11 results for author: Isaac Hametz

Trees @ The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco

I just came across this fascinating exhibit at The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. The exhibit is titled, "Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought" and is a meditation on Ba'al Tashchit and the role of trees in Jewish culture. In addition to the works on display inside the museum, there is an interesting installation in the museum's courtyard that attempts to engage and foster an awareness and appreciation for the spatial and material qualities trees provide city dwellers. The work raises questions about the sustainability/livability of modern cities and what it means to be rooted/rootless in a globalized ...

Jewish Environmentalism or Jewish Ecology?

As a member of the self described ‘Jewish environmental movement’, I find it necessary from time to time to ask myself what it means to be a Jewish environmentalist. Having covered that in my last blog post, I want to ask a follow up question. As Jewish environmentalists, are we operating ecologically? Do our organizations, institutions, and members observe, interact with, and learn from the multivalent relational systems present in the world? If we examine the biblical narrative of Abraham, it is clear that a careful, considered questioning of relationships is fundamental to a healthy Jewish experience. This analytical process is ...

What is Jewish Environmentalism?

When I try and answer the above question, I find myself dizzy with axioms and assumptions. This intellectual limbo is at time frustrating, however it is also liberating. Whereas I am without a definitive answer, I am free to entertain the endless possibilities of the question. There are a myriad of ways to practice Judaism – orthodox, conservative, reform, reconstructionist, renewal to name just a few. Environmentalism is similarly diverse. Within the environmental movement there are branches focused on conservation, preservation, restoration, sustainable development, and more. The multiplicity of ideas and approaches in both Judaism and ...

I Can’t Convince You

As an environmental activist, human being, and as a Jew I have worked to mitigate the effects of climate change. I have planted gardens, taught classes, composted my own trash, as well as the trash of my neighbors, relatives, and friends. However, the more time I spend thinking about climate change and reading scientific articles pertaining to climate change, the more I realize that there is nothing we can do to stop it. Climate change is a reality. The Earth’s temperature is rising. Sea level is rising. Endangered species are disappearing. Habitat is being irrevocably lost. And cultures are fading. It is a sobering realization, but it is ...

Embracing the Beast Within

I am not going to overcomplicate this. I’m an animal. We all are. And I’m not simply referring to our taxonomic classification. I’m talking about being the kind sweating, salivating, heart-pounding beasts that you see on the National Geographic channel. As Jews we tend to shy away from describing ourselves this way. We prefer to stress our godly characteristics; reason, free will, and control (after all, it was a snake that got us banned from the Garden of Eden). However, our inner animals don’t wither away and die when we deny them. They wait. Like a lion stalking its prey. Then when our defenses are down the animal ...

What is Sustainability?

  In 1983 the Bruntland Commission formally defined sustainable development as, "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Many hard-core environmentalists and deep ecologists reject this definition because it presupposes development as the foundation for sustainability. However, many free-market capitalists think this definition goes too far and encourages unnecessary government oversight of global markets. Given the opposing viewpoints sustainable development can be considered a compromise between environmentalism and capitalism. Many ...

Hamakom (The Place), Public Space, Property, and Ownership

How might we better understand climate change, social inequality, and the sense of personal isolation that pervade much of modern society? In a metaphoric and material sense I believe the answer lies in societal conceptions of public space, property, and ownership. These elements are hallmarks of industrial society and in many ways define the boundaries and context of personal, corporate, and governmental relationships – temporally as well as spatially. The parceling out of land (the Dawes Act in the US, the Inclosure Acts in England, and many more) for individual ownership and sale has and continues to be a major driving force in ...

Landscape Architecture in the Image of God

I have questions. Before getting too deep in to the specifics, let me frame my concerns. According to Kabbalah and the axioms of Heschelian thought, the human experience is fundamentally limited. We can never know everything. Most of the time, we are too fragmented to grasp the fullness of God and too self-aggrandizing to pay attention to the intricacies of the universe. Nonetheless, we are all expected to intervene and to act, to live as an image of God (B’Tselem Elokim) without actually being a God. As a landscape architecture graduate student, I am forced to grapple with these issues on a daily basis. A lot has been written about what ...

The Privilege of CBI

Two weeks ago I had the privilege of teaching my first class at Congregation Beth Israel’s (CBI) Hebrew High School in Charlottesville, VA. I say a privilege because the students at CBI are curious, enthusiastic, and intelligent, but that isn’t all. It is also a privilege to be sharing some of what I learned living and growing in Israel from 2006 – 2010 as the founder and executive director of Earth’s Promise. The class is part of a two sequence workshop entitled “Israel: Beyond the Conflict”, that Rabbi Tom Gutherz and I developed for the Hebrew High School. Given the complexity and richness of Israeli ...

The Garden

Garden. Two syllables. No difficult “ch” or “tz” sounding pronunciations. The guttural “ayin” is left entirely out of the mix. However, as a graduate student studying landscape architecture, I still find myself grappling with the word. As a child, there was only one garden, the Garden of Eden. There were no difficult questions. The garden was paradise, the place where God took care of all of Adam and Eve’s needs. Then I learned that Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden for eating from the Tree of Knowledge. You can imagine the shock a first grader must have felt. If my parents threw me out of the ...

An Unexpected Connection

What do Jerusalem and Charlottesville, Virginia have in common? Each has a highly successful pedestrian mall designed by Lawrence Halpin. Jerusalem has Rechov Ben-Yehudah (Ben Yehudah Street). Charlottesville has the Downtown Mall. You might be wondering what the significance of all this is, but all that will get cleared up momentarily. Pedestrian malls as well as highways, rail lines, suburbs, and cities are all human artifacts. Designed by landscape architects, architects, and urban planners, these spaces at their best are a reflection of the culture and environment in which they exist. When functioning properly, they can enhance local ...