History of the Kayamut Sustainability Circle

Here are the eggs from some local chickens.

The Kayamut Sustainability Circle in Silver, Spring, MD was formed in 2010, and led by a team of local Torah-based Jewish environmentalists who met regularly to learn about community opportunities for environmental action.

Over three years, members met local chickens, explored invasive plants, experimented with composting, learned what’s recyclable in Montgomery County, and much, much more.

Andrew Gohn presents to Kayamut about wind power in Maryland.

We’re most proud of the work done on the Maryland Offshore Wind Power campaign, where our shared activism and concern influenced Delegate Ben Kramer to support wind power in Maryland, leading to the passage of the bill in 2013. Our activism was even mentioned in the Washington Post!

In 2014, we concluded hosting our regular events and created a new “Kayamut” listserv on YahooGroups to continue the conversation. Although Kayamut will no longer be hosting regular events, happily, the values of Torah based environmentalism are alive and well in our community. Members of the Silver Spring community are actively involved in pursuing environmental education in our schools and green solutions to our modern challenges.

Learning about invasive plants.

Just to name a few examples:

The Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy has solar panels and a new children’s garden, and the Jewish Primary Day School features a green team with some of our community members as participants.
On Tu b’Shevat, our community hosted quite a few local programs related to protecting the environment through a Jewish lens.
The Kemp Mill Synagogue hosted an “Earth Day” lunch last month, including a speaker about climate change.
We hope that these expressions of Torah-based environmentalism will continue to emerge and receive your support throughout our community. If you have your own ideas of how to bring it alive, we encourage you to jump in and implement them!