10 results for author: Joe Orlow

A Plug for Whole Foods Products

Whole Foods recently established what they call their Premium Body Care® standards. They write: "Our experts spent years examining ingredients according to the strictest criteria for safety, efficacy and impact on the environment [emphasis added]." I'm regularly at Whole Foods because the local stores around here are accessible by public transportation. I can vouch for the Whole Foods Market Organic Castile Soap Peppermint which meets the PBC standard. http://www.wholefoods.com

Biochar and Re-char

I'm just learning about this cool way to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Attached video for my friends who may also be new to this.

This Tu B’shvat I planted the Tree of Life

The Torah is the wellspring from which all of us here on Jewcology.com draw from to irrigate our environmental projects and plans. The Torah is also called the Tree of Life, and is planted in us. There's a young boy in our community, not yet three years old. I had been planning for a while to start tutoring him in Jewish subjects, and today, Tu B'shvat it finally worked out that we were able to meet and learn. I introduced him to the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with the hope that this Aleph seed will sprout and take root and flourish in his fertile mind, one day to become a towering cedar of knowledge and scholarship.

Musical Chairs

What does the game "Musical Chairs" have to do with the upcoming Leadership Training Program Mar. 13-14 at Pearlstone? Before I answer that, let's explore what the game is all about. According to Wikipedia, after the music stops "[t]he player who is left without a chair is eliminated from the game, and one chair is also removed to ensure that there will always be one fewer chair than there are players. The music resumes and the cycle repeats until there is only one player left in the game, who is the winner....In the non-competitive version of 'musical chairs' one chair but no player is eliminated in each round. ...

Reflections on an Environmental Meeting

Tonight the Silver Spring Sustainability Circle presented us with a tutorial on how to put on a Tu B'shvat Seder. What is it that is so appealing about using our own and the world's resources in a way that enhances, elevates and renews the land instead of destroying, sapping, and demeaning it? I think it's the same kind of satisfaction and enjoyment that comes from, say, learning to bake a cake, to ride a bike, solve a math problem, or make a friend -- the feeling that I've figured out how to get it right, how to gain from the world by putting myself into the world. The idea that I can integrate myself into creation in a way ...

Post 02: Building a Movement from the Ground Up

This post is part of an ongoing discussion about involving young people in environmental activities. This post in the Building a Movement (BAM) series focuses on the idea of young people spending a year or more after high school connecting with the environment. In my last BAM post I discussed some of the options that face observant Jewish young people when they finish high school: going to college, getting a job, going to learn in a school that focuses only on Jewish studies, and so on. For some teenagers, these are not really good options. There are a number of reasons why school or work are not good options for them. (Work here ...

Post 01: Building a Movement from the Ground Up

This post is part of an ongoing discussion about involving young people in environmental activities. This first post in the Building a Movement (BAM) series focuses on choices young people have when they graduate from high school. Teenage Angst I had a radio show that I co-hosted for several years called the Jewish Activist Network. One of the topics we kept revisting was the issue of so-called "Yeshiva Drop-Outs". "Yeshiva Drop-Outs" are teenagers who come from observant families and are attending, or had attended, Jewish schools. At some point they either stop observing the Torah to a large ...

Just what IS a Jewish Environmentalist?

I asked myself this question because of the Jewcology Collaborative Video Script. The script starts off: My name is (your name). (Pause) I live in (your city and state, or city/country if not in US). (Pause) So that's straightforward enough. Then... I am a Jewish environmentalist. (Pause) Well, I'm Jewish. But am I an environmentalist? So, off to the Search Engines. I google "define: environmentalist" and come across this link: Definitions of environmentalist on the Web Here's a sample from that webpage: ============================ someone who works to protect the ...

Suburban Goats

Article in Washington Jewish Week about raising goats in the city. Click here to read article

Dear Great-Great Grandma and Grandpa

I sometimes wonder what my ancestors would think of my organic leanings. I can't go back in time and talk with them about my raising goats and trying to make most of the food I eat from basic ingredients I buy or produce. But I imagine their reaction might be something like, "What other way is there?" And then I would explain about pesticides and mass production and processed and packaged food transported from afar. And if I could somehow bring along some of this "fast" food and give them a taste, I suspect they would find its taste unappealing. I know for myself, that after cutting down on corn syrup, and sugar, ...