377 results for tag: Communities of Practice

How is Eden Village Camp like Hogwarts? A Camper-made video!

Just a little summer time magic to help ease the chills of Tevet: http://youtu.be/0ezZepNft2g Did you check out the sky today?

Jewish Urban Farming Internship

Urban Adamah, based in Berkeley, CA, is a three-month intensive residential leadership training program for young adults ages 20-29, that integrates urban organic farming, social justice work and progressive Jewish living and learning. Twelve Urban Adamah Fellows are selected each season to operate an organic farm and educational center, intern with community organizations addressing issues at the intersection of poverty, food security and environmental stewardship, and learn an approach to Jewish tradition that opens the heart and builds joyful community. Applicants do not need any farming for Jewish knowledge to participate. Fellows come from a ...

Israeli Engineers Come Up With Way to Recycle Industrial Sludge

By Aviva Grunpeter for NTD News Photo by Anat Markram, CDEGlobalTags: Environmental legislation and its enforcement require industrial plants to take care of the sludge created during the purification of their waste, which at times can be poisonous and dangerous. So far, disposal of the harmful materials in Israel included transfer to the southern, less inhabited part of the country, where they were burned and buried. “Ecology Serviced,” an Israeli plant, has readjusted an existing technology to work towards reducing the harmful substances and recycling another part of them. And the cost of treatment was ...

Kayamut Chickens

Evonne speaks and we get a close-up of the Kayamut chickens, brought to our Sustainability Circle by Sharon Turpie.

This Year We Meditate

We've been building towards this event for a long time. On October 18th, in the year of 5772, we will have a different kind of Sukkot. We will be building a Sukkah on our organic fertile land, on the land that we cultivated in West Rogers Park, the land that has given us our strong backs. And we will be collaborating with the Center for Jewish Mindfulness and participating in a community meditation led by Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell. I know, I know, a Sukkah is meant to be dwelled in according to the mitzvot. But, I wasn't raised in a community that did that. Nor do I particularly want to spend the night outside in the ...

Recycling Alone

The environmental movement has not succeeded in protecting the environment. After all the lobbying, all the fundraising, all the laws and corporate partnerships, I would have expected to see more progress. Wouldn’t you? Instead, it seems that the environmental protection is weakening. Resources are being used more rapidly than ever. I hear more, and more heated, arguments against environmental protection than I used to. It seems that there is more and more intensive pursuit of carbon-based energy sources (hydro-fracking, off-shore oil drilling, etc.). In the court of public opinion and in the court of resource use, it ...

Hazon Shared Shabbat Dinner

St. Louis JEI and our local Jewish Community Center sponsor a wonderful community supported agriculture (CSA) program through Hazon. Each week from May through October, those who have signed up receive a share of produce from a local, organic family farm. In addition to helping the environment by buying local and organic, being a member of the Hazon CSA introduces you to new foods you never knew you liked. This past August, members of the Hazon CSA had a shared Shabbat Dinner. Along with stimulating dinner conversation, we shared dishes made with fresh CSA ingredients such as gazpacho with fam fresh tomatoes and cucumbers and a southwest casserole ...

Reflections on the Jewcology Leadership Training

One of the major things that struck me during my time at the Jewcology Leadership Training in Public Narrative, that felt powerful and resonant, was the fact that several trainers and participants cried (heck, maybe we all did!) at different points in either listening to others’ stories or telling their own story, and that it felt completely natural and unsurprising. I felt like everyone who attended the training was feeling the catharsis of telling about our frustration and our emotional discomfort with mainstream acceptance of environmental degradation. Many of us shared the feelings that were being relayed in these stories- the moments in ...

Leadership Training #3

Thanks to everyone who participated in the third Jewcology Leadership Training, which took place on August 21 at UC-Davis, a bonus day to the Hazon Food Conference. Fourteen participants learned to tell their own stories, the story of their communities, and stories to motivate action now. We learned how to inspire and motivate others with stories, and to overcome our own fears and burnout by finding continual inspiration from our passion and purpose. More details about the training results will be coming soon, but in the meanwhile we wanted to share some photos from the training. Congratulations to all who participated! To see the ...

Environmental Stewardship Can Be A Bridge

It is hard to believe that the non-profit organization I helped build has been closed for over a year. When my friend and I decided to form Faiths United for Sustainable Energy, we did so because we were frustrated with the level of engagement by religious communities in the public discourse related to energy, climate, and other environmental issues. While I was brainstorming on what I wanted to discuss this week on Jewcology, I began to think about the power of interfaith work focused on environmental stewardship and eco-spirituality. I decided to use my blog this month to relay a few stories and websites related to faith-based organizations ...

What’s the Story?

How do you motivate people? In the Jewish-environmental movement, it seems that we share fact after fact about the environmental challenges we face, and list after list of things that people can do to make a difference. We’ve also gotten good at telling people what Jewish values should motivate them, and bringing them outdoors to grow food or see the beauty of nature. While we’ve made some headway as a movement, we certainly have not mastered environmental motivation in the Jewish community. The key to understanding motivation is that it comes from the heart, not from the head. We touch people at the level of values ...

Leadership Training at Hazon Food Conference, August 21

Are you educating the Jewish community about protecting the environment? Have you faced challenges with: motivating people into action? inspiring Jews who don’t have the same values as you? or moving a community into activism and shared commitment? Jewcology is partnering with educators from Harvard University on a new leadership training intended to address these specific issues, in order to empower Jews who are seeking to educate Jewish communities about the importance of protecting the environment. Date: Sunday August 21 Time: 10:30am-6:30pm Location: UC-Davis (University of California) Cost: $60 This leadership ...

Jewcology Question of the Week #23

Tiferet Sassona, Volunteer Coordinator at Kayam Farm, asks Jewcology's question of the week: "Who is your Jewish Environmental role model?"

Eden Village Camp hosts Anafim: The Sustainable Food & Farming Internship for 5 High School Seniors

A month ago five high school seniors from different schools, arrived at the Eden Village Camp in order to participate in the Anafim: Sustainable Food & Farming Internship program, run through the Jewish Farm School. We instantly clicked as a group, the farm staff, and our supervisors. We were all prepared to open ourselves to the knowledge, skills, and positive energy these unique individuals had to offer us, and this openness is the reason we grew so tremendously as individuals and as a group over such a short amount of time. The Anafim program was unforgettable and we are eternally grateful for the opportunity to work with the staff of Eden ...

Spring reflections from one of Eden Village’s farm interns, Faryn Hart…

As Spring settles in and the new growing season is well on its way in the Hudson Valley, we at Eden Village Camp and the Jewish Farm School have begun cultivating the fields and planting seeds in the thawed soil and in the eager minds that have joined us for our Spring programs. Arriving onsite as a farm apprentice just a few weeks ago, I was beyond excited to get my hands dirty again growing the food that will feed us this season, and helping create programs to energize and educate people of all ages through the Spring, Summer and Fall. It was inspiring noticing which perennials survived the winter, the daffodils piercing the brown forest with ...

kosher crew atlanta

Today, to mark Global Youth Service Day, members of Kosher Crew Atlanta teamed up with Park Pride Atlanta and the Friends of Little Nancy Creek for a restoration project in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. A significant amount of invasive species were removed making way for a trail in the deep section of the park. Thanks to all who participated! Please check out the photos from today project on the Kosher Crew Atlanta Facebook Page

Jewish Urban Farming Fellowship, Berkeley, CA

Urban Adamah, based in Berkeley, CA, is a three-month intensive residential leadership training program for young adults ages 20-29, that integrates urban organic farming, social justice work and progressive Jewish living and learning. Twelve Urban Adamah Fellows are selected each season to operate an organic farm and educational center, intern with community organizations addressing issues at the intersection of poverty, food security and environmental stewardship, and learn an approach to Jewish tradition that opens the heart and builds joyful community. Applicants do not need any farming or Jewish knowledge or experience to participate. Fellows ...