Advocacy and/or Policy Subscribe
A selection of initiatives, blogs, resources and communities on Jewcology which focus on advocacy and-or policy.
Blogs
Israeli Startup Develops Floating Solar Farm
- May 6, 2012
By Yinnon Shraga, NoCamels · While solar energy companies throughout the world are competing for the relatively few vast land areas required to house solar farms, Israeli startup Solaris Synergy has found a new terrain to use. Instead of a land-based solar system, the company decided to develop a water-based technology. In other words: a floating solar power plant. The company’s founders say they realized that the large lands required for thousands of solar panels are nearly impossible to find, especially in a small country like Israel. Solaris ...
Support the Shaar Hagai Kennels & the Canaan Dogs
- April 18, 2012
- 1 comment
This week I was alerted to an issue that resonated deeply with me. I was asked to sign a petition in support of the Shaar Hagai Kennels, who are facing eviction by the Israel Government Lands Authority. Tied up in this legal battle is the fate of the Canaan dog, a breed of dog most closely related to the dogs depicted in the bible. After reading of how the kennel owner moved to the desolate location 42 years ago as a Zionist seeking to settle the land and breed these dogs, my interest was piqued. Why was the Land Authority threating to evict them, and to what ...
Clean the Land: Love It. Live It. Clean It.
- April 17, 2012
It’s happened to each and every one of us. You’re at the beach in Tel Aviv, surrounded by white sand, blue sea, shining sun…and, of course, bronzed bodies. With the enthusiasm of a kid in a candy store, you run to the water and jump in. “This is just too perfect! This has to be a dream!” you think to yourself. You dip your head, envisioning yourself recreating one of those movie scenes where you emerge from the water with your hair slicked, basking in the Mediterranean sun. Unfortunately, when you break the ...
My new book – here’s what Senator Joe Lieberman says about it:
- April 10, 2012
SIMPLE ACTIONS FOR JEWS TO HELP GREEN THE PLANET: JEWS, JUDAISM AND THE ENVIRONMENT http://www.jewishgrowth.org/cgi-bin/books.cgi?action=details&book_id=10048 "In this important book, Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins reminds us all of the perils that our environment faces today, and he specifically challenges us to look to our heritage as a guide to becoming better stewards of our earth. As God commands Adam in the Book of Genesis to protect the garden, Rabbi Elkins too challenges us to be protectors of God's good earth and everything that exists on ...
The New Plague: A Name Change for Climate Change
- April 1, 2012
- 1 comment
After reading the following article, http://www.voanews.com/english/news/environment/Climate-Change-Panel-Says-Expect-More-Extreme-Weather--144966925.html, titled “Climate Change Panel Says Expect More Extreme Weather,” it is hard not to make the immediate connection to the story of Pesach. “The 594-page report is the work of 220 authors from 62 countries. It cites thousands of scientific studies. Enough is known, the editors say, to make good decisions about how to manage risks of climate-related disasters.” It discusses the ...
Breaking Free from the Fossil-Fuel Pharaoh
- March 29, 2012
The photovoltaic solar-panel array at Kibbutz Ketura is the first and currently only of its kind in Israel. (Photo by David Krantz) KIBBUTZ KETURA, Israel — During the first ever Passover we left Egypt and slavery, celebrating our freedom in the wilderness. It’s easy to forget that back then this stretch of the Arava Valley, a half-hour up the road from the hotels of Eilat, wasn’t part of the biblical Promised Land. No, this part of southern Israel was wilderness — our ancestors wandered through here after the ...
PONDERING FREEDOM ON THE EQUINOX
- March 21, 2012
- 1 comment
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The main theme of the upcoming holiday of Pesach is the issue of Freedom, in all its complexity. The Jewish people are brought out of slavery in Egypt (literally Mitzrayim, or narrow place) and we are commanded to remember this act of deliverance by G-d, and to teach it to our children. We are supposed to keep this memory of redemption always in our thoughts and words; the daily prayers and the Sabbath blessing over the wine contain passages remembering our deliverance from Egypt by G-d. It is during Passover, however, that this theme takes on the central signific...
Really?
- March 11, 2012
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One of my favorite bits on Saturday Night Live is entitled “Really?” where the comedians address some issue they view as absurd. I want to suggest they take on the recent legislation being debated in Washington D.C. this week. The Washington Post reported that “The two-year, $109 billion transportation bill before the Senate has wide, bipartisan support, but has become a magnet for lawmakers’ favorite causes and partisan gamesmanship. Among the amendments batted aside were GOP proposals to bypass Obama’s concerns about the Keystone ...
It’s Purim, Stand Up For What You Believe In!
- March 8, 2012
- 2 comments
Today is Purim, a strange holiday in Jewish tradition as we are told to get drunk, dress up and act crazy. Plus, throughout the entire book of Esther, G-d who usually features heavily in our texts, never appears. So what is Purim all about? This year upon reading the Megillah, I was struck by something in particular. Every major character in this story, goes out of his or her way to fight for what he or she believes in, even when it is inconvenient, dangerous or unlikely. This is true not only for our heroes and heroines, but also for the villains too. Vashti ...
Photo Slide Show of Samar Sand Dunes
- March 1, 2012
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SAMAR SAND DUNES, Israel — A barbed-wire fence runs along the edge of the dunes here, but it's not to protect them — it's to keep people from accidentally walking across the country's border with Jordan. Not that Samar hasn't needed the protection — the government was poised to raze the dunes and turn them into concrete for hotels and sidewalks. But barbed wire would not have been strong enough to hold back bulldozers. No, the bulldozers were stopped by something far more powerful: You. Thanks to the efforts of the ...
A Jewish Environmental Proclamation
- March 1, 2012
When God created the first human beings, God led them around the Garden of Eden and said: “Look at my works! See how beautiful they are – how excellent! For your sake I created them all. See to it that you do not spoil and destroy My world; for if you do, there will be no one else to repair it. - Midrash Kohelet Rabbah 1 (on Ecclesiastes 7:13) We are witnessing a time in which the future of the planet is at stake. The climate crisis is escalating, and it is upon each one of us to do what we can to change course. In the Torah it is ...
Equity or the Flood: Two Visions of Justice
- February 19, 2012
It is now seven weeks to Passover and the Passover foods are already for sale in my local supermarket. My family is already planning when to do our shopping and whom to invite to the seder. Like many Jewish families, we put a lot of time and preparations into this holiday because we want to make it special and different from the rest of the year as was done when we were children. But our preparations are not only about shopping, cooking, invites and the changeover of dishes. Every year, we spend at least a little time considering what we ...
Israeli Technology Turns Sludge Into Electricity
- February 16, 2012
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By TechIsrael Staff Photo by Sustainable sanitation It may look like mud, but sludge – the “leftover” semi-solid part of the stuff we flush down the toilet or pour down the drain, is a creature unto itself. Far more toxic than plain old mud, sludge has the potential to bust a city's budget, as it needs to be treated and disposed of. But it doesn't have to be that way; in the hands of Israeli startup Global Recycling Projects Ltd. (Ecoarrow), sludge pulls its own weight – providing “free” energy by turning sludge into ...
Enjoy the Ride
- February 13, 2012
The other day I took my almost 7 year old son to the dentist. He’s a good sport about dentist visits – it’s amazing what a plastic toy at the end will do for a kid – so we were relaxed and chatting in the car on the way home. Like all kids, he asks a million questions, and like all moms, my job is to respond patiently in a way that helps him understand a little more about the world – while still recognizing the number of things he does not know. The chatting went something like this: “Mommy, why are the lights all red?&r...
Are We There Yet?
- February 13, 2012
- 1 comment
(reposted from Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin's blog: http://blog.bjen.org/ dated February 1, 2012) "We used to teach technology as a subject. [Today,] it's no longer the 'something' that we teach; it's the platform on which we deliver information." Shaindle Braunstein-Cohen on iPads in Jewish Day Schools, by Rabbi Jason Miller (quoted from eJewish Philanthropy) This is true with so many fundamental tasks of life: walking, reading, writing ... The techniques that we once labored so hard to master ultimately become merely platforms ...
To Rent or Own?
- February 8, 2012
One of the best ways to help tend the Earth and promote the Jewish value of bal tashchit (reducing wastefulness) is by reducing the amount of things you buy but don’t really need on a daily basis. There are many items that might not be on your list when you first think of products to rent such as camping equipment, toys or handbags. Below are some suggestions that can save you money and help the planet. Please note: JEI does not vouch for any particular rental site listed in this blog. It is suggested that you engage in due diligence with respect to any ...
Bittersweet Victory: Most of Samar Saved
- February 6, 2012
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SAMAR SAND DUNES, Israel (Feb. 5, 2012) — Nestled in the Arava Valley, in between Israel’s Eilat Mountains and the Edomite Mountains of Jordan, a tragedy and a victory sit side by side. Part of Samar — a square-mile patch of sand dunes home to scores of animals, some near extinction — has been stripped of its sand in order to make concrete. But next to the wasteland, a victory: More than two-thirds of Samar has been saved, due to the efforts of the Green Zionist Alliance and its partner organizations in Israel. On a recent day here the ...
Those Who Plant in Joy – Tu b’Shvat and the Social Justice Protests
- January 31, 2012
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A.The Israeli media has recently been occupied with the six-month anniversary of the past summer’s social justice protests, in which scores of young activists (me included) declared themselves the “New Israelis.” “We are the New Israelis,” we called from the stages and street marches, “and we have a dream – to live in this land, to build our homes here, to raise our children here, and to weave our life story out of it.” This is how we “New Israelis” feel – a new generation not locked into stereo...
Maryland Legislative Environmental Summit
- January 31, 2012
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(reposted from Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin's Blog: http://blog.bjen.org/, dated January 25, 2012) Below is Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin's presentation at the annual Maryland Legislative Environmental Summit, held January 24, 2012, in Annapolis, MD. We live in the midst of a 4-billion year old mystery, an on-going miracle that we call Earth. For all we know, no such miracle exists anywhere else. Whatever we may be skilled enough to find out there, there is likely not to be another Planet Earth, or another you, or another me, or another Bay or the ...
What was Wrong with the Tarsands Fight
- January 30, 2012
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On January 18, after a months-long political battle, President Obama rejected a Canadian firm’s application to build and operate the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would have carried tarsands oil from Canada to Texas. Since the summer, Bill McKibben had organized a tremendous environmental battle against the pipeline. Why this fight? McKibben quoted James Hansen, the government’s premier climate scientist, as saying that this pipeline would essentially mean “game over for the climate,” because the oil coming from the tarsands are so ...
