Owner of Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL)
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Get Creation on the President’s Agenda with the Pope
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 agenda. As the Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign declaration states, “enlightened stewardship is not only a religious and moral imperative; it ...
Take Action to Reduce Carbon Pollution
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. New, large natural gas-fired plant emissions would be limited to 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour and small ...
Coal: The Dirtiest Fuel
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 fuel used primarily in the generation of electricity. To turn coal into electricity, the rock is pulverized ...
Are We Our Brothers’ (and Sisters’) Keepers?
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 countries. Rising sea levels could displace populations in low-lying ...
Oil Slick: The Ugly Truth about Petroleum
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, asphalt and many other industrial products, but it’s mostly used for fuel. Oil is usually black or dark brown ...
Take action to reduce carbon pollution!
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. New, large natural gas-fired plant emissions would be limited to 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour and small ...
Holiday Programming on One Foot
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 large part around a miracle related to olive oil. In biblical and Talmudic times, olive oil — used for light, heat, fuel ...
The Environmentally Friendly Conference
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 was also an environmental one. From air travel to Styrofoam cups to reams upon reams of paper, a conference like this ...
Rosh Chodesh: Less is More
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 line of e-mails in my inbox, the plethora of events on my calendar — threatens to engulf me. Perhaps this is why Rosh Chodesh, ...
Jewish Energy Guide: Engaging Teens in St. Louis
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 Community Relations Council of St. Louis, plant trees here in St. Louis. Over the year, we have planted ...
Jewish Energy Guide: The Energy Cost of Food
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 our individual consumption to sustainable levels, especially as the world gets more crowded. If people in developing countries such ...
Jewish Energy Guide-The Green School: Using Buildings as Teachers
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 questioned the source of the building’s heat or light. I didn’t ask about where the food ...
Jewish Energy Guide – Shabbat Noach: Global Climate-Healing Shabbat
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 an end to all life — all because of humankind’s despicable behavior. Noah may have been the ...
Jewish Groups Praise New EPA Rules
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 change, which is one of the great moral challenges of our time. This proposal takes an important step ...
Jewish Energy Guide – Sukkot: Dwelling in the Midst of Nature’s Energy
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, soil condition and weather all left indelible impressions on their way of life, and our understanding of ...
Jewish Energy Guide – Yom Kippur: Mick Jagger, Energy, a Horse and the Jewish Question
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, contrary to popular belief and despite the somber tone, Yom Kippur is not a sad day. In the Talmud, Yom Kippur actually is discussed ...
Jewish Energy Guide – Rosh Hashanah: Wake Up and Take Action
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, a giant birthday party — filled with pageantry, food and a gathering of friends and family. But in contrast to how birthdays and ...
Jewish Energy Guide: Green Your Conference
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 with them for the conference. Perhaps it’s time to revive the old Yemenite Jewish custom of traveling with your own water ...
Jewish Energy Guide: Baltimore’s Green Federation
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 of lay and professional leaders and headed by Rachel Siegal, an Associated vice ...
Jewish Energy Guide – A Sea Change: Wave, Tidal and Hydroelectric Power
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. Freshwater supplies are endangered in general, but the equation varies greatly by region and state of development. Most ...