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Intertwine the Environment and Social Justice? Be Careful.

Recently there has been a lot of talk in the Jewish environmental community about the environmental interlinkage with social justice issues. You can see it in the talk about “food justice,” efforts on environmental justice, or in the Siach conference (An Environmental and Social Justice Conversation). Of course, these issues have always been intertwined for some Jewish-environmental organizations, such as the Shalom Center. But increasingly Jewish environmental programs and, worryingly, Jewish environmental grant opportunities – seem tied to the ...

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New items in store! :)

http://www.jewcology.org/store I've listed two items of organic clothing, just two of several items of organic clothing in my new online shop, http://www.cafepress.com/ButterflyHaiku

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Environmental Tip of the Week: Stay green even when moving, part 4

Cross posted on Environmental Tip of the Week Stay green even when moving, part 4 I know those massive amounts of cardboard boxes lying around are annoying. I'm not asking you to keep them all in case you need them in the future, just please remember to recycle them when you're done unpacking them. Alternatively, you can have them reused by giving them away to a new neighbor who is moving out of your neighborhood soon. (Thank you to The FlyLady for sharing this advice on her page with moving tips.)

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Connecting to the Heart – Leadership Training March 13-14

Do you care about protecting our environment? Would you like to educate the Jewish community to learn more about this important issue? As you engage your family, school, or community, would you like to be more effective at speaking to people who don't always share the same views as you? Join us in March for a new in-person leadership training opportunity which will empower you to engage those who are not already involved in environmental action, and in so doing, raise the level of environmental engagement across the Jewish community. This training is ...

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Celebrate a Sustainable Purim!

Purim falls this year on March 20. Joyful and fun, the holiday also includes an opportunity to share your environmental commitments with your community. To help you save resources this Purim, Canfei Nesharim offers great ideas for healthy, beautiful, waste-free mishloach manot. Includes price-coded links for inexpensive and eco-friendly products that you might like to include in your mishloach manot package! You can also take advantage of our printable mishloach manot cards. Share your eco-commitment by dropping an eco-reminder into this year's ...

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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 which meets the PBC standard. http://www.wholefoods.com

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Urban Crayola tools

Oh wow..! What a day it was… we started early morn the truck arrives with trees and bougainvilleas in all rainbow shades that lift our hearts already. The new immigrants coming straight from Ulpan (Hebrew class) folding sleeves and starting to work the staff from Netafim (a big local-based and international irrigation company) that have been aiding us from day one and have agreed to come and pitch in. It’s happening at last – we are growing and will now be able to offer 30 more plots for growing vegetables in the middle of the urban prairie. This move is after ...

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Generation of Change: How Leaders in their 20s and 30s are Reshaping American Jewish Life

In September 2010, the Avi Chai Foundation put out a report “Generation of Change: How Leaders in their 20s and 30s are Reshaping American Jewish Life.” The report elicited responses from 4,466 Jewish leaders of all ages, myself included, and after thorough analysis of the data came up with a range of interesting results that I believe relate directly to our work as Jewcologists. The survey divided respondents into a number of categories, based on 2 main factors. Establishment vs Non-establishment Jewish leadership, and Young (20s& 30s) vs Older. ...

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Question of the Week #12

Yoshi Silverstein from Kayam Farm asks Jewcology's Question of the Week.

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Jewish views on Food Security

Jews often talk about FOOD, and we often talk about SECURITY, but we don't often talk about FOOD SECURITY. Lately I've been reading many disturbing and important articles connecting recent riots throughout the Middle East and elswhere with increases in food prices and food shortages. The predictions are not good at all. Global food prices are at all time highs, and are not expected to go down any time soon. The riots are really just the tip of the iceberg, because rising food prices also means literally millions of people going hungry and malnurished. These ...

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A Tu BiShvat of Seeing

For Tu BiShvat this year at Gesher Jewish Day School, we ran a succesful program to help our students take a closer look at nature. We brought nature inside the school following a clever plan from the book Let the Earth Teach You Torah. Our school is set into a large property of woodland. We gathered many samples of tree branches, twigs, leaves and bark to the kids. Each one chose an item, and set to work examining it carefully. They wrote as detailed a description as they could, getting to know the item as a new friend. In the Middle School, the students also ...

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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 ...

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The Whole World In G-d’s Hands?

I read an article last week on NPR about a small nation call Kiribati, which is made up of 33 tiny islands, scattered across an area more than twice the size of Alaska. This nation is in danger of being engulfed by the rising Pacific Ocean that surrounds it. The tides have already started to shift, often ruining crops and personal property belonging to residents located fairly far inland. There is no clear evidence that this sea-level rise has anything to do with climate change, however, Kiribati illustrates the hardships that will arise, especially for ...

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Eden Village Camp & Friends Send the Teva Topsy Turvy Bus South! Live Update from I-95

Greetings Earthlings! This is Jonah, from Eden Village Camp, and the Teva Topsy Turvy Bus Tour! We are currently cruising on I - 95 out of the live oak and spanish moss lined promenades of the fair city of Savannah Georgia, where the weather is migh-tee-fine. Shabbos is coming, and the challah dough is rising in our little topsy turvy kitchen. Meanwhile, Noah is centrifuging a fresh score of waste vegetable oil. We’re on a roll, having just finished up a rocking series of programs in Raleigh, N.C. where we were featured in a full color spread in the city’s ...

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Our Leaders Today: Interview with Lee Wallach of Faith2Green

Jewcology’s “Our Leaders Today,” is a monthly colum interviewing environmental leaders and activists in Jewish communities near and far. Through personal stories, the columnm, like Jewcology.com, serves not only to generate exposure for important initiatives, but in helping you and I reflect, re-invest, and connect our own efforts, values and goals among our communities. As both a business leader and non-profit professional Lee H. Wallach is active in his community. He is a founding board member and President of the Coalition on the ...

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Song of the Weeds

A new exciting trend of poetry is evolving in Israel: poetry that promotes ecological awareness. This new type of poetry mourns the loss of nature, and wishes to change awareness. Yarok Achshav, Teva Ivri and Mashiv Ruah organized an awareness raising evening through the use of poetry. On a cold Jerusalem evening hundreds of young people gathered together to sing and read poetry that protest the loss and abuse of natural resources. Please check out the pictures from this event in our photo gallery

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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.

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Question of the Week #11

Jake Wilkenfeld-Mongillo of Hazon asks Jewcology's question of the week.

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Disposable or not disposable, that’s the question

B'H With some friends we hold an “after Tu B'Shvat” celebration, in my home town, Santiago de Chile. After having a picnic, I taught a shiur (class) on the topic. After studying about trees in Judaism, we ended up having a long discussion about the use/abuse of disposable items. Half of the group argued that if you use it for a holly purpose, like having many guests on Shabbos, it should not be considered as Bal Tashchit (“Do not destroy”, a biblical commandment which root is not to destroy a fruit tree on war time; it ...

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Report on various activities held by Teva Ivri

We are happy to report on various activities Teva Ivri held during Tu B'Shvat: Study group and discussion on the subject of natural resources and natural gas finds royalties was held on Friday January 21st2011 Tel-Aviv. This activity was held as part of a collaboration between Teva Ivri and Alma House Tu B'Shvat street party. Lectures were held with Kobi Oz and Rabbi Michael Malchior. Tu B'Shvat event in Karmiel: On Trees and Men was held on Jan 18th with the participation of various educational organizations that plant seeds throughout ...

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