Topic: Hazon Seal News and Announcements

Celebrating Hazon Seal Regional Cohorts

When your community commits to sustainability, everyone is a winner. And when several communities come together, we are redefining local Jewish life.   Targeted efforts in a particular geographical location are a game changer. Physical proximity enables a whole new level of personal connections and cross-community collaborations. Such local Hazon presence is made possible thanks to generous support by local funders. Funders, who identify the potential impact that this type of oh-so-timely-and-relevant Jewish environmental work can make on community life and engagement. We invite you to venture with us and imagine a world in which such strides are being made all over the country: Regional sustainability work rippling out of these strong community hubs. We are looking to collaborate with interested clusters of communities to form Hazon Seal hubs in order to explore possible local funding opportunities. Your on-the-ground knowledge and network can enable opportunities for local support to carry out this much needed work! Please, let us know if you wish to lead this effort in your region and/or if you have relevant information or contacts: seal@hazon.org Check out our Hazon Seal cohorts in Detroit and Chicago Metro areas. Both cohorts convened in the end of January 2020 and […]

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All you need for a glorious Tu B’Shvat

  It’s almost Tu B’Shvat, and what kind of an environmental organization would we be if we didn’t make a big deal out of it, right?  So here you have it: an entire Hazon Seal Newsletter dedicated (almost) entirely to this magnificent holiday, the birthday of the trees. Like the Jewish people and Judaism itself, this holiday has evolved throughout the ages and I invite you to explore it further and find what your 2020 iteration looks like. Many blessings for delicious prosperity that endures!     Now Online! Hazon’s New Tu B’Shvat Haggadah Hazon’s new Tu B’Shvat haggadah offers thoughts and ideas to help you celebrate the new year for trees (which begins Sunday evening, February 9) in your community. The texts, questions, and activities in the haggadah can serve as a guide for viewing Tu B’Shvat through fresh eyes and recontextualizing the tradition. This haggadah uniquely focuses on the role that trees play in sustaining a healthy planetary ecosystem and mitigating climate change. Purchase a hard copy or download the PDF here!   Hosting a Tu B’Shvat Seder? We’d love to help you spread the word. Please send us the info and link to your Facebook event at […]

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What’s On Your Plate? Resources to support better food choices

  Dear green teams, leaders, provokers of thought and change! The compilation below is aimed to help you push for healthier and more sustainable nourishment in your communities and institutions. It is intended for all Jewish institutions, organizations, congregations and households. If these resources are helpful to you we’d love to hear about it at seal@hazon.org. AND, if you have a green team in your community/organization and/or are already working on making it healthier and more sustainable, submit your application to the Hazon Seal program and we will keep you updated once we are ready to accept new site. We wish you and our earth a better, healthier future!   Get funding for your first ever vegan event As we continue to encourage plant-based menus, this may help you kick things off. Let your tastebuds guide you with this awesome opportunity from the Food for Thought campaign.   Jewish Text Sources on Food Hazon’s guide ‘Food For Thought’ is an oldie but a goodie. It features Jewish sources regarding our relationship to the food we consume. It is designed to encourage readers to think critically about the food that they eat and how their food choices affect the health of […]

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L’dor Va’dor: Important Hazon Seal News for Elul

Dear Hazon Seal sites, This month of Elul, as you reflect back, wrestle with personal and communal accounting, and contemplate the future, Hazon is here to support your personal and communal goals for environmental teshuva. What is teshuva? What is environmental teshuva??  All good questions. Read about it here. And don’t miss Nigel’s message at this important time of the year, and at this critical moment in human existence. There’s so much coming up, multiple opportunities to bring your home, your immediate circles, and your communities closer and more connected. We invite you to walk more gently on this earth with respect and appreciation for its fragile balance – and to inspire others to follow you. So ask yourself, and your neighbor: How will your community make 5780 the year of environmental teshuva? Here are some suggestions, and stay tuned for more to come this month. Best wishes and Shabbat Shalom, Merav P.S. Please remember to log into the Hazon Seal Portal at seal.hazon.org to explore resources, make sure you are on top of the program deadlines, and find all program related information.  For any questions email us seal@hazon.org.  September 20: Global Climate March L’dor va’dor: Generation to Generation Protecting Creation Young people around the world have been striking […]

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Opening my Eyes, Ears, and Lungs: Architecture Walk 2019

By Ariel Marantz We all know that every step we take can be important – but what about what we step on? What about what we step near?  A few weeks ago, I learned that everything matters. From the type of concrete that I’m standing on, to the air that I breathe – every detail that comprises NYC’s architecture has an impact on our and our planet’s health. I am grateful to Hazon’s JOFEE Fellowship Director Yoshi Silverstein for inspiring me to see NYC in a new light – and to uncover its tremendous potential to positively influence our planet. That morning, I woke up early and put on my sneakers for one of the most exciting days of my summer. I love to exercise and was excited to spend my day walking and talking about NYC – but I was truly blown away by what I learned during the Landscape Architecture Walking Tour of Lower Manhattan. Little did I know that some buildings and structures that I pass all the time are super sustainable – (or are unfortunately not), and that builders can choose to incorporate sustainable designs that have far-reaching impacts that can improve our environment, personal health […]

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Blow that Shofar: Gearing up Towards the High Holidays

With the High Holiday around the corner, we want to make sure you are also geared up and ready for a meaningful and sustainable Jewish New Year. Once again, we bring you a well-curated bouquet of resources and calls for actions. Whether you are starting or continuing your sustainability journey, we encourage you to consider the ideas below to help you lead for change in your personal and communal lives.   Education: High Holidays Resource Packet We are excited to share a wonderful resource with you from our friends at the Jewish Climate Action Network NYC: click here to download This educational and informational packet includes a suggested sermon, prayers, and creative readings, as well as the basics about the climate crisis. Highlights of what you’ll find in this resource and ideas of how to bring them to your community: Learn about how climate change is affecting the world by reading the fact sheet on climate change with your family and friends! Read and discuss the essay entitled Religion and Environmental Responsibility: An Address to Jews and Christians by Rabbi Dr. Art Green to learn how Jewish values and sustainability intersect. Take action by performing any and all of the tasks […]

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Fast Fashion

It’s time to Slow Down our Fast Fashion

By Ariel Marantz We are in an era of “fast fashion”, defined as “inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends” (Waste Advantage Magazine). What effect does buying and quickly discarding apparel have on our Earth? Hold onto your socks…. According to Forbes’ Making Climate Change Fashionable – The Garment Industry Takes on Global Warming, the clothing industry follows oil as the second largest industrial polluter, and is the second largest polluter of freshwater resources on Earth. It makes up 10% of ALL carbon emissions! What can we do to help? Here are some tips: Go through your entire closet to see what you already own. If you need something else, borrow from a friend or swap your clothing with theirs. When you want to buy, buy from a thrift store. And if you choose to buy elsewhere, only opt for natural materials. Why? According to Forbes, synthetic fibers emit potent gases that contribute to climate change such as N20, which is 300X worse for the Earth than CO2 is. Plus, the production of these synthetic fibers results in over 70 million trees cut down annually. Cotton (when not organic) is the biggest pesticide-consuming crop […]

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Hazon Seal @ Chicago: Training Day

The Hazon Seal of Sustainability cohort in Chicago held an in-person training day on June 30th, 2019 – and boy it was a good one!  Shout out to our awesome cohort members who made this a priority and came to learn: Skokie Valley Agudath Jacob, Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, Beit Yichud, Northwestern Hillel, and SketchPad!   Curated by our very own local coordinator Asia Sageman, the training included a series of three talks, a DIY upcycle activity using old Hazon Ride T-shirts, and a vegetarian-vegan lunch. Jeff Henderson from the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern University (ISEN) gave a talk on sustainability policy at large institutions. Participants also heard from Brad Sageman, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, on the science of climate change. Ilana Braverman from Jewish Initiative for Animals (JIFA) also taught the Chicago cohort about how to create a sustainable food policy at their respective organizations. Talks were recorded and will be added to our resource bank, to be shared with the Hazon Seal network. Want to join our awesome network of Jewish institutions and communities dedicated to respond to the environmental crisis? Learn about the Hazon seal of Sustainability program here: Hazon.org/seal Big thanks to […]

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Green Teams, Daylight Hour and Hazon Seal Happenings

Dear Hazon Seal Sites, We hope all is well! Here are some announcements that we believe you’ll find helpful and interesting. Also, please see below to get inspired by a new community spotlight! Shabbat Shalom, Merav, Ariel, and our new summer intern Rebecca! DAYLIGHT HOUR – This Friday 6/21 “Daylight Hour is an annual social media campaign to raise awareness about using natural daylight in lieu of electric lighting in offices. Launched by the Building Energy Exchange in 2014, this simple campaign asks offices to turn off non-critical lights in day-lit spaces from noon until 1 pm on the Friday nearest to the summer solstice.” As the Jewish lab for sustainability, Hazon is excited to participate in this campaign. We will be turning off the lights in our Makom Hadash offices tomorrow, Friday 6/21, from 12-1 pm. Will you join us?! Encourage your school/shul/office to acknowledge the environmental footprint of our everyday energy use! Also, we would love if you could take a selfie with the natural sunlight (or your flash!), and send it to us at seal@hazon.org so that together we can promote this awesome campaign. RECRUIT TO STRENGTHEN YOUR GREEN TEAM A Kol-Koreh means ‘a calling voice’. Use […]

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Making the Omer COUNT! Food Waste, Composting and more

Dear Hazon Seal Sites, A new UN report came out this week that had some seriously grim content. One million species now face extinction, and all of this will harm human health. One of the biggest ways that we can make help fight Climate Change is by individually doing our parts and leading by example. Diverting food waste and working with our institutions to do the same is one way that we can help propel change. Below is a collection of recent resources to inspire you on your journey. All of these are also available and searchable on our Hazon Seal Resource Bank. We welcome your feedback and suggestions for resources to share with the network in the future. Wishing you a peaceful Shabbat, Merav and Ariel Announcing the next webinar: FOOD WASTE! Mark your calendars! The next webinar for participating Hazon Seal sites will take place on Wednesday, June 5th from 1-2:30pm EST and be all about food waste. The webinar will be led by Gary Oppenheimer, founder of AmpleHarvest.org and creator of Food Waste Weekend. Both resources are so valuable and helpful – we encourage you to check them out and see how you can make use of […]

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Hazon Seal Spotlight: Welcoming our new Hazon Seal Sites

We are so proud of the newest additions to our Hazon Seal of Sustainability family. These incredible institutions are working towards their first Hazon Seal of Sustainability this year, and are already inspiring us with their work. Get to know them, learn about their current projects, and cheer them on!   Beit Yichud (Chicago, IL) Fiedler Hillel at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) SketchPad (Chicago, IL) Skokie Valley Agudath Jacob Synagogue & Kol Sasson Congregation (Skokie, IL) Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership (Chicago, IL) The Center for Small Town Jewish Life at Colby College (Waterville, MA) Farber Hebrew Day School – Yeshivat Akiva (Southfield, MI) Jewish Family Service of Metro Detroit (West Bloomfield, MI) Young Israel of Southfield (Southfield, MI) Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex (Caldwell, NJ) The Jewish Education Project (New York, NY) Woodstock Jewish Congregation (Woodstock, NY)

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Food and Freedom: Our Relationship with Food, Ethical Consumption and Responsible Recycling

  Dear Hazon Seal Sites, Earth Day is this coming MONDAY, April 22! Here is another themed listserv email to get you all excited! As we come together around the Seder table this Passover, we invite you to take this opportunity to explore your relationship to food. If this is not new to you, we invite you to dive a little deeper. During this time of year we celebrate our freedom and remember times of inhumane treatment and abuse. We are elevated by appreciation for our liberty to choose and, if we are fortunate, the abundance of modern times. This year Shabbat coincides with Passover, making this Shabbat exceptionally holy. Let us take a look at our Seder table and ask ourselves: Does this table represent me and my values? In this modern industrial world, it is hard to shop and eat without perpetuating suffering in some form or fashion. But we can try. Let’s ask ourselves: How can I better celebrate without perpetuating harm or suffering? We have the freedom to choose, but do we choose wisely, kindly? Our tradition compels us to care for our environment and to take animal suffering seriously. In our food choices we have […]

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JCC of Louisville

Hazon Seal Spotlight: Celebrating Our Participating Sites

Happy Earth Day! We want to celebrate by honoring the institutions that were awarded the Hazon Seal of Sustainability in 2018. Read on to learn about some of the awesome projects they have implemented this past year. Every organization is at a different place in their sustainability journey, and we encourage you to check out the list to get inspired by these Hazon Seal Sites! Adat Shalom Synagogue   Ramah in the Rockies (Denver, CO)- Composting and education, Organic and fair trade beverages, Farm-to-table foods Congregation Nevei Kodesh (Boulder, CO)- 50% energy reduction via LED lights, boiler upgrade, automatic switches & plugging of leaks, Bike-to-shul event & bike racks installation, Vegetable gardens Hillel at Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO)- Bike workshops, donation and rack installation, Insulation changes, Cloth napkins for all Shabbat meals, saving 2k paper napkins yearly Edlavitch DCJCC (Washington, DC)- Gardening program, Signage, Sustainability presentations Edlavitch DCJCC   Temple Solel (Hollywood, FL)- Plastic-free events, Energy saving programs, King Tide event, Vegetarian Potluck for Parshat Noah, Sustainability education and events UChicago Hillel (Chicago, IL)- Composting, Community Education, Food donation, Green Shabbats Jewish Community of Louisville (Louisville, KY)- Recycling and Composting, Healthy snacks, Styrofoam reduction JCC of Louisville   […]

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Helping our Oceans: Hazon Seal Spotlight and Call to Action

By Ariel Marantz and Merav Cohen In case you missed it, by 2050 there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish! Our oceans are becoming saturated with microplastics – some so small that we can’t even see them. Get inspired with some topic-themed ideas and a shout out to a Hazon Seal site doing exceptional work in this space. HAZON SEAL SPOTLIGHT We are pleased to shine a spotlight on Temple Solel of Hollywood, FL for all of their work accomplished in this space (Written by Stephanie Jofe of Temple Solel). More info here! “Being that Temple Solel is located only a few miles from the ocean and many of our congregants live even closer than that, the issue of sea level rise and the health of our oceans is of existential importance to us. Therefore, many of Tikkun Olam Committee’s activities have focused on climate change, sea level rise and protecting the oceans. Toward that end, Temple Solel has accomplished the following projects.” Click here to read the full Spotlight. Be sure to check out more Seal Spotlights on our website here. Email us at seal@hazon.org if you’d like to be featured next! RAISE AWARENESS IN YOUR […]

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Hazon Seal NYC Cohort: Launch and Composting Initiative

The Hazon Seal NYC Cohort met for the first time! We got acquainted and launched our annual initiative for composting. Mara Moss from the NYC Department of Sanitation presented and explained local resources, answered questions and provided much-needed clarity regarding the various local programs. Listen to a recording of the meeting and watch the presentation slides here Click here to download the DSNY presentation slides. Learn more about our NYC Composting Initiative, and about how you can promote composting in your community / organization: here. Please reach out to us if you have any questions: seal@hazon.org.

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