by Nigel Savage Thursday, November 30, 2017 | 12 Kislev 5778 Dear All,Last week I shared Shawn Achor’s superb TED Talk.Part of his punchline is that if you journal three different good things that happen to you each day, over time that starts to cause you actually to be more positive – and more effective.My friend and colleague Josh Miller sent me – from the West Coast – an app that he’d downloaded that was germane to this: Three Good Things – A Happiness Journal.I looked at it, and downloaded it, and noted that it was created by Asher Dale. I thought: how many Asher Dales can there be in the world?And I emailed Richard Dale – Hazon’s long-time board chair – to ask if this was his 18-year old son. And indeed it was and is. :-))So if you haven’t watched the video yet, I commend it. And then download the app. Because everything we can do to help ourselves be healthier and happier seems pretty worthwhile, right now.And in that spirit, here are three things I’m grateful for today:1. Everyone who shared their #growhazon story and donated to our campaign on #GivingTuesday, with special shout-outs to Rabbi Adina Allen, Carole Caplan, Risa Alyson Cooper and Sabrina Malach, Lia Farber, Valerie Gerstein, Gil Kulick, Elsie Moche, Hallie Newman and Edward Angert, K’lila Nooning, Yoni Stokar, Lizzy […]
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A gratitude video that’s laugh-out-loud funny – and helpful, too…
by Nigel Savage Dear All, Last week, I sent to all of our staff, what I think is the best – and more significantly the most useful – TED Talk I’ve ever seen. It’s from a few years ago, by a fellow called Shawn Achor. He’s a Harvard wellness guy. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, start to finish, but it is also spot-on. In my case, because of my mini-sabbatical, I was already following some of his advice and finding for myself how profound it has been. I won’t spoil the pleasure of your watching it by sharing its details. But it is fundamentally about gratitude – and health and wellness – and how we re-set ourselves… So I offer thanks to our staff, and board members and donors and stakeholders and partners. Also to the people who grow the avocados I love and the people who run our hospitals and the infinite number of other miracles, seen and unseen, that let me live in peace and freedom. Happy Thanksgiving, Nigel PS I encourage you to try out the practice of writing down three discrete things for which you are grateful each day. And we invite you to share them on our Facebook page. We […]
Fear and light
by Nigel Savage Thursday, November 16, 2017 | 27 Cheshvan 5778 Dear All, It’s Rosh Chodesh Kislev this weekend. Light in the darkness. I say: Bring it on. That was my first thought. And my second was: What’s the line between cliché and language that is alive and real? I feel this at the moment. “Light in the darkness” is both incredibly clichéd, and also the most real and vital thing we need to hear right now. The present undercurrent, the theme tune to our lives, stronger each day, is fear. It manifests in all directions. Globalization and technology and jobs at stake, across the western world – thus fear of the future, fear for family finances, fears for retirement, fears for health. Climate change and the environment and all of that. Fears for and about Israel. The fear that an African American parent feels if their teenager gets pulled over by the police, and says the wrong thing. The fears of an Israeli soldier, manning a checkpoint, as a Palestinian comes towards him; and the fears of a Palestinian coming towards the Israeli soldier. The newish fear that we might have a war with or about North Korea. Fears […]
The Ceremony of Innocence
by Nigel Savage November 2, 2017 | 13 Cheshvan 5778 Dear All, I rode into work the day before yesterday, as I do many days of the year, on a beautiful bike path on a beautiful day. Hazon worked quite hard, for several years, to increase the number of protected bike lanes in NYC. We’re proud of that work, and I sometimes say to people, “and the statistics show that protected bike lanes reduce fatalities and injuries, both for bike riders and pedestrians…” But of course those statistics didn’t allow for a day like Tuesday. A few hours after I rode in (and several of the people in our offices rode in, also) a crazy guy (but not randomly crazy; with ideological method to his murderousness) mowed down a bunch of people who happened to be on the path at that moment. As we know, eight of them never got up. I rode home, an hour later, past the police and the barricades and the camera crews. Also two little kids – wee high, three feet tall if that – in cute white Star Wars Stormtrooper outfits. May The Force Be With All Of Us, I thought. Then just a few hours after that […]
Sabbaticals, shmita, post-sabbatical…
by Nigel Savage October 19, 2017 | 29 Tishrei 5778 Dear All, This week is the start of the rest of our lives the first week after the end of the Jewish holidays, and my first week back at work after my sabbatical. In the next few weeks, I’ll be sending out a short series of essays, reflecting on Hazon and our work in light of my sabbatical things I’ve learned, things I’ve been thinking about. I want to thank everyone staff, board members, funders, stakeholders for enabling me to take this time off. It has been important for me, and I hope in due course it will be significant, in a positive way, for Hazon and for our work. In this first email back I want to write again about time itself and sabbaticals and shmita. This is the start of year three. Year one (the first year after shmita) was 2015-’16, ie 5776. 5778, this year just begun, is year three. When we get to Rosh Hashanah in September 2021, that will be the start of 5782, year seven, the sabbatical year, shnat shmita. It is this very curious thing, that being Jewish is so inextricably wound up with the […]
Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods… and chicken coops
October 3rd, 2017 | 13 Tishrei 5778 Dear All, My family built our sukkah this past Sunday. I felt an uneasy juxtaposition between the joy of this holiday – freely choosing to create and decorate a temporary home in which we will share our abundance with friends – and the cruel fate of so many that now find themselves forced into temporary homes. From Puerto Rico and Florida to India and Nepal, the devastation and destruction from climate change is a new normal. We can’t let ourselves see this as a problem in some other place that someone else needs to fix. This planet is a permanent home – for all of us. We have estimated that the current carbon footprint of the US Jewish Community is about 86,920,000 metric tons.* As a community with less than 2% of the US population, we have a carbon footprint larger than 119 countries, including Denmark, Israel, Morocco, New Zealand, and Sweden. In addition to the personal impact that we are making from our lives, the American Jewish Community owns thousands of buildings across the United States. There are roughly 3,500 synagogues in the US, and thousands more day schools, camps, social service agencies, Federations, and […]
Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods… and chicken coops
October 3rd, 2017 | 13 Tishrei 5778 Dear All, My family built our sukkah this past Sunday. I felt an uneasy juxtaposition between the joy of this holiday – freely choosing to create and decorate a temporary home in which we will share our abundance with friends – and the cruel fate of so many that now find themselves forced into temporary homes. From Puerto Rico and Florida to India and Nepal, the devastation and destruction from climate change is a new normal. We can’t let ourselves see this as a problem in some other place that someone else needs to fix. This planet is a permanent home – for all of us. We have estimated that the current carbon footprint of the US Jewish Community is about 86,920,000 metric tons.* As a community with less than 2% of the US population, we have a carbon footprint larger than 119 countries, including Denmark, Israel, Morocco, New Zealand, and Sweden. In addition to the personal impact that we are making from our lives, the American Jewish Community owns thousands of buildings across the United States. There are roughly 3,500 synagogues in the US, and thousands more day schools, camps, social service agencies, […]
When 6,500 people come together
September 7th, 2017 | 16 Elul 5777 Dear All, Dreams (and dreamers) are being seemingly pushed aside. Storms are raging wilder and fiercer as the climate changes. Difference is being aligned with fear. We must find ways to open our doors to each other even more widely. We need to create more entry points to connect with each other and with those whom we might think of as other. Last week, when 6,500 people came together in Detroit for the 2nd annual Michigan Jewish Food Festival, we aimed to let the whole community in. Here is more from Sue Salinger, Director of Hazon Detroit, about the festival. — As we do our inner preparations during Elul – our return-to-who-we-are, our repair work between each other – according to our teacher Reb Zalman zt’l, we’re already building the world to come: the world we want to live in. Sometimes if we pay enough attention, we get to catch a glimpse, a hint of that world. August 27, 2017 was the second annual Michigan Jewish Food Festival, and what a delicious taste we got of the world as it could be! An estimated 6,500 people came together from across Metro Detroit to gather at […]
Building a world I want to live in
August 10, 2017 | 18 Av 5777 Dear All, We are more wired together – yet more disconnected from each other – than ever. It is hard to understand. A recent Atlantic article explored the sharp generational changes that are already surfacing. The first kids who are growing up with the power of a smartphone in the palm of their hand are physically safer, but may also be on the edge of a mental-health crisis. Israel strives to be a light unto the nations while the government is creating – or working to create – policies that seemingly push back on basic civil rights. David Lehrer, ED of the Arava Institute wrote a powerful piece about his concerns. The freedoms of speech, of protest, and of religion, which are covered by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, are not guaranteed in the Israel Constitution. And then there is healthcare, challenges to affirmative action, and all the other real issues that don’t surface because tweets are center stage. I find the humor of John Oliver to be my balm of Gilead these days. But my fleeting laughter just covers the pain of a confusing world. With this backdrop, Hazon strives to connect to Jewish tradition – particularly to […]
Make an investment in happiness
July 13th, 2017 | 19 Tamuz 5777 Dear All, On Tuesday, we began what is known on the Jewish calendar as “the Three Weeks.” This is a time of decreasing happiness which culminates in Tisha B’av, a commemoration of the destruction of Jerusalem, its Temple, and the expulsion of Jews from ancient Judea. It is accordingly a particularly poignant time to think about the sources of happiness and meaning in our lives. It is well-researched that we derive longer lasting happiness from our experiences than we do from our things. It turns out that we build up our store of happiness not only during an experience, but even in our anticipation of its arrival beforehand and in our reflections upon it long afterwards. Even a bad experience fills our buckets: we might laugh for years recalling that night the rain poured into our new tent. And yet the tent itself – that we were once so excited to buy – quickly grows old. My father knew this long before the psychology studies came out. When my siblings and I turned our allowance money into concert and show tickets, Dad approved. As we were growing up, he taught us that such purchases were an […]
Sign | Seal | Deliver
June 29th, 2017 | 5th of Tamuz, 5777 Dear all, Last year, from the bimah at Greenburgh Hebrew Center, a shul outside NYC, there was a reminder to attend the annual meeting and vote to approve the budget. I overheard the whispers of two men discussing the budget: “We are saving money on our electric bill…” “Really?” “We actually have solar panels on our roof…” I couldn’t help but smile. In 2013, with help from Hazon, Rabbi Barry Kenter led Greenburgh Hebrew Center to install 200 solar panels on its roof. The panels meet more than half of GHC’s annual electricity demand, reducing the congregation’s electricity bill by more than $7,000 per year. Fast forward four years, and the 62 organizations Hazon has partnered with on greening in the NY area are now estimated to save at least $8.3 million over the next 10 years. Leading these reductions are solar energy projects like GHC’s, or the 103 kW solar PV installation at the JCC of Staten Island, which saves an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to planting 63 acres of trees. The Hazon Seal of Sustainability is a national effort to connect environmentalism and Jewish values and to put sustainability at the forefront of organizational life. […]
A few first words from me, as Hazon’s acting CEO…
June 13th, 2017 | 19th Sivan 5777 Dear All, I joined Hazon in July 2007 as the Associate Director of Food Programs. I was a vegan and my first day on the job, Nigel mentioned that I needed to organize our first-ever shechita (ritual slaughter) at the Hazon Food Conference. It was clear from day one that working at Hazon would be filled with growth and opportunities – both personally and professionally. Since then, my title has changed as our programs have grown. I launched our work on the west coast with a Food Conference at Asilomar, developed curricula, started regional offices in the Bay Area, Denver-Boulder, Philly, San Diego, and Detroit, launched Siach – an international social and environmental justice conversation, stewarded Seeds of Opportunity: The JOFEE Report, and now as Chief Program Officer, I lead an incredible staff of people who are creating powerful, transformative experiences that directly reach over 25,000 people a year. And, as of Monday, I’m Hazon’s Acting CEO, while Nigel’s on sabbatical. Over the next four months I’m not planning to write all of these emails myself. As Nigel does occasionally, I want to give voice and a platform to some of our other (amazing) staff […]
The Paris Accords – Now What?
From Nigel Savage June 2nd, 2017 | 8th Sivan 5777 Dear All, Jewish tradition isn’t just for kids and it isn’t just for synagogues and it isn’t just about bagels or dressing up on Purim. This last week, across the Jewish world, we celebrated Shavuot, “the giving of the Torah.” It’s called the time of the giving of the Torah, and not the receiving of the Torah, because Jewish tradition, fundamentally, is about choice, and responsibility. We choose whether to receive this gift, and in what ways we receive it. It’s an act of responsibility and of obligation to take on the injunctions of Jewish tradition and to use them not merely to be good Jews or good people, but to create, day by day, a better world. In every country of the world in which Jewish people live, their government has endorsed the Paris Climate Agreement. Every religious faith community spoke up for it. I went to Paris in 2015 to represent the Jewish community in the lead-up to the negotiation of those Accords; alongside senior religious and governmental leaders – Ségolène Royal, then-President Hollande, Cardinal Turkson, Vandana Shiva, Mary Robinson, and so on – to say that the Jewish people […]
I hope to see you this Sunday at the Celebrate Israel Parade…
From Nigel Savage June 2nd, 2017 | 8th Sivan 5777 Dear All, It’s the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration this year. When Lord Balfour wrote to Lord Rothschild, on behalf of the British government, neither of them knew that, thirty years later, the United Nations would vote to establish a third Jewish commonwealth. (Nor that, in the intervening years, the Jews of Europe would be hunted down and massacred, country by country, family by family, for six years.) Though my grandparents were alive that day, the world seems unimaginably changed since then. This is not the Israel of Ben Gurion or Jabotinsky, it is not the Israel of Golda Meir or Yitzhak Rabin. This is the Israel of Barbie, by Static and Ben El Tavori, which I find strangely irresistible. Also of the new food scene, the growth of the haredi population, the burgeoning of an Israeli non-orthodox Judaism. The new/old train stations. The Mizrachi revival. Racisms, old and new. The dilemmas of the Israeli Palestinians, the flourishing of Be’er Sheva, the new airport in the Negev, Israeli TV shows on Hulu and Amazon, Etgar Keret, Leah Shakdiel, Moshe Halbertal, Ilit Azoulai and Sigalit Landau, veganism, food co-ops, urban […]
“Time Is So Precious…”
From Nigel Savage May 25th, 2017 | 29th Iyar 5777 | Erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan | 44th day of the omer | gevurah she’b’tiferet “Time Is So Precious…” Dear All, That’s a lot of dates on the dateline above. And we’re also: three days after the terrorist murders in Manchester; the day after yom yerushalayim; and four days away from the start of Shavuot. And it’s raining here in New York. So we live our lives by different calendars and different rhythms. Some of these are national, some communal/religious, some organizational, some familial, some personal. The rhythm of these has changed radically over human history. The invention of the clock was a significant change; so too the telegraph. 150 years ago different parts of a country kept time to their own rhythm, within each day. Jess Berlin – one of the first cohort of JOFEE Fellows, and a Hazon staffer – was talking to a group of us recently about the experience of living at Isabella Freedman for a year. She pointed out that animals and trees and other living things change their rhythms in response to the seasons – and in ancient days, probably human beings did too. Now […]
