, and figs, and pomegranates which they even brought back to show Moses and the Israelites. The spies also reported that the inhabitants of the land were mighty and intimidating. While all twelve spies saw the same land and shared the same observations, they were split between two opposing conclusions. Ten of the spies were convinced that the formidability of the inhabitants meant certain demise for the Israelites. Doom was a foregone conclusion so it was not even worth trying. The other two spies, Caleb and Joshua, had a different interpretation. They were confident that, despite the strength of the peoples and societies in Canaan, the Israelites could overcome it. Caleb and Joshua contended that the greatness of the Promised Land was worth the challenge.  At Hazon Detroit, we are working to overcome a formidable structure that exists in our land: the lopsided nature Michigan’s grain industry. […]

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Agudath Israel of West Essex

Green Teams, Daylight Hour and Hazon Seal Happenings

By on June 27, 2019 in Hazon Seal News and Announcements, Hazon Seal of Sustainability

Dear Hazon Seal Sites, We hope all is well! Here are some announcements that we believe you’ll find helpful and interesting. Also, please see below to get inspired by a new community spotlight! Shabbat Shalom, Merav, Ariel, and our new summer intern Rebecca! DAYLIGHT HOUR – This Friday 6/21 “Daylight Hour is an annual social media campaign to raise awareness about using natural daylight in lieu of electric lighting in offices. Launched by the Building Energy Exchange in 2014, this simple campaign asks offices to turn off non-critical lights in day-lit spaces from noon until 1 pm on the Friday nearest to the summer solstice.” As the Jewish lab for sustainability, Hazon is excited to participate in this campaign. We will be turning off the lights in our Makom Hadash offices tomorrow, Friday 6/21, from 12-1 pm. Will you join us?! Encourage your school/shul/office to acknowledge the environmental footprint of our everyday energy use! Also, we would love if you could take a selfie with the natural sunlight (or your flash!), and send it to us at seal@hazon.org so that together we can promote this awesome campaign. RECRUIT TO STRENGTHEN YOUR GREEN TEAM A Kol-Koreh means ‘a calling voice’. Use […]

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June Feature – Teva Educators: “Where Are They Now?”

By on June 24, 2019 in Teva

As we begin approaching Teva’s 25th Anniversary, we will be spending the month of June featuring former Teva Educators who were once Teva students. They are from different Teva seasons and have different stories, experiences and memories. Enjoy the walk down memory lane with us! Leah Simonson came to Teva as a student with SSDS of New London in the 6th grade. She returned as a Teva educator for the Fall 2018 season. Leah currently works as a healthcare assistant at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. What do you remember about Teva as a kid? Which moments/memories/stories stand out? I remember having so much fun at Teva as a kid. For years we knew we’d be going in 6th grade, so by the time it came I was beyond excited. I remember there was a talking garbage can that would talk grouchily at us if we threw something in it. I found that so funny and creative. I also remember singing, A LOT! I have a memory of waking up before the others in my cabin and walking to the lake. It was chilly, and there was a light mist on the lake. It felt magical. When I came back […]

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Recipe: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Waffles

By on June 19, 2019 in Food, Food Conference, Recipes, Vegan

Want a bigger taste?  Join us this summer at the Hazon Food Conference! Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Waffles This recipe & photo come from The Minimalist Baker These vegan, gluten-free waffles have the crispy texture and sweet flavor of banana bread studded with chocolate chips. Plus, just 1 bowl and 30 minutes required! Enjoy as a lazy weekend treat, or make a batch ahead of time to enjoy throughout the week. Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes Total time: 30 minutes Servings: 3 Waffles Ingredients 1 batch flax egg (1 Tbsp (7 g) flaxseed meal + 2 ½ Tbsp (37 ml) water as original recipe is written) 2 medium-size ripe bananas 2 ½ tsp baking powder 1 ½ Tbsp neutral oil (such as avocado oil or melted vegan butter) 1 cup dairy-free milk (we used unsweetened almond) 1/4 tsp sea salt 1/4 cup rolled oats (gluten-free when necessary) 1 cup gluten-free flour blend (or sub spelt or unbleached all-purpose // plus more as needed) 1/4 cup dairy-free dark or semisweet chocolate chips Instructions To prepare flax egg, combine flaxseed and water in a medium (to large) mixing bowl, stir, and allow to sit for a few minutes to […]

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