Hazon Educational Library
Curricula, sourcebooks, and other educational resources from and for the field of Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming & Environmental Education
This open source collection includes resources produced by individuals and organizations throughout the JOFEE field. Our Educational Library, like our community, celebrates the diversity of religious observance and thought and we make every effort to accommodate the breadth and diversity of the Jewish community in our programs and curricula. We hope you will take and use what is appropriate for you and invite others to do the same.
While this resource will continue to grow and evolve, it currently includes:
• Hazon’s Publications (available online and in print)
• Curricula produced by JOFEE Fellows during their Fellowship year
• Curricula and resources shared from partner JOFEE organizations
All materials are available for free download. Most are available for use and adaptation under creative commons license. Please cite authors and organizations on any materials used or adapted from these resources.
Use the filters in the bar below to narrow your search.
Updated Shmita Sourcebook
The Hazon Shmita Sourcebook presents a guided exploration of the history, concepts, and practices of Shmita, from debt forgiveness to agricultural rest, economic adjustment to charitable giving. The updated sourcebook explores texts and commentaries that build the framework of Shmita within the biblical and rabbinic tradition, as well as contemporary voices that speak to Shmita as it relates to our modern world.
Blessing Our Food Waste
Through the practice of a food waste ritual, we can find deep lessons in how we gather, cook, and scrap food. We visually express those lessons into a “visual blessing” using actual food scraps and stones or other found natural objects. Then, we craft and recite a spoken blessing. Together, this helps us rethink food waste in our homes and communities.
Climate Action Shabbat Guide
This Guide is designed to be an interesting educational resource and discussion stimulator as well as a practical set of tips and tools for you to adopt. The goal is for you to more closely align your Shabbat practices with your sustainability and Jewish values.
Local Lulav
A Sukkot resource packet with everything you need to shake sustainable, local lulavim. Filled with relevant educational materials, practical shaking and assembly instructions, and accessible spiritual and environmental insights. Created for the Metro Detroit community.
Guess that Smell
The smell test game is a way to open yourself up to the world of scents. Do you remember a time when you smelled something and it brought you back to another place? It is taught in our tradition that the sense of smell was the least changed after we left the Garden of Eden. What is a smell that reminds you of home? What is a smell that you reminds you of a Jewish holiday?
Category: Spiritual Nature Experience, Sustainability
Tags: Teva
Age(s): Elementary, Teens
Teva Tunes
Teva Tunes is the official Teva CD. Free download and lyrics are available.
Age(s): Elementary, Middle School
Microgreens
Microgreens are mini versions of regular vegetables. The shoots are harvested at a young age, before they grow into fully matured plants. They have a wonderful flavor and are richer in nutrition than their larger counterparts. Best of all, microgreens are fun and easy to grow!
Category: Food & Climate, Sustainability
Pickling 101
There are many options to preserve each season's harvest, including canning, vinegar pickling, drying, blanching and freezing. This particular activity teaches lacto-fermentation pickling - an easy, fun and extremely health-friendly method of food preservation. Participants will take home a jar of their own and in a few days will be able to eat their own pickles!
Category: Food & Climate, Sustainability
Decomposition
What can return to the earth quickly and what will stick around for hundreds of years? This game will challenge participants to think critically about the trash they produce, what happens when they throw things ?away? and how the earth plays a role in this process.
Category: Food waste, Sustainability
Tags: Teva
Age(s): Elementary, Teens
Seed Balls
Green the world through guerilla gardening! As partners in creation we can bring more beauty and life into the world by seeding areas with more wild flowers. We have inherited a world full of beauty and we know that there are places that could use more wildlife. Through making seed balls we can take small steps toward that more colorful future.
Seed Necklaces
Life has the vitality to continue on and on - even with just a cotton ball, a plastic bag, and a seed - the plant will grow into a small wearable garden. Seed necklaces are a very simple activity to do outside or in a classroom. In a week or so, participants will be able to watch their seeds sprout and grow. The seeds can then either by planted or fed to animals in the garden.
Age(s): Elementary, Teens
Pipe Cleaner Animals
In the Garden of Eden, Adam named all the creatures in the garden and looked into their souls, basing their names on their essence. Here in a small way we have the opportunity to create and name pipe cleaner creatures. There is amazing diversity of life on the planet. What animals do you interact with and what are their needs?
Category: Animals, Crafting + DIY
Age(s): Elementary
Betzalel’s Workshop
Betzalel's Workshop involves creating and working with ritual objects from local, organic, ethically sourced, and recycled materials, participants will learn both the centrality of environmental responsibility to Jewish life, as well as a sense of ownership and pride over their participation in Jewish ritual. We feel that, by creating the basic object of a ritual, with all its flaws, character, and uniqueness, children are drawn closer to ritual. By creating an alternative to mass-produced, store-bought Judaica, we create an avenue towards creative, participatory Judaism.
Category: Crafting + DIY, Ritual-Making
Leaf Rubbing & Collage Art
Nature provides beautiful materials which we can create art with. Together we will create lasting art by making leaf rubbings and leaf art. Know that each leaf is different and beauty can be found in each and every leaf. In our Amidah prayer, we give thanks for the miracles that are with us every day.
Category: Crafting + DIY, Spiritual Nature Experience
Age(s): Elementary, Teens
Eco Spa Balm Making
Our tradition teaches that Shmirat HaGuf (care of our bodies) is important so that we can do good work in the world. To love ourselves we need to take care of our mind, body, and spirit. Using natural products with simple earth-based ingredients is a way of taking care of our bodies and gifting to others.
Category: Crafting + DIY, Sustainability
