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Hazon Farm Bill Campaign: for Justice and Climate Resilience

By on July 26, 2022 in Adamah, Education, Farm Bill, Farming, Food, Food Justice, JOFEE

The once-every-five-years Farm Bill authorization process is in full swing! This presents an historic opportunity to lower the nearly one third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions spewed by the food system and reshape food production and distribution toward justice and equity. Join a robust, intersectional movement from a Jewish perspective! There has never been a better time for working together on behalf of our food future. A Just and Climate-Friendly 2023 Farm Bill Could Help the Food System… bring its emissions to net-zero by 2040 adapt to a changing climate prioritize racial justice reduce food waste incentivize land, soil, and water conservation increase equitable access to healthy, fresh food uplift community-led land use and food sovereignty Seven Ways to Take Action with Hazon’s Farm Bill Campaign                 Building on centuries of Jewish wisdom, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Z”L said that “The opposite of good is not evil; the opposite of good is indifference. In a free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” Terrible, fixable wrongs exist in the food system. Thirty-five million people in the U.S. confronted hunger in 2019 while 30-40% of food produced was wasted, accounting […]

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Abramson Vegan Breadmaker Challah

By on September 20, 2021 in Vegan

Makes one large or two small loaves. Ingredients 2 tablespoons dried yeast (two packages) ½ cup sugar 2 cups luke warm water 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed, aka flaxseed meal (NOT whole flaxseeds)* 2 tablespoons canola oil 4 – 5 cups King Arthur or other good quality bread flour ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum (see note) 2 teaspoons salt Raisins (optional) Place the yeast, sugar, flax seed meal and water at the bottom of a bread maker and let sit for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients in the order given. Set the bread maker for dough. After about 5 minutes, check to make sure that the dough is forming a ball. If it resembles batter, gradually add a bit more flour. If it resembles crumbs, gradually add a bit more water. After one hour, remove dough separate into three ropes, and braid making sure to tuck the ends under. Note if using raisins: Raisins will be distributed better if you put them in the individual ropes. Just flatten each rope out, line the raisins up, and fold the strand back into a rope. Let the bread rise again for one half hour on the kitchen counter. Bake at 350 degrees […]

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Hazon Detroit: Food Rescue Update

By on March 17, 2021 in Activism, Detroit, Food, Food Justice

One year in, we’ve rescued over 250 tons – or 500,000 pounds – of food! Hazon Detroit’s Food Rescue and Redistribution work continues to be a major focus for us, as we try to help reduce the amount of food insecurity in our neighborhoods and provide the most basic kind of sustainability – sustenance – to those hit hardest by the Coronavirus. One year into the pandemic, with the help of countless incredible partners, we have rescued and redistributed over 250 tons – 500,000 pounds – of food! But numbers tell only a sliver of the story, because this work is truly about the individuals and families that benefit from the food we rescue. Read the message below from one frontline volunteer about the impact that this food has for those who receive it: Dear all, I want to share some news, observations, and thanks to each of you! I am the one who greets our friends and generally has a brief (and sometimes long) chat with the vast majority of them! We help over 300 families each month and now average nearly 75-80 each week! We have lost a few because life did get better and are now providing […]

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Food Rescue Hero: Darraugh Collins

By on January 21, 2021 in Detroit, Food, Food Justice, Reflections, Tzedek/Justice

After the completion of ten weeks of exposure, enlightenment, and heavy back breaking work, Tania and I find ourselves longing for our internship to continue on into 2021. By working with Hazon and other partner organizations and leaders in the community, we have become a part of a community of compassion — centering the needs of hundreds above their own. In this work across the city of Detroit, we’ve met individuals who consistently leave us in awe with their unwavering dedication to food rescue. This week we want to highlight the gift of Darraugh Collins. Despite only residing in Detroit for several years, she has made an enormous impact on the community. Darraugh was not always a leader in the work of food rescue; after attending a banquet at her fiance’s hotel in St. Louis, she noticed the immense amount of leftover food. She was shocked that it was all going to be thrown away. This made her wonder: How many people had she passed on the street who could have benefitted from this food? How many hotels and businesses in the area also disposed of surplus food? It soon became clear to Darraugh what the next step must be: […]

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Food Rescue Hero: April Roe Agosta

By on December 8, 2020 in Activism, Detroit, Food, Food Justice, Institutional Food Values, Reflections

For our second edition of Food Rescue Hero of the Week, Tania and I instantly knew the exact woman we needed to highlight. For years, April Roe Agosta has fed those in need — from her backyard to the back of Thurston High School —  nothing stops her mission. Since the pandemic hit, April and her  team of volunteers have taken lead in a constantly growing food rescue and distribution mission. Every week, Hazon Detroit partners with April to feed our food insecure neighbors  in Redford, MI.    April grew up and lived much of her life in Scotland, moving to America in 1983. She speaks of her home fondly, longing to go back when our world allows for families to once again reunite across the globe. April told us that she has always been a helper, a trait passed down from her father, a man who made sure every person was fed, whether they were his own or not. In a country like Scotland where the government provides extensive housing and medical assistance, money can be secured solely for food.  In Scotland, help is given to all — not divided up by race, religion, or class.  Hence, April faced […]

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Food Rescue Hero: Minister Antonio

By on November 19, 2020 in Activism, Detroit, Food, Food Justice, Institutional Food Values, Reflections

Over the next few months, Tania and myself, Lily, will be highlighting our local food rescue heroes. In doing this work only briefly, we have been struck with the profound recognition of our own privilege, of our ability to go to the market and get as much food as we not only need, but want. Yet so many do not have the means to do so by no fault of their own. Through working with Hazon and other partner organizations, we have met those who have turned their lives into helping others, ensuring as many families can be fed as possible. For food insecurity is not a problem with lack of food per se, but with food distribution. These are people who have welcomed strangers into their home, put food on their plates, and in doing so have created a community that stands up for one another and helps with no questions asked. It is truly an honor to work alongside these heroes. When thinking about a food rescue hero to write about, we immediately knew the top candidate, a man we’ve known only briefly but whose words and spirit have begun to fuel us in our everyday work. Minister […]

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Food, then and now

By on August 6, 2020 in Adamah, Climate Change, Detroit, Elul, Farming, Food, Food Justice, Nigel, Tzedek/Justice

Thursday, August 6, 2020 | 16 Av 5780 Dear All, This week’s sidra, Eikev, is the week that introduced into English (via the King James version)  “man does not live by bread alone” and “a land flowing with milk and honey.”  It’s the week that lists the seven species – shivat haminim – that are indigenous to the land of Israel, which Bill Slott points out to me every few years as we ride from Jerusalem to Ashkelon on the first day of the Arava Institute Hazon Israel Ride. And it includes the second paragraph of the shm’a, linking our behavior to the climate of the world. Food is a recurring motif. Perhaps that was why Ruby Rivlin, President of Israel, chose this week to spend the day helping Leket pack food for people in need. As Joe Gitler subsequently wrote, President Rivlin wasn’t just doing a photo-op. He’s seriously engaged by the topic and thinking hard – and striving to put the weight of his office – behind new ways to help get food to people who are food insecure. But you don’t have to be President of Israel to make a difference. “Pivot” and “swivel” are words-of-this-year, and they encapsulate […]

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Shiva Asar B’Tammuz

By on July 9, 2020 in Climate Change, Food, Food Justice, Holidays

Today is a fast day on the Jewish calendar, known as Shiva Assar B’Tammuz. The Mishnah (a compendium of Jewish oral traditions compiled in the third century) provides five tragedies that happened on this day in Jewish history: It was on this day that Moshe broke the two tablets; the day the tamid, or daily, animal offering was suspended; Jerusalem’s city walls were breached during the Roman siege; a man called Apostumos burned a Torah scroll; and an idol was erected in the Temple. The second “tragedy” – the cessation of the tamid animal sacrifice – is sitting with me this year more than ever as I complete my first year working at Hazon. As I dedicate more and more of my life to asking people to think carefully about the animal products they consume, it’s hard to feel terribly sad commemorating the inability to sacrifice an animal, to see the cessation of animal sacrifice as a tragedy. The name of this particular sacrifice – Tamid – is an important one. The word tamid in Hebrew can mean “forever”, “constantly”, or “routine.” The tamid offering was the mundane sacrifice, the routine one, the one that happened twice a day, every […]

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Isabella Freedman: an update, and an invitation

By on June 23, 2020 in Adamah, Farming, Food, Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Newsletters, Nigel, Reflections

Thursday, June 23, 2020 | Rosh Chodesh Tammuz 5780 Dear All, I want to explain how and why Freedman has been closed, and also to invite you to join us for an “Isabella Freedman Getaway” – a 5- or 12-night stay at Isabella Freedman. An amazing opportunity to escape from the city – or wherever you are – and hang out in a beautiful place, with kosher food, space for kids, and great hikes, trails and trips nearby. And I’m delighted, separately, to share with you the launch of a Virtual Camp Isabella Freedman for adults ages 55+, for the week of July 6th – 10th; and to remind you that registration for our first ever cohort of Adamah At Home is now open. We hope and intend that each and all of these will be very special experiences. To learn more about each, click here for Getaways, here for Adamah At Home, and here for Virtual Camp Isabella Freedman. To explain how these three programs arose, I want to give an update on Isabella Freedman in the last four months. On February 25th, we set up a coronavirus task force. On March 3rd, I left Freedman after a superb and impactful Kenissa retreat led by Rabbi Sid Schwarz. And on […]

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The launch of Adamah At Home, and thoughts about M4BL

By on June 18, 2020 in Activism, Adamah, Farming, Food, Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Newsletters, Nigel, Reflections

Thursday, June 18, 2020 | 26 Sivan 5780 Dear All, Isabella Freedman is closed as a retreat center, but the state of CT has reduced the minimum period for bookings, which now enables us – next week –  to launch Isabella Freedman Getaways. If you’re interested in coming up and spending 5 or 12 days at Isabella Freedman – with three meals a day of (local, ethical) kosher food, in beautiful surroundings – look out for our email next week. We similarly had to take the very difficult decision to suspend the Adamah Fellowship for this summer – the first time since the program began, in 2003, when that has been so. But – but! – we’re now happy and excited to launch a new program: Adamah At Home. The program runs from July 6th to July 26th, and you can send in applications on a rolling basis from now through July 1st. It’s an exceptionally strong program encompassing practical skills, daily conversation and what we hope and intend will be a strong group. We’ll cover Jews ecological learning, garden mentorship, food systems and policy; also food choices, cheesemaking and regenerative farming. And we’ll also talk about structural racism in this country – […]

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Hazon Detroit: Time to Grow

By on April 6, 2020 in Detroit, Farming, Food, Food Justice, Institutional Food Values, Passover, Spirituality

Dear Friends, I was present once, when a teacher told a full room, “In the years ahead, we will be called to be both the hospice caretakers of the old world, the old structures, and midwives of the new one.” It has stuck with me deeply ever since, as I’ve attuned my senses to a crossfade of sorts, watching the volume of an old way being turned down as the volume of a new song increases. With Passover just a few short days away, perhaps we could think of this crossfade like the mythic Israelites leaving Egypt, escaping the cacophony of slavery while cranking up the volume on liberation. At the crux of that crossfade is the 10th plague, when God vows to kill all Egyptian firstborn (Exodus 12:12). This of course, leads directly to the Israelite exodus across the sea. But this is not the whole story. In that same breath, God also promises to bring judgment on the false gods of Egypt (12:12). According to the midrash (Exodus Rabbah 16:3), the true and lasting liberation comes not only from the physical leaving of Egypt, but from the Israelites’ emphatic refusal to worship the idols of Egyptian rule. Yes, […]

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From Organic Farming to Composting: Ramah Campers and USYers Get Hands-on Lessons in Sustainability

By on January 20, 2020 in Activism, Climate Change, Farming, Food, Hazon Seal of Sustainability, Teens

by Renee Ghert-Zand Every year, Ramah campers leave at the end of the summer having learned new things that they can incorporate into their lives at home. It could be more Hebrew, how to chant Torah, or how to do a layup on the basketball court.  In the last decade, campers have also been coming away with a heightened awareness and deeper understanding about where their food comes from, and how their eating choices impact their bodies and the environment.  “We are trying to lift the veil on where our food comes from,” said Rabbi Eliav Bock, director of Ramah in the Rockies, one of the Ramah camps at the forefront of making its food sourcing more transparent and helping children and young adults make more informed decisions in nurturing themselves and taking care of the earth.   Ramah camps, as well as the USY on Wheels summer program, are increasingly incorporating experiential educational opportunities for learning about concepts like organic farming, ethically sourced meat, fair trade practices, farm to table eating, waste reduction, and composting — all couched within the outstanding Conservative Jewish educational framework for which these summer programs are known. A number of the Ramah camps have […]

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Recipe: Nectarine Elderflower Chutney

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

This recipe comes to us from 2019 Hazon Food Conference Presenter Miche Bacher. My tag line, “eat pretty”, is not just about how beautiful flowers are and how pretty your plates are when you include flowers in your food, it is a metaphor for the way edible flowers can help us take care of the earth. The flowers we choose to eat are grown organically and are just as enticing to our pollinator friends as they are to us. Fresh flower season is short, so make sure to take full advantage by “putting up” your bounty. Make your vinegars, oils, sugars, chutneys, and alcoholic infusions, and don’t forget to share with friends and family! I love chutney! Really, really, love chutney. It is so underutilized and has incredible potential. I make chutneys all summer long using fresh summer fruits and flowers and through fall and winter with frozen blackberries and dried hibiscus. What do flowers add? Well – they add that “what’s in this?” factor, some health benefits, and a pinch of extra yummm…Don’t have the specific fruit in this recipe? Or the right flower sugar? It’s ok – mix and match, find what you like, the technique is the […]

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Recipe: Sutlach (Cream of Rice Pudding)

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

This recipe comes to us from 2019 Hazon Food Conference Presenter Susan Barocas. A creamy, delicate pudding, sutlach (in Turkish sütlaҫ or mahallebi) is traditionally served to break the fast after Yom Kippur and for Shabbat morning breakfast, although it is a beloved treat any time. The pudding is prepared with milk or pipitada, a drink made by steeping dried and ground cantaloupe seeds in water for 24 hours. This drink is said to be especially restorative following the fast. Instead of vanilla and orange zest, you can use 2 tablespoons rose water for a different flavor. Many people fondly remember mothers or grandmothers sprinkling cinnamon in the shape of their initials on the top of individual servings. Recipe from Sephardic Flavors: Jewish Cooking of the Mediterranean by Joyce Goldstein. Ingredients 6 tbsp rice flour or cream of rice 6 tbsp sugar 5-6 tbsp water 4 cups milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 tbsp grated orange zest Ground cinnamon Preparation In a bowl, combine the rice flour or Cream of Rice and sugar. Gradually add the water, stirring until a thick lump-free paste forms. Cooking In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil over medium heat. Gradually add the […]

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Recipe: Grounding Khichari (Rice and Lentil Stew)

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

This recipe comes to us from 2019 Hazon Food Conference Presenter Regina Mosenkis. Recipe from What to Eat for How You Feel: The New Ayurvedic Kitchen by Divya Alter (Rizzoli, 2017) Here is my grounding and warming version of this meal-in-a-pot dish. You can easily prepare it in a slow cooker by starting it at night on low, then in the morning pack the ready khichari in a thermos and take it to work. Grounding Khichari goes well with any of the chutneys on pages 191 to 192, with salads, and with cooked leafy greens. Gluten free, Dairy free Makes about 4 servings Prep: 10 minutes Cook: 40 minutes Ingredients 1⁄2 cup yellow split mung dal or red lentils 1 cup basmati rice 1 tablespoon ghee, sesame oil, or olive oil 1⁄2 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger 6 curry leaves or 2 bay leaves 1 small green Thai chile, seeded and minced 2 1⁄2 teaspoons Grounding Masala 2 teaspoons salt 2 cups diced vegetables (you can combine a few), such as carrots, sweet potatoes, taro root, green beans, zucchini, fennel, turnips, celery root, beets, and/or leafy greens 4 to 5 cups water (or if you are using […]

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