Community Leaders Subscribe
A selection of initiatives, blogs, resources and communities on Jewcology intended for use by community leaders.
Blogs
Recycling Alone
- September 27, 2011
The environmental movement has not succeeded in protecting the environment. After all the lobbying, all the fundraising, all the laws and corporate partnerships, I would have expected to see more progress. Wouldn’t you? Instead, it seems that the environmental protection is weakening. Resources are being used more rapidly than ever. I hear more, and more heated, arguments against environmental protection than I used to. It seems that there is more and more intensive pursuit of carbon-based energy sources (hydro-fracking, off-shore oil drilli...
Results of Jewcology Leadership Trainings
- September 23, 2011
- 1 comment
“I enjoyed it very much and found the narrative format very powerful and the process even therapeutic.” - Jewcology Leadership Training Participant “…I felt empowered to tell my story… and I felt the intense writing sessions forced me to focus in on the most important aspects of my story. I fully intend to use what I've learned in ‘the real world’!” - Jewcology Leadership Training Participant “It taught me to articulate my motivations, and the importance of doing so to engage others in change.&rdq...
Fostering Environmentally Sustainable Behavior
- September 22, 2011
Many of us who want to get people to behave in an environmentally sustainable way, tell them why they should do so. Sometime we even tell them how to do so. But research studies confirm what many of us have learned through personal experience. For most people, having the right attitudes, values and information is not sufficient to produce the amount of environmentally sustainable behavior that we would like. I attended Doug McKenzie-Mohr’s workshop on Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community Based Social Marketing and learned much about ...
GZA Leads KKL-JNF Effort Against Fracking in Israel
- September 15, 2011
NEW YORK (Sept. 16, 2011) — Hydraulic fracturing and in-situ retorting for oil in Israel should be banned in Israel pending further research into the environmental effects of the relatively new fossil-fuel extraction techniques, according to a new report issued by Israel’s Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael / Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) at the initiation of the Green Zionist Alliance. The report and its recommendations, which were drafted and approved unanimously by a KKL-JNF committee convened and chaired by Green Zionist Alliance representative Dr. ...
What is Public Narrative?
- September 9, 2011
Although I have participated in all three of the Jewcology Public Narrative trainings, I still struggle to succinctly describe the experience (don’t tell). So I did what all good folks do in this day and age, I googled it. Marshall Ganz, Professor at the Kennedy School, long time organizer, has this to say in his course outline where he teaches the tenants of it: The questions of what am I called to do, what my community is called to do, and what we are called to do now are at least as old as Moses’ conversation with God at the burning bush. ...
Baby steps…
- September 9, 2011
- 2 comments
As a participant in the recent Jewcology Public Narrative Training—surrounded by a collection of eloquent and accomplished Jewish environmental/ social justice activists—I couldn’t help but recall the classic “sailing” scene in the delightfully goofy 1991 Bill Murray comedy “What About Bob?” For those of you who haven’t seen the film, Murray plays Bob Wiley—a man so overcome by obsessive-compulsive fear and anxiety that he can hardly make it through his morning hygiene ritual, let alone face the world outside ...
Eco Connection launches in South Africa!
- August 7, 2011
- 1 comment
From the baking heat of Israel’s summer, Sviva Israel’s Director of Media & Technology flew last week to a chilly Johannesburg winter, to launch the Eco Connection in our first South African school. Despite the cold, she was warmly welcomed by the Israel Centre, under the directorship of Shimon Shamila, and the 7th grade students of the Torah Academy Girls School, who were all very excited to begin their participation in the Beit Shemesh-South African Eco Connection. The Beit-Shemesh South Africa Eco Connection is supported by the Beit Shemesh-Mateh ...
Bill McKibben Calls for Civil Disobedience Campaign in Washington DC in August 2011
- August 3, 2011
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow Bill McKibben and several other leaders of the USand world-wide movement to prevent climate disaster have called for a wave of nonviolent civil disobedience at the White House gates between August 20 and Labor Day. The action will focus on convincing President Obama to withhold permits for the so-called ‘Keystone XLPipeline’ from Canada’s tar sands to flow to Texas refineries, thence to add enormously to planet-scorching CO2. Below you will find McKibben’s letter. More than 1100 people have ...
The Tar Sands, Hydro-fracking, and Climate Reality
- August 1, 2011
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After the failure of the climate negotiations in Copenhagen 18 months ago, it seemed to me that the environmental movement was taking a long pause, trying to figure out how to engage the American population in the greatest challenge of our time. It seems to me now that this pause has ended, with a flurry of new activity that I’ve seen recently encouraging action on energy and climate change. There are three campaigns that I’ve recently become familiar with, and I will mention them with an eye toward what they are fighting and the difference ...
Interfaith Climate Change Forum in Jerusalem on July 25th
- July 6, 2011
The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development Cordially Invites You To an Interfaith Climate Change Forum on the topic How Can Religions Address the Climate Crisis? with the Honorable Panelists: His Beatitude Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Haj Salah Zuheika, Deputy Minister of the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Religious Affairs Rabbi David Rosen, AJC International Director of Interreligious Affairs All of Whom are Members of The Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land The American Colony ...
Leadership Training at Hazon Food Conference, August 21
- June 24, 2011
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Are you educating the Jewish community about protecting the environment? Have you faced challenges with: motivating people into action? inspiring Jews who don’t have the same values as you? or moving a community into activism and shared commitment? Jewcology is partnering with educators from Harvard University on a new leadership training intended to address these specific issues, in order to empower Jews who are seeking to educate Jewish communities about the importance of protecting the environment. Date: Sunday August 21 Time: 10:30am-6:30pm...
The Story of Us: Growing Community and Inspiring Action
- June 10, 2011
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As Jewish environmental leaders, what drives us to do the work we do? Is it a single transformative experience? Or a longer build-up over months or years? Some of us grew up with an attachment to nature. For others of us, meeting someone whose father died from pesticide exposure, or participating in the first Earth Day back in 1970, or, more recently, watching Al Gore in the film “An Inconvenient Truth,” was a call to action. Or for some of us, maybe it was just finally becoming part of a group that also preferred stargazing over “Dancing with the ...
Saving Samar: Together We Can Protect the Last of Israel’s Sahara
- May 26, 2011
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Israel's Samar sand dunes — and the unique animal species that live there — may be destroyed. (Photos courtesy of Taal Goldman of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies) NEW YORK (May 26, 2011) — Picture a desert and you'll probably envision rolling hills of sand like those traversed by the nomadic caravans of the Sahara. Yet, even though the majority of Israel is desert, almost none of it is like the Sahara except for a small section near the southern tip of Israel in the Arava Valley: the Samar sand dunes. ...
Jewcology Leadership Trainings
- March 1, 2011
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Connecting to the Heart: A Leadership Tool for Engaging the Unengaged Are you seeking to make environmental change in local or national Jewish communities? Looking for ways to move people that do not always share the same views as you? Would you like to learn how to use a leadership skill to connect to people’s hearts? How can we use the stories of our lives to inspire, teach, and motivate others? In this training we will learn to share the experiences and values that have led us to devote our lives to Jewish-environmental education and action, and to connect ...