by Josh Kimelman Tiptoeing into the world of environmentalism over the past ten years, I’ve certainly taken my time. In high school, around the time An Inconvenient Truth began making waves, my brother developed a deep-seated interest in the environment. Some of his enthusiasm rubbed off on me, but mostly I thought it was, well, cute. A nice thing to care about, but requiring too much thought and effort. My brother’s environmentally-motivated vegetarianism earned my respect but did little to change my reluctance to engage the issues behind it (or my diet). Sure, I was ten. But every time environmental issues came up over the next eight years, the same thing happened: momentary respect and care giving way to a shrug (and homework). Standing where I do today, having attended the People’s Climate March in 2014, and excited to go march for clean energy in Philadelphia this Sunday, it’s almost comical looking back. Now, in college, much of what I study and care about revolves around the environment, food systems, and climate change. I learn and think all the time about how environmental issues intersect with everything: poverty, hunger, race, class, trade, agriculture, law, politics, national […]
Topic: Activism
A Time to Serve
Where will you serve? Tikkun Olam: Repair the World. That’s a pretty ambitious goal. Luckily, in the field of Jewish service, with great ambition comes great programming. There are so many organizations out there working every day to make a difference, and providing volunteers with the opportunity, knowledge, and partnership to have a positive impact on the world. But, with so many options and so much to be done, how do you choose the service program that is not only right for you, but the program in which YOU can make the biggest difference? We know how. This year, six Jewish non profit organizations are joining forces, as a force for good. We want you to be able to dedicate your time and energy to the causes you are passionate about through a year of service or long-term immersive service program. We also want to make sure you have everything you need to find the program that is the best fit for YOU, all in one place. Below you’ll find a range of excellent long-term service programs, and links to all of the information you need to thoroughly explore each program, your questions and qualifications, and the potential impact you […]
Shmita, like Shechina, Goes Global: Reflections from a Hammock on This Shmita Year
By Amichai Lau-Lavie A year ago I was laying in a hammock on a Brazilian beach, planning a year’s worth of Shmita study and action that will rebrand this ancient sustainability practice rooted in the Land of Israel for new digital generations all over the world. Hovering between earth and sky provided the perfect setting to what I was designing: An adaptation of the Shmita concept beyond its original halachic, geographical and agricultural settings so that it will prove useful and meaningful to so many more of us. Now that the year is almost up and FallowLab, the project I designed, is starting its descent, it’s time to get back into the hammock and reflect on lessons learned and theories tested. Many creative projects and conversations emerged this year with varying degrees of success at wrestling with Shmita and offering ambitious renditions and new traditions. What sticks for future? Did we live up to the values of Shmita, did this year live up to expectations? Luckily I don’t have to go back to Brazil to find a reflection-friendly hammock. When I got back home last summer I set up a shmita garden in my Manhattan backyard: Stripped the garden of […]
NY Finalizes Major Initiative to Expand Solar Access
From the Press Office of Vote Solar Diverse Coalition Applauds Cuomo Administration’s Commitment to Improving Community Health, Resiliency, Opportunity through Clean Energy Albany, NY – July 16, 2015 – Today the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) established an innovative Shared Renewables program that will expand consumer access to local solar, wind and other clean energy resources, particularly among low- and moderate-income New Yorkers. More than 70 local and national organizations join together in applauding state leaders for their commitment to a healthier, more resilient clean energy system that creates opportunities for all New Yorkers to thrive. “Solar is working for the Empire State in a big way. Record numbers of New Yorkers are harnessing sunshine to save on their energy bills, which is creating local jobs and reducing the need for traditional polluting power. This new program will empower even more communities, families and businesses to participate in that great solar success story,” said Sean Garren, Northeast Regional Manager for Vote Solar, a national solar advocacy organization. “We thank Governor Cuomo, his administration and the PSC for making equal access to solar a priority and for speeding our transition to a healthier, more resilient clean energy system.” New York […]
From Shmita to Hak’hel: Assembling on October 4
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow In the last several years, many societies and cultures have been stirred by the sense of a great planetary crisis caused by human action to overwork the earth — – the burning of fossil fuels scorching our global ecosystem, the human gobbling up of eco-space bringing on the extinctions of many other species, widespread deforestation weakening the Earth’s ability to absorb the overproduction of CO2, human behavior poisoning rivers and oceans and exhausting many watersheds. For some, these events have stirred two biblical memories and midrash: the identification of corporate “Carbon Pharaohs” that profit from bringing plagues upon the Earth; and for the first time in Jewish history, a serious exploration of how the Torah of the Shmita/ Sabbatical Year of rest for the land might be applied outside the Land of Israel –- indeed, universally. The realization of this powerful biblical way of understanding and addressing our generation’s crisis came soon enough before the Shmita year of CE 2014-2015 to stir rich discussion, but not soon enough to make the year a time of public transformative action — a real Shmita. As our present Shmita dwindles down, what can we do now, to keep our planet livable? Facing this crisis, 380 rabbis from every stream of Judaism have signed the Rabbinic Letter on the […]
Making Hummus with Shmita Values
By Michael Bomze On a weekly basis, I make hummus – very much at the mercy of area farmers, as I use fresh produce in each batch – and I donate all of the profits to Philadelphia urban farms. Admittedly, I do not think I ever had learned of the concept of Shmita before this year’s Hazon Philadelphia Jewish Food Festival – and I wasn’t initially sure how, in any capacity, I could apply the tradition of the Shmita to my 21st Century-paced life in a very large city. I think I’ve made some sense of it since November’s festival, though, and I offer my thoughts below. Though Shmita, a biblical mandate instructing farmers to let land lay fallow every seventh year, is a seemingly straightforward commandment, its implications are several. For instance, it isn’t Shmita that is the reason I’ve been preserving local produce in hummus, but thoughts and discussions regarding Shmita have helped me affirm what I am doing (and, if nothing else, the notion of Shmita has seemed a valid excuse to calm down my everyday life and to pay particularly close attention to my relationships with family, neighbors, and with nature). Regarding my hummus practices and the Shmita, perhaps the most obvious relationship is how each batch serves as […]
Love and Money in the Cycle of Release
By Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips The words of the Shema call for love of God “with all your me’od.” Me’od ordinarily means very-much, and is generally translated in the Shema as strength, might, or power. But ancient rabbis understood this power quite specifically: “Love God with all your money.” Money circulates—often inequitably, but it’s always moving among us. Talmudic rabbis, observing their own generations of changing fortune, declared poverty to be “a wheel that revolves in the world.” Given all the uncertainties of the financial wheel in spin, they called for regular attention to distributive justice: “Just as each small metal scale joins into a great armor-plate, so with tzedakah each and every coin joins into a great heshbon.” The Jewish ethical principle of heshbon (accountability) provides an immediate connection between ecology and economy, spirituality and social change. Every time we open our wallets or check our bank balances, we face choices of heshbon—and heshbon hanefesh ( “soul accounting”) includes personal finance. How are we literally spending each day of our lives? Rooted in the agricultural imperatives of the shmita cycle is a practice of heshbon accessible to all of us. The release of debts in the sabbatical year originally followed six years of regular tithing. No longer a form of […]
Why We Do What We Do
Dear All, People used to send fundraising emails before the end of the year. But everyone did that, so they moved to early December, and then from there to late November. This year, as you know, it’s both Chanukah and Thanksgiving in five minutes time. So we’re sending our year-end appeal now – with the autumn leaves still on the trees – to ask you to become a stakeholder in Hazon. Ideally – for us, but I hope also for you – we’d like to ask you to give a monthly gift, as a growing number of people are doing. For the price, each month, of three cappuccinos, two bars of dark chocolate, and maybe a banana, you can feel that in a purposive and persistent way you are helping to create a healthier, more sustainable and more vibrant Jewish community; and helping the Jewish community, as a community, to create a more sustainable world for all. This is not minor. Hazon is doing important work, and we certainly need your support; and/but we also want you, for yourself, genuinely to feel that by becoming a stakeholder you’re making a difference in the very many areas in which we’re doing […]
A note from Hazon Board Member Rabbi Marc Soloway about fighting for a fair food movement
Dear All, I just got back late last night from Immokalee, Florida where I was on a 3-day mission with Truah (The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights). We were working with the C.I.W. (Coalition of Immokalee Workers) with migrant farm workers and activists who have been fighting for a fair food movement. It was very inspiring to witness the changes that have happened down there through passionate and creative community organizing, and also distressing and humbling to hear about appalling work conditions that continue among the people who pick our food. Here is the official Tomato Rabbis video to learn more. As one of the newest crop of Tomato Rabbis, I have committed to be an ally with C.I.W. and intend to write and talk about the experience and bring greater awareness of the issue and join the national campaigns against Wendy’s and some of the big supermarket chains, pressuring them to sign the Fair Food Agreement, enabling the farm workers to earn an extra penny per pound on the tomatoes they pick in their 10-hour work day. This agreement has already been signed by Taco Bell, Subway, McDonalds, Burger King, Chipotle and others and is supported by some of the largest growers, but there is more […]
Interfaith Food Sustainability Coalition hosts gathering with Congressman Jared Polis
On a recent, beautiful Sunday afternoon, an interfaith gathering of gardeners and Community Supported Agriculture volunteers gathered to meet one another and share the successes and challenges they face. Congressman Jared Polis was on hand to hear the stories from members of Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist and Unitarian congregations, as well as graduate students studying faith communities and food sustainability. Hazon is a founding member of the Interfaith Coalition for Food Sustainability, which hosted the event. Read more about the gathering in the Boulder Daily Camera. The Interfaith Coalition for Food Sustainability enjoys a delicious potluck with ingredients from congregation gardens.
More Than Just Talk: Jewish Drive for ‘Just Farm Bill’
Deborah Newbrun,Hazon Bay Area Director, asks, “What is the Farm Bill, and why is it a Jewish issue?”
Support Colorado Wildfire Relief
Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by the ongoing wildfires burning throughout Colorado.
Reflections from Siach: Conversations on the Kinneret
Last weekend, 120 social and environmental justice leaders from Jewish communities around the world came together to build connections, cooperation, and conversation.
Photos and a Thank You Note from our White House Visit
See photos from the Jewish Farm Bill Working Group’s visit to the White House to delivery 18,000 signatures in support of a just Farm Bill.
Jewish Farm Bill Working Group Presents 18,000 signatures in Washington
Today, seven national Jewish groups delivered a petition with nearly 18,000 signatures to House Leadership and the Obama Administration demanding a focus on food justice in the next Farm Bill.
