377 results for tag: Communities of Practice

Basics of Advocacy for Jewish Environmentalists

As part of the Year of Jewish Policy Engagement, COEJL, Canfei Nesharim and Jewcology are proud to present: Basics of Advocacy for Jewish Environmentalists: A Citizen Training Webinar To build a more sustainable society, we need more than just individual action: we also need sustainable policies at the local, state and national level. Many Jewish environmentalists want to get involved with advocacy, but aren’t sure exactly where to start. The advocacy world can feel like a confusing maze. When should I call my representative? What kind of letter will make the most difference? How do you schedule a meeting? ...

Environmental Tip of the Week: Replace one or more store-bought, chemical-filled body-care products with something homemade and natural!

Cross posted in Environmental Tip of the Week This is a great resource to get you started: http://www.jewcology.org/content/view/Do-It-Yourself-Body-Care-for-the-New-Year

Environmental Tip of the Week: Apology and this week’s tip: Dumpster Adventures

http://environmentaltip.blogspot.com/2013/12/apology-and-this-weeks-tip-dumpster.html I'm not blogging much lately due to certain matters going on in my life. Sorry, I know this is supposed to be a weekly post but life happens.... Anyway, here's this week's tip. This applies if you live in a place where there's a central dumpster where people dump their garbage: When you take out the garbage, keep your eyes open for things that might not really be garbage but perhaps someone was just trying to get rid of the item without it occurring to them that maybe someone else could use it. If you find something useful, go ahead and take it home! For example, ...

Help Take Jewcology to the Next Level!

Have you used Jewcology's resources to engage your community, connect with other leaders or just remind yourself that you are part of a global Jewish environmental community? We want to know how Jewcology is making a difference to you -- and what we can do to make it even better. Please help by filling out ********Jewcology's Fall 2013 User Survey******** This survey was developed by a team of Jewcology leaders who are working to improve the site in the coming year. We see this survey as the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewcology community. We'd love to continue the conversation with you! If ...

Support the Year of Engagement

Exciting news! Canfei Nesharim is teaming up with the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) through our Jewcology project, on a new joint fundraising campaign. Together, we aim to raise a total of $10,000 by the end of Tishrei, October 3. MAKE AN ELUL DONATION TO SUPPORT JEWCOLOGY NOW! With your support, in 2014 Jewcology and COEJL will partner on a "Year of Jewish Policy Engagement on the Environment," which will provide tools to help Jewish environmental activists and local leaders become more involved in environmental action at the policy level. COEJL will provide advocacy guidance and connection with ...

Launch of Food Waste Action #4

Just before Tu b'Shevat, we launched our Year of Jewish Action on the Environment. Our goal is to empower the Jewish community to take action on energy conservation and reduce food waste this year. The program will continue through Tu B'Shvat 2014. Continuing with the Year of Action, we're now pleased to share the fourth action to reduce food waste! You can also see this action in the full list here. Food Waste Action #4: Put on My Plate ONLY What I will Eat. Eyes bigger than your stomach? Once that food is on your plate, it’s either going in your mouth or in the trash. Prevent food waste with these ...

Family Fun on the Farm

In the Jewish calendar, the springtime month of Nissan signals the beginning of the agricultural New Year. As the weather warms and the days get longer, we shake off the frostiness of winter and awaken to the growth all around us. For the next 8 months, the familiar natural rhythms will renew: our favorite crops will appear at local farmer’s markets, chickens will increase their egg production, and baby animals will be born and mature. Yet, it’s so easy to forget these realities when we spend more of our time out of touch with nature’s rhythms. At the Pearlstone Center, we strive to create opportunities to connect to the ...

Meet the Pearlstone Goats!

Shalom readers! Winter may be a slow time for animals, vegetables, and people, but here at the farm at the Pearlstone Center, things are picking up. One of the biggest and exciting stories from the animal pasture is that we currently have between three and six pregnant goats (G-d willing)! Blood tests will confirm exact numbers in a week or two, as our vet’s ultrasounds were only definitive for three. We expect them to begin kidding in late April and finish in early June. We don’t artificially inseminate our goats but rather bring our does to two different goat farms here in Maryland where they were allowed to mate with the ...

What’s New In The World of Emergency Food? 3 Answers in 3 Weeks

Blog post by Karin Fleisch, Board Member for Uri l’Tzedek, master’s student at NYU’s Wagner School and speaker on behalf of American Jewish World Service. --------------------------------------------------------- After five years at the Food Bank for NYC, during which time I monitored over 400 food pantries and 200 soup kitchens, I thought I knew everything there was to know about local responses to hunger. Happily, It turns out I was wrong. So what's new in the world of emergency food? Over the next three weeks I will profile three projects in this column. Together, they were showcased in a panel entitled ...

Jewish Urban Farming Fellowship – Seeking Applicants for 2013

Urban Adamah, based in Berkeley, CA, is a three-month intensive residential leadership training program for young adults ages 21-31, that integrates urban organic farming, social justice work and progressive Jewish living and learning. Twelve to fourteen 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 to participate. ...

Sneak Peek of Upcoming Pearlstone Programs!

As the days shorten and the farm remains dormant for the winter, the Pearlstone program team is continuing its hard work and preparation for the upcoming season. Here's a sneak peek at a few of the exciting upcoming opportunities: 5th Annual Beit Midrash and Bonus Day: Sacred, Sustainable Rhythms of the Jewish Calendar. The Beit Midrash is an inspirational Shabbaton filled with learning, celebration, and groundbreaking Jewish thought. Join an intergenerational, pluralistic community of Jewish farmers, rabbis, educators, scholars and consumers from across the country. To learn more, visit http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/...

Trees, Bikes and Nature on Yom Ha’atzmaut

NEW YORK (April 26, 2012) — Falafel fests, movie nights, dance parties — Americans celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut in many ways. But what do Israelis do on Independence Day? They head outdoors. Last year so many people jammed into the country’s de-facto national-park system, run by KKL-JNF, that parks were closed because they reached capacity. So, how many people was that, you ask? About one in every five Israelis — more than 1.5 million people — which is also about the same number of trees that have been planted in Israel since 2007 because of the work of the Green Zionist Alliance. That’s right, ...

MEDIA ADVISORY: Earth Day heralds funding of $65,000 for new Jewish environmental network

New York, New York (April 9, 2012) –The Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Morningstar Foundation have awarded the Green Hevra, a new network of U.S.-based Jewish environmental organizations, $65,000 in seed funding. With these funds the group will lay the groundwork for strategic collaboration across the Jewish environmental movement in 2012. “We believe that the global sustainability challenge is analogous to the civil-rights campaigns of an earlier time,” said Sybil Sanchez, director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, the organization charged with administering the group. “Just as the Jewish community joined with others to ...

Raising a Jewish Environmentalist?

This past weekend, I attended the Kayam Beit Midrash, an annual event at the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Baltimore. I was proud to attend for the second year with my family – my husband and my beautiful 7-year-old son. We spent the weekend learning about Shemittah, the amazing Jewish mitzvah to let the land rest every seven years. I really appreciate the Kayam Beit Midrash. Through their passions for Jewish learning, farming and agriculture, they manage to bring together a really diverse and interesting group of people. I got to see a lot of old friends, strengthen existing connections, and also meet new people. At some Jewish ...

Israeli Winery Conserves Water (CJN October 2011)

This "Sustainable Jew" article appeared inthe Canadian Jewish News on October 6, 2011 I recently had the opportunity to spend a few hours with Alex Haruni, the owner of the Dalton Winery. While in Toronto, Alex was promoting the sales of the kosher wines Dalton produces in the Upper Galilee. While we were talking, Alex was monitoring the progress of his grape harvest back in Israel. What I found interesting is how the Dalton Winery produces its million bottles of wine in a sustainable manner. One of the important factors required to reduce the amount of energy consumed in wine production is the proximity of the production ...

Recycled Paper (CJN June 2011)

This "Sustainable Jew" article originally appeared in the Canadian Jewsih News June 10, 2011 Recycle, reduce, reuse. Last month, my column discussed the challenge of recycling of paper on which Jewish holy words are written. This month, we will focus on some key considerations to help you make sustainable choices about what paper you use as well as how you use, and eventually reuse, that paper. The three actions mentioned above— choice, use and reuse—help influence what paper options are available in the marketplace. As such, the actions of individuals, organizations and corporations can have a profound influence on ...

Schools Measure Footprints (CJN April 2011)

This "Sustainable Jew" column originally appeared in the Canadian Jewish News, April 14, 2011 Ontario EcoSchools is an environmental education program for kindergarten to Grade 12. Developed and run by school boards,the program allows students to acquire ecological literacy and learn about practices that will make them environmentally responsible citizens. In addition, Ontario EcoSchools helps to improve operations within school buildings in order to reduce environmental impacts. (http://bit.ly/tsj1104-01) Several Toronto Jewish day schools participate in the program including the Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School, the ...

Energy Conservation in Israel (CJN March 2011)

This "Sustainable Jew" column originally appeared in the Canadian Jewish News March 17, 2011 I was recently in Israel to represent the company I am currently on contract with, and to speak at a renewable energy conference in Eilat, co sponsored by the UJA Federation of Toronto. As part of a delegation, put together by Canada's National Research Council, I wanted to understand the current Israeli state of mind with respect to energy conservation and advances in renewable energy. At the same time I was tasked to determine if there was an opportunity to expand my client's energy consumption benchmarking software to Israel. ...

Synagogues Reduce Energy Costs (CJN February 2011)

This article originally appeared in the Canadian Jewish News on February 17, 2011 What role should a synagogue play in helping its members live a more sustainable existence? Should a synagogue lead by example or just respond to the requirements of their boards and their members. Are we dealing with a business decision or a spiritual imperative? Rabbi Voss-Altman of Temple B’nai Tikvah in Calgary was one of the first in the Canadian Reform movement to dedicate one of his Shabbat talks to putting a green spin on Parshat Noach. His talk focused on the responsibility mankind was given to have stewardship over the earth and to take care of ...

Community is the Missing Piece

In July 2010, I began a local “Sustainability Circle” in my Jewish community in Silver Spring, MD. Unlike any other local initiative I’ve organized, the purpose of this circle was to gather Jews who already care about the environment and give them tools for personal and communal environmental actions. Most of my previous activities were about community education for Jews who weren’t yet convinced about the environment, but after years of this kind of programming in Silver Spring, the light bulb went on. There are already people who have learned and become interested. What can I do to provide for them? The members of the Kayamut Sustain...