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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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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"...
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&q...
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 ...