Hazon Blog

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A real gift / pass this on...

May 17th, 2018

By Nigel Savage Thursday, May 17, 2018 | 3rd Sivan 5778 | 47th day of the omer | Hod she’b’Malchut Dear All, This email is intended to be a gift, a series of gifts. I offer you – variously – the chance to get in better[...]

A Remarkable Four Days

May 3rd, 2018

by Nigel Savage Thursday, May 3, 2018 | Lag B’Omer 5778 | hod she’b’hod Jerusalem Dear All, How would it be if we only ate food that made us feel bad, day after day? And then only very occasionally ate food that was actually good for[...]

70 photos of the Empire State Building

April 19th, 2018

by Nigel Savage Yom Ha’atsma’ut 5778 | Hod she’b’Tiferet | 19th day of the Omer | 19th April 2018 Dear All, Something I read somewhere, recently: Every book begins with a thought. Every company begins with a thought. Every building begins with a thought. Every political[...]

Sustaining Together: How and why communities are the building blocks of sustainable living

April 12th, 2018

By Aharon Ariel Lavi Somewhere in the early 90’s, when I was in 5th grade, I remember watching a TV show describing what might be the consequences of what was then known as Global Warming and the Ozone Layer Hole. Don’t[...]

Be nice to your rabbi...!

April 5th, 2018

By Nigel Savage Thursday 5th April | 5th Day of the Omer | Hod she’b’Chesed Dear All, Disclosure: It is true that some of my best friends are rabbis. But this email is all my own work, and I didn’t discuss it beforehand with[...]

Not just “Counting the Omer;” also making it count…

March 30th, 2018

By Nigel Savage Friday, March 30, 2018 | 13 Nissan 5778 Dear All, Sefirat Ha’Omer – the counting of the Omer – is rooted in the Biblical mitzvah of counting the 49 days between the Jewish holidays of Pesach and Shavuot, when the first sacrifices[...]

Four Real Questions

March 22nd, 2018

By Nigel Savage Thursday, March 22, 2018 | 6 Nissan 5778 Dear All, Here are four questions in the lead-up to the Pesach Seder. Feel free to think about these yourself, and/or discuss at the seder table. What’s the relationship between getting rid of “chametz”[...]

Hadar Chooses Higher Welfare

March 13th, 2018

by Jenny Koshner, Program Coordinator, Hadar Institute Hadar empowers Jews to create and sustain vibrant, practicing, egalitarian communities of Torah, Avodah, and Hesed. They are a Hazon Seal of Sustainability site based in New York, NY. This past year at Hadar has been a transformative year[...]

Trusting the tradition? / Remembering Naomi Rabkin, z”l

March 8th, 2018

Thursday, March 8, 2018 | 21 Adar 5778 Naomi Rabkin funeral and shiva: The funeral will be on Thursday, March 8 at 1:00 PM at El Camino Memorial Park chapel followed by burial at El Camino (5600 Carroll Canyon Rd, San Diego,[...]

A sharp pepper and a basket of pumpkins…

February 22nd, 2018

by Nigel Savage Thursday, February 22, 2018 | 7 Adar 5778 Dear All, First up: space is filling up quickly for Pesach at Freedman. We still have some slots for the middle days and second days. It’s a beautiful time of the year. Do come. Similarly:[...]

Shemesh and Service Work: Igniting Holiness Through our JOFEE Work | JOFEE Fellowship Cohort 2 Reflections

February 7th, 2018

We were pleased and proud to graduate the second cohort of JOFEE Fellows last month at our closing seminar at the brand-new Urban Adamah farm and community center in Berkeley, CA. With this cohort’s sixteen fellows, we have now graduated[...]

Rise to the Challenge – Every Month!

February 6th, 2018

To start off the secular new year with sustainability in mind, the Hazon Seal launched its first monthly sustainability challenge! Open to everyone, participants are given the opportunity to challenge themselves to bring sustainability into their lives in engaging, creative[...]

Hakhel, Heathlands, Jewish Community Farming...and the evolution of "community" in the 21st century

January 25th, 2018

by Nigel Savage Thursday, January 25, 2018 | 9 Shevat 5778 Dear All, I and we struggle to explain what Hazon is and why we do the things we do. Partly this is our fault, and we must try to fix that; we’re working on[...]

Tu b'Shvat is not just for kids

January 18th, 2018

by Nigel Savage Thursday, January 18, 2018 | 2 Shevat 5778 Dear All, Tu b'Shvat is “the new year for trees.” But, above and beyond the history – the tax year in temple times; the kabbalists in Safed; the JNF; the contemporary Jewish environmental movement[...]

American Distinctiveness…

January 11th, 2018

by Nigel Savage Thursday, January 11, 2018 | 24 Tevet 5778 Dear All,I begin with condolences and congratulations.Condolences: We join with many others in mourning the tragic loss of Hannah Weiss, z"l, and her family. Hannah's memorial service took place this week. Although I had[...]

Reb Zalman z"l and the Tree of Life

December 27th, 2017

by Nigel Savage Wednesday, July 9, 2014 | 11 Tammuz 5774 Dear All, As the week goes on, and despite events in Israel and so many other things, I remain profoundly aware of the death of Reb Zalman, may his memory be for a[...]

The Miracle of Chanukah: A Lesson on Longevity

December 12th, 2017

Wondrous as it is, the miracle of Chanukah, in which an oil flask meant to last one day instead lasted eight, seems dwarfed in today’s world of everlasting products: plastic bottles, diapers, aluminum foil, electronics, to name a few. But[...]

Wrestling With Darkness | D'varim HaMakom: The JOFEE Fellows Blog

December 7th, 2017

Jacob Weiss - Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center Parshat Vayishlach This week’s Torah portion — Vayishlach — is jam packed with complex and significant plot lines that the reader can surely glean valuable lessons from. The parsha opens up with Jacob preparing himself and his[...]

Why go on a Jewish meditation retreat?

December 6th, 2017

by Rabbi Jay Michaelson Wednesday, December 6, 2017 | 18 Kislev 5778 In large part, the answers are the same as to why one would go on a meditation retreat in general: greater awareness of how we thrive and how we suffer, recharging the mind[...]

3 Good Things...

November 30th, 2017

by Nigel Savage Thursday, November 30, 2017 | 12 Kislev 5778 Dear All,Last week I shared Shawn Achor’s superb TED Talk.Part of his punchline is that if you journal three different good things that happen to you each day, over time that starts to cause you actually[...]

A gratitude video that's laugh-out-loud funny - and helpful, too...

November 22nd, 2017

by Nigel Savage Dear All, Last week, I sent to all of our staff, what I think is the best – and more significantly the most useful – TED Talk I’ve ever seen. It’s from a few years ago, by a fellow called Shawn[...]

Fear and light

November 16th, 2017

by Nigel Savage Thursday, November 16, 2017 | 27 Cheshvan 5778 Dear All, It’s Rosh Chodesh Kislev this weekend. Light in the darkness. I say: Bring it on. That was my first thought. And my second was: What’s the line between cliché and language that is[...]

"Down To Earth" Judaism | D'varim HaMakom: The JOFEE Fellows Blog

November 16th, 2017

Chayei Sarah Darya Watnick | Edlavitch DC JCC - Washington, DC This week’s Torah portion is Chayei Sarah, literally “The Life of Sarah.” The title is a bit of a misnomer, as Sarah dies in the second verse. This portion instead focuses[...]

Parasha Vayeira - D'varim HaMakom: The JOFEE Fellows Blog

November 9th, 2017

By: Brittany Feldman - Hazon - Detroit, Michigan This week's Torah Portion, Vayeira, discusses circumcision, birth, destruction, disobedience, and devotion. With so many themes in one portion, I’m choosing to focus on one that stood out to me the most, disobedience. In[...]

The Ceremony of Innocence

November 2nd, 2017

by Nigel Savage November 2, 2017 | 13 Cheshvan 5778 Dear All, I rode into work the day before yesterday, as I do many days of the year, on a beautiful bike path on a beautiful day. Hazon worked quite hard, for several years,[...]

Ten New Sites Get the Green Light!

October 31st, 2017

A warm welcome and mazal tov to the Fall 2017 Seal of Sustainability Cohort! We are excited that these 10 new sites - from the east coast, west coast, and in between - are joining the Seal Network on a[...]

Unique Boulder Collaboration Leads to Big Food Rescue Wins

October 24th, 2017

The juxtaposition of the Jewish community's commitment to addressing hunger issues and the reality of literal tons of prepared foods being wasted after events was too much for Hazon's Boulder Director, Becky O'Brien, to handle. She observed that the Jewish[...]

Sabbaticals, shmita, post-sabbatical...

October 19th, 2017

by Nigel Savage October 19, 2017 | 29 Tishrei 5778 Dear All, This week is the start of the rest of our lives the first week after the end of the Jewish holidays, and my first week back at work after my sabbatical.[...]

Changing the Way Animals are Raised for Food

October 18th, 2017

Hazon joins Bon Appetit, UC Berkeley, Airbnb and other organizations as a leader in animal welfare in food service supply chains. Hazon was invited to join Farm Forward's Leadership Circle for the eggs we serve to the thousands of guests who[...]

Siach for the Seas

October 4th, 2017

By David Krantz Imagine a Siach that isn’t just for Jews, but isn’t secular — a Siach that’s wholly religious and spiritual, but involving many religions — and you’d have a conference run by the National Religious Coalition on Creation Care.[...]

Reflection on Law Society Human Rights Conference

October 4th, 2017

By Simone Abel On 10 December 2012, I was privileged to attend the annual Law Society Human Rights Conference in London on a Siach Stipend. The focus of the conference was the impact of human rights principles on discrimination law, particularly[...]

Tu B’Shmita: Jewish Energy Guide Released

October 4th, 2017

By David Krantz NEW YORK (Jan. 16, 2014) — The next Shmita year is scheduled to begin in September, so we need to get ready! The Jewish Energy Guide is designed to help the Jewish community become more environmentally sustainable and[...]

Having a gay old time from Freedman to Eshbal… a cave man’s song not a cave man’s attitude!

October 4th, 2017

A group of activists from North America, Israel and Europe who met at the first Siach conference at Isabella Freedman Retreat Centre, have been collaborating on a couple of projects since we left the lentils, goats and lake behind in[...]

René Cassin Fellows Program

October 4th, 2017

When Simone Abel of Rene Cassin and Rabbi Sid Schwartz of CLAL first ran into each other at Limmud, they had the sense that they might enjoy working together. But it wasn’t until the Siach Conference that they found the[...]

Siach Collaboration Spreads as Far as India

October 4th, 2017

By Yonatan Glaser, Director, B’Tzedek, (and Manager of the joint initiative in India), and Nir Lahav, Director, Project T.E.N. and the Director of Young Activism Unit, The Jewish Agency For Israel It is with great excitement that the Jewish Agency’s Project[...]

Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods... and chicken coops

October 3rd, 2017

by Judith Belasco October 3rd, 2017 | 13 Tishrei 5778 Dear All, My family built our sukkah this past Sunday. I felt an uneasy juxtaposition between the joy of this holiday – freely choosing to create and decorate a temporary home in which we will share[...]

Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods... and chicken coops

October 2nd, 2017

Parasha Ha'Azinu - D'Varim HaMakom: The JOFEE Fellows Blog

September 25th, 2017

By Amanda Gluckich - Milk and Honey Farm - Boulder, CO In this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Ha’Azinu, we learn that the people of Israel, who have been wandering the desert for forty years after leaving Egypt, are about to enter[...]

2017 JOFEE Network Gathering Remarks

September 18th, 2017

From Steven Green, Director of Grants Management and Program Officer, Jim Joseph Foundation We are here! We tend to wish one another a Shana Tovah while we acknowledge this has been a Shana Kashe. It’s been a tough year. That’s probably the understatement[...]

Parasha Netzavim: Choosing to Dig In

September 14th, 2017

By: Margot Sands - Ekar Farm - Boulder, Co Parasha Netzavim This week’s Torah portion, Netzavim, offers us the warning of risks and rewards that could result from engaging in Judaism. See for yourself in a snapshot of this week’s Torah portion: Moses delivers[...]