President Obama and Pope Francis are meeting on March 27th. When they meet, we hope that the President raises the importance of caring for Creation. Please join us and our interfaith colleagues by signing onto this petition on the White House’s website encouraging that care for Creation be on the

Click here to take action! The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC) are joining together to demonstrate support from the Jewish community for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new, strict standards for carbon pollution from new power plants.

Summary: Benjamin Kahane, an engineer who designs photovoltaic solar energy systems for SunEdison, summarizes the environmental consequences of coal and its extraction. Depending on how much pressure and temperature to which it has been subject, coal is a sedimentary or metamorphic rock comprised mostly of carbon. Coal is a fossil

Summary: Matthew Anderson, former director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE), discusses international adaptation to climate change as an important component of development work for the world's most vulnerable populations. An issue of emerging global concern is the increasing impact of climate change on the poorest developing

Summary: Benjamin Kahane, an engineer who designs photovoltaic solar energy systems for SunEdison, discusses oil, its many uses in our society, and how we can transition away from it. Petroleum — or, plainly, oil — has many applications in the industrial age. Petroleum is used to make plastics, lubricants, wax,

Click here to take action! The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC) are joining together to demonstrate support from the Jewish community for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new, strict standards for carbon pollution from new power plants.

Summary: Evonne Marzouk, founder and executive director of Canfei Nesharim, uses Hannukah as a key example of how to connect a Jewish holiday to environmentalism. The holiday of Hanukkah is another opportunity to reflect upon Jewish wisdom as it relates to our natural resources, energy in particular. Hanukkah revolves in

Summary: Having successfully hosted a sustainable conference, director of programs at Jewish Funders Network David Ezer offers tips on how to reduce the environmental impact of your next conference. Getting hundreds of Jewish leaders to the Jewish Funders Network Conference in Jerusalem was not only a logistical challenge — it

Summary: Rabbi Jamie Korngold, founder, executive director, and senior rabbi of Adventure Rabbi, connects Rosh Chodesh, the celebration of the new moon, to conserving energy and reducing consumption. Sometimes I feel that the abundance in my life — the stuff on my shelves and in my closets, the never ending

Summary: Gail Wechsler provides an overview of the successes of the Jewish Environmental Initiative (JEI), the environmental committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis. Israel isn't the only place where Jews can plant trees. Every year, members of the Jewish Environmental Initiative, a committee of the Jewish

The Energy Cost of Food Summary: Founder and CEO of Smart Agriculture Analytics, Manuela Zoninsein, examines how our industrialized food system is not sustainable and lays out actions that would foster a healthier and more sustainable food system. Today, part of repairing the world means ensuring that we can reduce

The Green School: Using Buildings as Teachers By Cynthia Thomashow Summary: As education manager for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Cynthia Thomashow discusses how green school buildings can transform education while providing environmental and economic benefits. When I was a child in school, I never

Summary: Founder and executive director of Teva Ivri, Einat Kramer, illuminates lessons from Noah’s actions and the importance of connecting Shabbat Noach with the environmental crises of our generation. The Torah portion of Noah details a terrible ecological disaster — the flood that immerses the world in water and brings

Washington, DC – The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) today applauded the Environmental Protection Agency’s release on Friday of a revised standard limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants. “Carbon dioxide emissions are the leading cause of climate

Summary: Rabbi Howard Cohen, founder of Burning Bush Adventures, discusses the connections between Sukkot and nature. Biblical Judaism — that is, the way of life for the Israelites — was shaped and molded by their direct experience with the landscape around them. The physical geography, communities of plants and animals,

Summary: Rabbi Shmuel Simenowitz, executive director of Project Y’aleh V’Yavo, focuses on Yom Kippur as a holiday of personal and environmental responsibility. We believe and pray that on Rosh Hashanah we are inscribed in the Book of Life, while on Yom Kippur the verdict is sealed and made final. Yet,

Summary: Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Assembly, issues a wake-up call on climate change for Rosh Hashanah. Hayom harat olam — today the world is conceived. The midrash teaches us that on Rosh Hashanah the world was first created. And Rosh Hashanah is, in some ways,

Summary: Between travel, accommodations, and food, it is often challenging to green a conference. David Krantz, president and chairperson of the Green Zionist Alliance, provides tips on how to green your conference by making changes, both big and small, when planning the event. Ask people to bring their own bottles

Summary: Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin describes how three efforts, launched independently, eventually coalesced into one green network for Baltimore’s Jewish community. The first project began when the local Jewish Federation, The Associated, assembled a cross-departmental committee to examine how to green its practices and operations. The green committee, made up

Summary: The ocean, according to Pulitzer Prize finalist Dr. Christopher Vaughan, is a relatively untapped resource, but advances are now being made in creating wave and tidal energy systems. The complex relationship between energy and water promises to be one of the most significant factors in global development going forward.