I’m fascinated by photos from the Mars Rover. Of course, we could see photos of Mars, the whole red planet, for years, but I didn’t start to feel I had a sense of what the planet was like until I started seeing pictures from the ground level. And, of course, I keep hoping one of these times we’re going to see a Martian waiving “hello.” The action, should there be any, will most certainly happen at the local level. I’m often asked, following the merger between Hazon and Isabella Freedman: “Just what is the new Hazon? Is it a national organization? Is it a local organization?” And the genuine answer is: “Both.” Hazon is a national organization. We look to build a healthier and more sustainable world throughout the United States and beyond. But that work stems from creating healthier and more sustainable Jewish communities built of individuals, families, congregations, and organizations, and that – almost by definition – happens at the local level. Just this month: I attended a one-day Philadelphia Hazon Bike Ride with 200 participants and crew. Our San Francisco Bay Area office held its 5th annual multi-day Bike Ride on the heels of a successful one-day […]
Topic: Newsletters
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Budapest
In March of 1944 the Nazis invaded Hungary. There were by then almost 800,000 Jews here. In a period of eight weeks, starting in May that year, the Nazis rounded them up, deported them, and took them to Auschwitz to be murdered. About 437,000 people were killed. That’s a bit more than every man, woman, and child in Minneapolis today. It’s like killing every single Jew in London, Montreal, Detroit, and Cleveland, combined. That’s what was going on here, this June day, seventy years ago. Seventy years on I’ve been here for a retreat, funded by the Schusterman Foundation, produced by Connection Points, and led brilliantly by Tomi Buchler and Limor Friedman, titled “From Me To We: Between Tribal and Global” – a gathering of young environmental and social justice leaders from three networks: Minyanim (a project backed by UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Agency For Israel), ROI (Schusterman), and Siach (itself a partnership led by Hazon and Heschel and supported by UJA). It has been an indescribably rich experience. I find myself with thoughts that are disparate and contradictory: The Shoah is over. Those most obsessed by the Shoah should let it go. Read something else. History […]
Strengthening Institutions / Renewing Oneself
Dear All, I had the great honor last weekend to be at the B’nai Jeshurun shul retreat at Isabella Freedman. It was a fascinating and thought-provoking experience. In the last two decades a remarkable number of rabbis, rabbinical students and Jewish tourists have attended services at BJ, which has had a profound influence on non-orthodox shuls in this country (not to mention quite a few orthodox ones, too, and a growing number of kehillot in Israel.) But what struck me last weekend was an unseen aspect of BJ’s success. A shul can have great services and yet not be a community; to be a strong community one needs to put enormous thought and effort into thickening relationships. BJ does this in two ways. First, through a web of weekly and daily interaction – learning and davening, committees, social justice, a hevra kadisha, a range of ways for someone to find a smaller space within the larger whole; a context in which to be seen, to connect and to make a difference. All the good shuls, in my experience, have this. BJ has something in addition which I think is critical in this 24/7 world, and which is slightly rarer: an […]
Teva
Dear All, I wanted to write this week about Teva. There is so much going on at Hazon, right now, that is exciting and impactful; and yet Teva is almost in a class of its own. It is the longest-standing continuous program of those surveyed in the JOFEE Study. It’s been around long enough that some of our Teva staff first encountered it as middle-school participants. Its alumni are staffing – in many cases founding and leading – initiatives around the country. The content and the approach that it pioneered are being adapted and applied in day-schools, camps, and synagogues. So I’m writing to you to update you on Teva and to invite you – variously – to send your kids to Shomrei Adamah; to come and teach at or work for Teva; to participate in this year’s Teva Seminar; to speak to us about bringing Teva to your school; and to consider supporting Teva financially, including especially providing scholarships to support attendance at Teva programs. The Teva Seminar You’re warmly invited to join us at the Teva Seminar! It’s an amazing opportunity to gain skills in wilderness exploration, Jewish gardening, eco-activism, pedagogy, textual exploration, and culinary arts, here at […]
The Shmita This Time: Suggestions for Learning & Action
Dear All, Ahead of this shabbat’s Torah portion of Behar Sinai (which begins with one of the explications of shmita in the Torah) I want to give you a flavor of some of what is happening in relation to shmita around the Jewish world – some of the ideas that people are coming up with. (Last week’s email gave the background on why I believe that shmita is such a remarkable topic. Click here if you didn’t have a chance to see it.) Here are a few aspects of shmita to think about. This list is intended to whet your appetite. We hope that you’ll treat this week’s parsha as a reminder to start planning in relation to shmita for the coming year. Shmita & Israel Shmita is many things, and it is unspooling into many more, but it begins with a sense of the sanctity of the land of Israel, and of the people who are fed by its bounty. So: Check out a sweet – and challenging – 2-minute video by Teva Ivri, led by Einat Kramer and Rav Michael Melchior. This leads on to the “Israeli Shmita Declaration,” catalyzed by Einat, and signed on to by a […]
Shmita / 146 days to go…
Dear All, It’s 146 days until Rosh Hashanah and the start of the next shmita (sabbatical) year in Jewish life. That means it’s also, as it happens, exactly 500 days until the start of the next 7-year cycle in Jewish life, starting at Rosh Hashanah in September 2015. We’re sending this today because this Shabbat afternoon we start to read parshat Behar Sinai, which we read in full the following Shabbat. The parsha begins with a central description of shmita. It’s a good moment – as individuals and organizations – to start to think about the coming year. As some of you will know, I’ve become steadily more fascinated by – some might say, obsessed with – the shmita year, since the last shmita year in 2007-8. So this week and next week I want to share with you some of what we’ve been thinking about in relation to shmita. And for those of you who are rabbis, educators, organizational leaders; or – also – students, parents, kids, civilians, Jewish or not Jewish – a range of things you could think about or do in relation to shmita. First: what is shmita? Briefly, the word means something like “release” – […]
Getting Credit for Adamah
For the past ten years, Adamah has provided powerful learning experiences that have transformed the lives of more than 300 young Jews. Adamah is, in its focus and its impact, small-scale and intense: a small leadership training program that invests three months in the lives of 12-15 young adults at a time. We are not a yeshiva, university, or certified training program for a specialized field, though our Adamahniks learn much that one might learn at a yeshiva, a university, or a farm. Adamah is a time for learning, connection, and reflection. (Our field has been flooded twice in the last three years: so what does it mean to beat willow branches against the earth as part of a bring-on-the-rains Hoshanah Rabah ritual?). Their souls filled up, our alumni go off in 18 different directions to sow the seeds of their experience. Click here to learn more about what Adamah alumni are up to. We, the Adamah staff, are also fed by the work we do in the fields, in the hearts and minds around us, and in the ever-widening circle of our community. We believe in the ecological, educational, and religious import of our work. Up to this point, […]
If Not Now, Pete Seeger, Fountains, and Challahs
It was fitting that we opened our 3rd annual “If Not Now” event in Brooklyn this week with a video of Pete Seeger (z’l) that we had recorded at Pete’s home for our inaugural “If Not Now” event. I had the privilege of speaking with and visiting Pete many times over the past several years, and, of the many lessons he taught me, Pete had explained that, when he recorded a song that he borrowed from another culture – be it “Tzena, Tzena, Tzena” or “Abiyoyo” – and that recording made money, he didn’t keep that money for himself, but instead contributed the proceeds to a charity that benefited that culture. Pete understood that he was the fountain, but that the musical wisdom, creativity, and joy he was collecting and sharing came from many different sources; and he always respected and honored that. In the same way, we see Hazon – and especially the new Hazon of 2014 – as a fountain that pulls together many different sources. We have now given that fountain a name: JOFEE (Jewish Outdoor, Food, and Environmental Education). That fountain, made stronger by our recent merger, is allowing us to touch many more individuals, families, […]
Roseanne Barr and What Can Happen When We Teach about Shmita
Dear Friends, The story of Hazon is often a story about stories. Next week, on Tuesday, April 1, at the Green Building in Brooklyn, we’ll be telling the stories of four incredible inductees at our 3rd annual If Not Now Benefit, honoring the powerful stories of Rabbi David Ingber, Barbara Ribakove Gordon, the Margulies Family, and Margot Seigle. It’s going to be a wonderfully fun and meaningful evening, and, if you are in the New York area, I hope you’ll join us. But, for now, I want to share an unbelievable story that happened during our recent Purim Retreat at Isabella Freedman with Roseanne Barr. In the last decade of the 20th century, Roseanne Barr brought the issues and concerns of working class America to life through her groundbreaking sitcom “Roseanne.” At our Purim retreat, it was Roseanne Barr once again bringing concepts to life, this time in such a powerful and profound way that it literally changed the lives of some of those in the room with her. One of Hazon’s current points of focus regards creating a renaissance around the Jewish concept of shmita, the sabbatical year described in the Torah and other Jewish texts, which is scheduled […]
Spring Cleaning & New Beginnings
Dear All, The sun is starting to shine and Pesach is around the corner. Now is the time to get rid of your chometz – metaphorical as well as literal. It’s not just breadcrumbs in the kitchen: it’s also old stuff in your closets, your garage, your attic. It’s old sauces in your refrigerator, or junk food in the freezer. Don’t let Pesach catch you by surprise – if you haven’t already, this weekend is the time to start your spring-clean. It’s good for your home, good for your soul, and it’s the preparation that Jewish tradition recommends in order to truly experience a sense of going free on seder night. And this time of new beginnings is a time to invest in your own health and happiness, personal and professional… If you’re in any way professionally interested in the JOFEE space – Jewish outdoor education; Jewish food education; Jewish environmental education – then please join us for this year’s 20th annual Teva Seminar, at Isabella Freedman, from June 9 – 13. Highlights include: A series of sessions on the background, practices, and spiritual significance of the Shmita tradition, as well as its rich potential to transform our lives Keynote […]
Paying for the community we believe in.
Dear All, It’s not true that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. There are free lunches – but, in every case, someone pays for them. Each of us has at some point been the recipient of a free lunch. And each of us needs to learn to pay for the free lunches for others. And so it is with Jewish life in the second decade of the 21st century. We’re facing an asset-allocation challenge in Jewish life, and each one of us – in different ways – holds in our hands the power to ameliorate it or make it worse. Here are three things to think about – or to act upon – depending on your perspective: 1. Individuals: Write a check to Federation. I continue to believe that this counter-cultural action is right both in principle and in practice. This is a behavior that needs to be encouraged because otherwise we won’t do it. Before the start of the 20th century, people did not give away a quarter of their income to help create a better world for all. Yet nowadays we live in a better world because that “giving” has been enforced. That’s what central governments […]
A unique experiment: today, tomorrow, Pesach…
Dear All, We don’t usually send out emails on the Sunday of a holiday weekend. But we’ve chosen to do so today to make it easier for you to participate in a unique online experiment that’s taking place today, tomorrow, and Tuesday. It’s an “online jam,” and it proceeds from a unique conference that I attended in Jerusalem in November (and which I wrote about in this email.) Following that gathering, seven groups proceeded to flesh out ideas for what we could/should do to renew Jewish life, in a partnership between the government of the State of Israel and diaspora Jewish communities. The intent is to commit $200m+ to one or more projects arising from this process, with the government putting in $100m (already fairly firmly committed, subject only to final budget ratification next month) and with diaspora communities contributing at least a further $100m+. (That latter number is a little iffier; can the money be found or raised? That will itself probably hinge on the ideas that come out the other side of this [vegan] sausage machine.) That’s where you come in. An “online jam” has now begun, and will run through Tuesday. All the draft papers have been […]
Getting down and dirty
Dear All, Last week I was at the Leichtag Ranch in Encinitas, CA. The Leichtag Foundation bought this 67-acre ranch in 2012, and they’re developing it as a hub for the Jewish community of North County. It’s a remarkable thing to see unfold, and it’s a fascinating way of thinking about what the letters “JCC” stand for: the Ranch is about “Jewish,” it’s about “community,” and it’s very much a “center,” yet the evolution of what takes place there – and of what could or should take place there – is far from what we think of when we think of a JCC. At its heart is an understanding of how relationship to land and to place is capable of renewing Jewish life in the 21st century in significant new ways. Then earlier this week, I was emailing with Steven Wynbrandt. Steven is in LA, and I didn’t get to see him this trip. But he is one of the remarkable young leaders in this generation – an incredible inspiration in all that he does, and how that he does it. I first met him as an Adamahnik (applications now open for Spring and Summer Adamah), and he is not […]
Join the People of the Bike
Dear Friends, While I’m not a farmer myself, I have deep admiration and appreciation for the work that farmers do: how beautiful it is, the glory of hard work transforming into harvest, the ways that it gives life to our community. I am similarly not a biker; and yet for years now I’ve had the honor and pleasure of witnessing – and supporting – the many members of our community who have participated in Hazon bike rides. Since 2008, I, personally, have served as a crew member to Hazon bike rides in New York, in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in Israel, watching community members just like you (and perhaps including you) traverse amazing vistas, experience life-changing transformations, and support sustainable communities, a healthier environment, and – in the case of the Arava Institute & Hazon Israel Ride – a more peaceful world. And perhaps the most surprising thing to me about attending Hazon bike rides is how they’ve left me feeling that one day I might be a participant myself. Indeed, most Hazon bike riders don’t look like they just came off the Tour de France. Participants come in all shapes, sizes, ages, genders, religious backgrounds, and levels […]
Wine jugs, worms, priests, and hospitality
In August 2012, inspired by Yosh Schulman and David Rendsburg, I started to learn a page a day of Talmud as part of the new daf yomi cycle – the page-a-day learning that takes you through, as it were, the whole megillah of the Talmud. There are 2,711 pages in the Talmud, so the whole cycle takes seven-and-a-half years. It’s been a fascinating experience thus far, and one of the reasons I’m writing today is that we’re thrilled to announce that Arthur Kurzweil will be teaching his amazing Talmud retreat as part of our 2014 Elat Chayyim program. I first met Arthur many years ago, and he has a remarkable gift for bringing the Talmud to life, especially for those who may (legitimately) be intimidated by it. If you have never spent time delving into the Talmud, or you have but want to dive deeper, then you’re warmly invited to join Arthur at Isabella Freedman for the Talmud Circle Institute. Join us as spring begins to emerge during Session 1 (March 17 – 21) and/or when the sun should be shining during Session 2 (July 21 – 25). For me, daf yomi has been really fascinating. (I’m not in fact […]
