Author: Joe Orlow

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

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.

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.

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. All players have to 'sit down' on the remaining chairs, while their feet must not touch the floor." As world population increases, and as more countries vie for more resources, the world is losing its forests, as well as traditional fuel sources like oil, gas and coal, at an amazing rate. At the same time, fuel resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and hydrogen (cells and fusion) are becoming more robust, but aren't ready to supply the world's demand for power. We are thus in an environmental musical chairs situation. As resources run out, prices will rise, and poorer countries will be left without a "chair". Alternatively, as resources run out, poorer countries may "pile on" as in the non-competitive version of Musical Chairs. That is, war and conflict may increase. We have a golden opportunity at this point in history, while the "music is still playing" to encourage people to adjust the way they've been living and to become conscious of other ways that elevate the earth and ourselves with it.

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 that not only gives me joy, but also gives others an opportunity to benefit from my actions. Taking becomes transformed into giving. At the practice Tu B'Shvat Seder we sipped wine*, ate fruit, and inhaled the aroma spices and comraderie flowed, lighthearted banter filled the air, and new ideas danced in our minds. *Ok, grape juice

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 extent while still attending Jewish schools, or they stop attending school altogether. Apparently, this phenomena takes place in the U.S. and in Eretz Yisrael, and perhaps other locales. Anectdotal evidence indicates that the number of Jewish students affected is significant, perhaps one in four. I work as a tutor in the DC area, and I am also aware of this phenomena because it affects some of my own students — either they have joined the "drop-outs", are at-risk to becoming a "drop-out", and/or count "drop-outs" among their family and friends. I used to think that in the Silver Spring area where I live that this "drop-out" phenomena only affected a few students. Then I spoke with a Rav who also has a Ph.D. in psychology and does counseling. I said to him, "You know, I'm aware of about half-a-dozen kids that are turned off to Judaism; I'm thinking there might be a few more in the community here…why don't we reach out to them and try to bring them back?" His response was,"No, it's not just a few kids." Apparently he is the go-to man when the Orthodox schools have a student that they're not sure how to handle. "It's huge." I had called him on the phone. As we were speaking, he went to this study. "I'm looking at my computer screen, and it happens to be open to an email that a student at a local school sent me. It reads, 'I'm being taught to be a Jew, I'm being taught to be a non-Jew, and I'm not sure WHO I am.'" That email kind of sums up the challenge that young, Observant, Jews face: how to live as a Jew yet deal with the general Amercan culture. Some kids apparently think it's not do-able, and end up jettisoning their Judaism. The "Script" The career of an observant Jewish young person is supposed to be something like this: 1. Graduate high school. Possibly go off to learn Torah for a year or two. Go to college. Graduate. Get a Master's Degree. Go to work. Somewhere in there try to get married. or maybe 2. Graduate high school. Get a job in business, maybe the family business. Get married. Start your own business. For a number of kids, for a number of reasons, neither of these choices is a really viable option. So they go to a local community college, and then maybe on to a four year college, kind of hoping things will work out. Or they travel. Or they get a low-paying job that gives them enough money to survive, but not to start a family. Or they get on some government program that gives them money and housing. Another Option The next post in the BAM series will address how the environmental movement offers an option for these kids who are coming from nowhere and going nowhere.

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 environment from destruction or pollution An environmentalist supports any goal of the environmental movement, an information-based perspective on appropriate use of technology to prevent adverse effects on the environment One who advocates for the protection of the biosphere from misuse from human activity through such measures as ecosystem protection, waste reduction and pollution prevention environmentalism – A political and social ideology that seeks to prevent the environment from degradation by human activity A person who places high values on the environment. There is also the argument by the environmentalist movement. They argue that relentless growth will conflict directly with the already defined scarce resources the Earth has. environmentalism – the politicization of concern for the environment and demands for action to protect and conserve it. environmentalism – Active participation in attempts to solve environmental pollution and resource problems. ============================ To put it all together, more or less, an environmentalist is someone who thinks about the impact his activities have on the world, and acts accordingly in a way such that his activities do not harm the world. A Jewish environmentalist then would be someone who allows the Torah to be his guideline in determining the boundaries and limits of his environmental activity. That is, a Jewish environmentalist recognizes that G-d gives us the world with first the obligation to serve Him through it and second also with the responsibility to preserve it so that we can continue to serve Him. Ok. Now to charge up my video camera…. Addendum: I ended up getting caught up in some work and missed the video deadline….

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

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, and vegetable oils and lots of other overprocessed ingredients, and reverting to a simpler, more natural diet, that I find I have no more attraction to food that has been sitting in a can or preserved like a mummy and entombed in plastic. I used to work as a Mashgiach, and have spent much time speaking with other Mashgichim and listening to podcasts from the OU.org website. The question I have for the OU and other Hasgachas is why are we certifying foods that have questionable nutritious value? I think that would make a good question of the week on jewcology.org.