Special Recent Posts
A remarkable gift from the tradition, starting tonight
March 21st, 2019
Let me begin at the end. Tonight – start to clear things out. Start to clear out your attic, your basement, your garage. The pantry in your kitchen, and any opened bottle or jar in the fridge or the cupboard that’s been[...]
Hazon Detroit: Of Spirit and of Seed
March 20th, 2019
Dear Friends, As you know, it’s been gray and rainy since November. Not as much snow as some years, but cold, drizzly, damp, and long. We’ve been cooped up indoors trying to find outlets for excess energy, and yet seasons are[...]
Testimony: Proposed Revised Supplemental Finding for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and Results of the Residual Risk and Technology Review
March 18th, 2019
On March 18, 2019, Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith testified at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on behalf of the Jewish Climate Action Network for stronger mercury standards. Below are her remarks. My name is Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith. I am[...]
Hakhel Spotlight: Hashomer Hatzair USA
March 15th, 2019
Hello from Hashomer Hatzair USA! We are a socialist zionist youth movement that has a sleepaway camp in the summer and year-round activities for our kenim (branches). We are excited to be here as first time members in the Hakhel community![...]
Not our hazon, and not in our name – Hazon statement
March 7th, 2019
Thursday, March 7, 2019 | Rosh Chodesh Adar II, 5779 A new organization called “hazon” has suddenly appeared in Israel. They are using our name – and they have very different values from us. We want to make clear not only that[...]
Press Release: Not our hazon
March 7th, 2019
For immediate release Hazon, the leading American Jewish environmental organization, this week issued a strong response to a new Israeli organization, also called "hazon", that has published a series of inflammatory billboards attacking gay, lesbian and transgender Israelis, and then also[...]
Hazon Seal of Sustainability Highlights our Relationship to Food in 2019
March 6th, 2019
Our Hazon Seal of Sustainability network is large and strong. Together, we can aggregate our efforts and demonstrate how we, as a community of Jewish communities, have made and continue to make a measurable difference in safeguarding this earth (being[...]
Food Policy Mini-Grants for Hazon’s Seal of Sustainability Sites
March 6th, 2019
We are happy to announce new mini-grants to help Hazon Seal sites create and implement a food policy that also promotes ethical food sourcing and animal welfare in their organization. Thank you for your interest in putting your values into[...]
Food and Farm Policy: Update and Action
March 6th, 2019
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 Important food and farm policy work moved forward this winter amid all of the daunting political news. On December 20th the 2018 Farm Bill became law. The law’s passage was a win simply in that it allowed[...]
The Acute and the Chronic
February 21st, 2019
Thursday, February 21, 2019 | 16th Adar I, 5779 by Nigel Savage We’ve been hearing about a “national emergency.”It makes sense for governments to have provisions for such things. Every now and then – in human life, in organizational life, and in[...]
Hazon Detroit: Leaping Towards Connection
February 15th, 2019
Dear Friends, We are now firmly in the month of February, a 28 day month in most years, that becomes 29 days in years that are multiples of four. Of course, this phenomenon is known as a “leap year.” And while 2019[...]
Strategy Update
February 7th, 2019
Thursday, February 7th, 2019 | 2nd Adar I, 5779 We’re in the middle of our strategic planning process. I want to give you a sense of where we are and perhaps where we’re heading. First of all: a huge thank you to[...]
Significant News in Relation to the 2019 New York Ride
January 18th, 2019
Hazon as a whole is in the middle of a strategic planning process. We began it in the late summer of last year and intend to land it by late spring. It relates to all of our programs. The goal[...]
Kaddish for my father
January 17th, 2019
Last year Tu B'Shvat fell on a Tuesday evening. We’d arrived that morning in Johannesburg, and just a few days before I’d Googled and found a Tu B'Shvat seder. It was in a place called Huddle Park. We didn’t know anyone[...]
Hazon Detroit: Growth Ring Blessings
January 17th, 2019
Dear Friends, At sunset this Sunday, January 20th, we will usher in Tu B’Shvat, one of the four new years on the Jewish calendar. Just like our secular calendar has multiple year cycles—think calendar year, fiscal year, school year—so too, our[...]
Hakhel Spotlight: Kehila Ivrit Amsterdam
January 15th, 2019
Kehila was established by Israelis living in the Netherlands who teamed up to create a joint framework for cultural, social, and educational activities in the Hebrew language. Kehila is based on its members’ active participation and involvement in the spirit[...]
Tu B’Shvat: Bonna Haberman, MLK, Jim Joseph and my Dad…
January 10th, 2019
My first Tu B’Shvat seder was with Bonna and Shmuel Haberman Browns, in London, in 1986. Bonna z”l was an amazing woman, who died too young. (This was my tribute to her that The Forward published at the time of her death.) It was[...]
What is Tu B’Shvat and Why Do We Celebrate It?
January 9th, 2019
by Nigel Savage Introduction to the new Hazon Tu B’Shvat Haggadah You can trace the recent history of Tu B’Shvat seders like branches on a tree. The first one I went to, in London in 1986, was hosted by Bonna Haberman z”l[...]
One Water, All Lives: Teva Over Greenland
December 31st, 2018
By Mike Tintner 2018 Teva Educator On the plane flying from Moscow to New York City, returning from Israel, I had the chance to bless. After standing up for the first time in hours on the long flight I stumbled to the[...]
Blessing Family & The Earth | D'varim HaMakom: The JOFEE Fellows Blog
December 21st, 2018
Jared Kaminsky - Shoresh Parshat Vayechi In only 3 short months, I’ll be turning 30 years old! I was recently married, and purchased a home, and feel that I have made a massive leap into adulthood. I will one day, G-d willing,[...]
Hazon Perspective: Farm Bill Update
December 17th, 2018
Our tradition teaches us to open up the corners of our harvest through pe'ah and to attune ourselves to the needs of land for rest and restoration through shmita. We at Hazon are therefore greatly relieved that the recently passed Farm Bill maintains[...]
Big News: Extending the Adamah Farm & Increasing Capacity at Isabella Freedman
December 14th, 2018
By Nigel Savage Thursday, December 13, 2018 | 5 Tevet 5779 Dear All, With strong active staff and lay involvement, and support from Project Accelerate, Hazon’s board earlier this year signed off on a new master plan for Isabella Freedman. Isabella Freedman is a place that touches people’s lives[...]
What is our theory of Jewish journeys?
December 9th, 2018
Commencement speech by Nigel Savage Spertus Commencement, Sunday, December 9th 2018, 7th day of Chanukah, 5779 Watch the full video here. Nigel starts speaking at 00:36. Download a pdf transcript here. Dean, Keren, Hal, Tal, Elana, Rabbi Bauman, graduates, family members and friends, A huge[...]
Light In The Dark | D'varim HaMakom: The JOFEE Fellows Blog
November 30th, 2018
Ilana Unger - Pearlstone Center Parshat Vayeishev In parshat Vayeishev (Genesis 37:1-40:23), lands on the third Shabbat of Kislev, we connect deeply to this Jewish month of actualization and revelation. For example: Vayeishev is the Hebrew word for “and he lived” (actualization) and[...]
Big Questions
November 29th, 2018
By Nigel Savage Thursday, November 29, 2018 | 21 Kislev 5779 Dear All, In 2000, a small group of people believed (a) that we had to try to address environmental sustainability in the world, including some big big – BIG – challenges; (b)[...]
Hazon. Important.
November 15th, 2018
by Nigel Savage November 15, 2018 | 8 Kislev 5779 Dear all, In the last two weeks we’ve had the shivahs for the people who were murdered in Pittsburgh, the post-Pittsburgh Shabbat, and then the midterms. As I write, California is on fire[...]
Hakhel Israel trip – Day 1
November 9th, 2018
Monday, November 5, 2018 By Gil Landau, Kfar B'ir, Washington DC Monday morning, we stood on a mountaintop overlooking the Kineret and the place where the earliest Kibbutzim were established. After hearing our guide James tell his moving personal story of coming[...]
Detroit Newsletter: Drops of water
November 8th, 2018
Dear Friends, Last night at sundown, we concluded the Jewish lunar month of Cheshvan, the first month following High Holidays and the only month on our calendar without a Jewish holiday. For this reason, there’s a tradition dating back to the Mishnah(~200 CE)[...]
Hakhel Israel trip – Day 2
November 6th, 2018
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 By Elie Benhiyoun Divorced with three kids and nowhere to go, Sara made the trek north to Afula. When she arrived, the first thing she did was get on a bike, find whatever odds and ends she could[...]
Hakhel Spotlight: The Kehilla in South Korea
November 6th, 2018
Hakehillah is a Jewish cultural community focused on welcoming and including all who wish to celebrate Jewish tradition, religion, and culture. There aren’t many Jews in South Korea, and we want to make everyone feel like they have a family[...]
Hakhel Spotlight: Urban Moshav Boston
November 6th, 2018
On our Hakhel tour of intentional communities last month, our small group bonded quickly. With representatives from Baltimore, Boston, New York, Philadelphia – as well as Mexico, Ukraine, and Russia – we easily bridged our linguistic and cultural differences (everyone[...]
Hakhel Spotlight: November Newsletter Message
November 6th, 2018
Dear friends, "There were shots in a synagogue in Pittsburgh," my hosts in New York informed me last Saturday night when I returned from a wonderful Shabbat with UWS Jews, a community of young Jews in New York, who are part[...]
Hazon Detroit at Interfaith Justice Speak-Out
November 6th, 2018
Hazon Detroit is proud to have stood alongside so many powerful faith leaders on November 1, 2018 at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn to denounce white nationalism, show support for the Jewish community, and affirm solidarity for all[...]
All about Teva
October 29th, 2018
In the last twenty years, more than 100,000 Jewish children, teachers and young adults have participated in the transformative experience of Teva: immersing themselves in the rhythms of the natural world, learning about the Jewish values of stewardship, and developing[...]
Pittsburgh/Israel
October 28th, 2018
I’m in Israel with our largest ever Israel Ride – 219 participants, plus more than 60 crew and staff members. Six of our riders live in Pittsburgh, two are members of the shul that was attacked, and many more grew[...]
Hazon Seal of Sustainability: Hazon Seal @ Chicago
October 23rd, 2018
Application is now closed. However! - please let us know if you have interest in joining so we can keep you posted when space opens up! Click HERE for the inquiry form! ----------------- We are very excited to open up our Chicagoland adventure[...]
From then to now. And where next?
October 18th, 2018
by Nigel Savage Thursday, October 18, 2018 | 9 Cheshvan 5779 Dear All, This is a blunter email than usual. For 18 years Hazon’s impact in the world has been partly predicated on not ‘banging people over the head,’ as I sometimes put it.[...]
NYC Jewish institutions: Take the lead on eliminating food waste!
October 18th, 2018
NEWS: Meeting with NYC Department of Sanitation When: March 18th, 2019 at 6pm Where: Hazon offices in 125 Maiden Lane, 8th floor We welcome you to join a get-together of green teams who are currently advancing sustainability projects in their community as a[...]
Hakhel Spotlight: Bible Raps
October 10th, 2018
Bible Raps joined Hakhel in the summer of 2018, and looks to fuse the two rarely overlapping worlds of Hip Hop and Torah. Here is how they do it… Rappers and Rabbis: An Unreasonable Obsession With The Word By Matt Bar I know[...]
Hakhel Spotlight: MoEd
October 10th, 2018
MoEd is… The place you should have been going after school when you were a kid. It just wasn’t around, so you couldn’t… A fun-loving kids’ community, where kids come to meet and play and talk – and learn (without[...]
