6 results for author: Becca Bodenstein


Sun, Soil, Water: California Magic Should Do the Rest

Garden season in Southern California is year round and every time I turn around another garden has popped up. Last week I helped IKAR, a spiritual community in Los Angeles, to put in their very own garden. A great company, Farmscape, donated beds, soil and automatic watering supplies to the cause. Neighborhood people and IKAR congregants helped with the building and schelping. It was a beautiful day and I was proud to be a part of it. However, one thing that I truly learned from the experience is that while so many people are interested in getting their gardens going in their homes or communities, they don’t know much about the ...

Eye on RAVSAK: The North American Jewish Day School Conference

Today is the second day of the RAVSAK conference and I will be presenting on a panel discussing "Laboratories for Innovation: Day Schools and Jewish Social Entrepreneurship." The theme for this year's RAVSAK is The High Performance, High-Tech Jewish Day School of the Very Near Future. The various presentations that are happening throughout the conference are clear within thematic scope: issues pertaining to technology, innovation, special needs, stress and Israel. One of the many things I will be discussing is how gardens and green spaces on school campuses help enhance learning challenges and innovations discussed. I truly ...

Do you know Evonne? You should.

As a member of the Jewcology team, I’m a happy camper. I wasn’t totally sure of how the bits and pieces of Jewcology.com would come together or which people would engage with the material and users. However, last week was TuBShvat and there were so many accessible and usable resources on the site. I know a number of people who went to the site to learn more ways of teaching and engaging with the holiday. Last week was really the first time I was able to see the Jewcology dream in action, full force. I want to dedicate this time and space to say thank you to Evonne Marzouk, the brain behind Jewcology. She’s a smart cookie ...

California Grows!

California Grows! I recently attended the Hazon Food Conference in Sonoma, CA. There, I met numerous others who are working with gardens of all stripes; urban, suburban, rural, educational, communal, and private. I want to highlight a few of the interesting garden or farm projects in California. By sharing these projectsI hope others can learn about what they are doing to engage their communities in environmental and food learning. First, the Urban Adamah in Berkeley. My understanding of the Urban Adamah is that there are fellows who live together and work at the farm and engage the surrounding community in food and ...

The Language of Sustainability as Second Nature

As I continue to write about my experience in teaching a formal Judaism and the Environment course at a Jewish high school, I aim to share with you some of my personal and professional lessons along the way. This week I am wrapping up the first semester of my 11th grade Judaism and the Environment course. Each semester I have a new crop of students and I try to experiment with new ways of teaching the texts and contemporary examples to highlight the major concepts. For the sake of context, I covered three units this semester: Land Use, Water and Food. In each unit we study the major biblical and rabbinic texts and laws associated with ...

Garden Goodness in Los Angeles

Gardens are popping up across the U.S., and terms such as trowel, compost, mulch, organic, and community-supported agriculture are becoming part of our daily vocabulary. And increasingly, Jewish institutions are beginning to see another potential of community gardens: using them as a shamash or a light unto the world; a beam for the future. In this technological age of wonder, the ancient agricultural practices of our people are have never been more relevant. Having a garden is a wonderful thing in and of itself: gardens are beautiful, provide additional space for reflection and spirituality, and smell and taste great. But once ...