Today is my 35^th birthday! It feels to me like a momentous milestone. Of course, getting older is a joy and a matter of gratitude. Thank G-d we are getting older! And birthdays are a time to reflect, take stock and take the next step.

Most of the last ten years of my life has been devoted to a specific project, educating the Jewish community about the importance of protecting our environment. My efforts over the last years have ranged from engaging the Orthodox community in our environmental challenge, to introducing Torah content to the unaffiliated; from creating modern tech-savvy social media tools, to introducing innovative leadership trainings to make our efforts more effective.

My efforts have gone under different names, including national projects like Canfei Nesharim and Jewcology, and local efforts like the Green Group, Maayan Olam and the Kayamut Circle. They have all had the same intention – to bring Jews together so that together, we can make a difference in the world.

This year for my birthday, I’m raising funds to help all of this work continue. Jewcology has received a $20,000 matching grant from an anonymous foundation to support our Jewcology work – bringing Jews together from across the world and strengthening the Jewish environmental movement.

Jewcology’s goal is empowering the Jewish community to lead environmental change and address the global sustainability challenge. It enables this through social media engagement tools for the global Jewish environmental network, leadership training to empower leaders, and a shared library of Jewish environmental content for educators, lay-leaders and rabbis. Jewcology is partnering with many other Jewish environmental organizations, such as Hazon and COEJL, and environmentally-inclined Jewish individuals, to connect and empower the global Jewish environmental community.

Amazingly, after tremendous effort we’ve turned the corner in this campaign, raising thousands of dollars just in the last few weeks! We now have less than $5000 left in this campaign – which we need to raise by December 31. This small amount of money will make all the difference in taking our efforts through 2012.

If you believe in Jewcology’s work, please, consider donating – as generously as you can! – to our Jewcology campaign. Every dollar up to $20,000 will be matched. You'll make a big difference in bringing the Jewish environmental movement together — and give me a very happy birthday!

Here’s what you can do:

• · You can donate to my birthday campaign at http://www.razoo.com/story/Evonnesbirthday2011.
• · You can follow this campaign as it continues in December at http://www.razoo.com/story/Support-Jewcology.

You can also post a message on:

• · Facebook: “I support Jews protecting the environment! Do you? http://www.razoo.com/story/Support-Jewcology”
• · Twitter: “Support @jewcology in bringing #Jews together to address the global #environmental challenge. Thanks! http://bit.ly/sVLiav ”

Thank you for your partnership. And for your generous contribution, thank you so very much!