Environmental Justice Subscribe
A selection of initiatives, blogs, resources and communities on Jewcology which focus on environmental justice.
Blogs
Climate on Rosh Hashanah – an existential threat to Israel
- September 23, 2014
Protecting Israel doesn't just mean getting off of Arab petroleum, it means getting off of all petroleum. If you're not advocating for that, you might as well be calling for the destruction of the state.
Earth Etude for Elul 28- Sweet and Sour Grapes
- September 22, 2014
by Rabbi Robin Damsky I am in my favorite place at my favorite time: in the garden, in the morning, before the cars have started up, before the noise of lawnmowers and leaf blowers. The crickets are singing, the birds responding. The rising sun’s light filters through the leaves. A beginning. It has been a tough year in the garden. An endless winter caused a late start and temperatures have been cooler than usual. A call from critter to critter that I cannot hear lets them know there is bounty on my corner. Maybe it’s because the peach tree lost its ...
Earth Etude for Elul 26- We Will be the Change We Want to See
- September 20, 2014
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We will be the change we want to see I am squatting I am wringing laundry with my hands I am picking chunks of dirt from the soles of my feet I am learning to smell the open sewer when I breathe in and out I am walking I am jostling in a vikram, in a small car that must have the air conditioning switched to off in order to make it up the Himalayan Mountain where love calls I am exhausted I am exhilarated I am joyful I am fretting as we weave ourselves up the steep slope and you can ...
Interfaith Conference on Environmental Action
- September 17, 2014
The Green Zionist Alliance and GreenFaith are jointly hosting an interfaith environmental conference in advance of the U.N. climate summit. Registration is scheduled to open mid-summer. In the meantime, save the date and spread the word!
Earth Etude for Elul 22- “Yeah, I Think We Should Kill Them All”
- September 16, 2014
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By Alexander Volfson I wasn't sure visiting Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial, would leave an impression on me; after all, I had heard it all before. Not only that I had absorbed the notion that all of humanity's reckless violent ways were behind us. Genocide, alas, is so common that it has its own major in college, which, unfortunately, does not fall under archaeology. Remarkably, this practice continues to this day. The typical story arc of the Holocaust goes like this: those awful Germans wanted to murder all the Jews and almost got away with it. ...
Earth Etude for Elul 21- What Does Atoning and Returning to God Mean?
- September 15, 2014
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by Rabbi Judy Weiss Ps. 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my rescue. Whom should I fear?" For an entire month before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we focus on atoning and returning to God. But what exactly, in real life terms, does atoning and returning to God mean? We plan our path to return by adding Psalm 27 to our daily prayers. This psalm repeatedly affirms hope in God. It ends with: Ps 27:14 "Let your heart be firm and bold, and hope for the Lord." As Robert Alter comments, the Psalm opens and closes with the same sentiment "It begins by affirming trust in God ...
Earth Etude for Elul 16- The Compost Bin in Our Hearts
- September 11, 2014
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by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen My compost bins are so much more than just a place where compost happens. The area beside the three wire and wood bins is place where I often feel my father’s spirit – he was raised on a farm, and though he became a professional, gardening was in his blood, and he spent much of his spare time in his garden and his orchard. Yet, it is not just the reminders of my father or the sense of his hovering spirit that gives meaning to my compost bins. They are symbolic of so much – which may be more the truer reason that I think ...
Earth Etude 15- Looking at the Whole Picture
- September 9, 2014
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By Susie Davidson As a writaholic, I am also a readaholic. As we move forward in our chosen missions toward creating communities that feed, nurture and sustain (while protecting) all the inhabitants of the earth, I believe that it is also incumbent upon us to remain informed about the news of the day and the topics that affect underlying societal infrastructures. Certainly, some of these infrastructures seem entrenched to the point of impermeability, none more so than the economic systems that govern world relations and, therefore, virtually every facet of ...
Earth Etude for Elul 14- Elul’s Comin”
- September 8, 2014
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by Judith Felsen In days of Av anticpatin’ I have done my exploration searching, seeking digging deeper all to clear the space as greeter. From the bottom of my looking I can sense great times are coming soon our King will sure arrive and in fields we both will thrive. Therefore now and always ever will this earth be seen as heaven by all those who now know its glitter shimmering sparks both there and hither. May we join in joyful meeting in all lands we’ve tilled this season. Welcome King, we greet your visit ...
Earth Etude 13- The Flood
- September 7, 2014
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by Rabbi Dorit Edut The meteorologists predicted a possible heavy rainstorm and suggested bringing an umbrella to work. But as I drove home from an interfaith conference, I got a call from my husband announcing: “ You’ll have to swim home – everything is flooded here.” My heart stopped beating for a minute when I heard this, realizing that all my rabbinic books and papers, many photograph albums including those from my parents’ lives in pre-Holocaust Europe, all our children’s albums and memorabilia, my father’s award-winning black and ...
Earth Etude for Elul 12- Growing Teshuva
- September 6, 2014
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by Maxine Lyons I am often looking for ways to connect to teshuvah even during the leisurely days of summer. Teshuvah for me is turning to those thoughts and actions that help me to become my better self, following those practices that nourish my growth to know peace - shalom - and to reach greater wholeness - sh'lemut. As I pursue personal growth, I resonate to the Hebrew word, hitpatchut, growth through an openness and receptivity to change.This summer I have focused on ways to practice with greater compassion in how I spend my time and focus my energy as I take on ...
Earth Etude for Elul 10- Topsy Turvy Bus
- September 4, 2014
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by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein The world seems a little topsy turvy these days. A plane missing. 223 girls kidnapped in Nigeria. 3 teen agers kidnapped and murdered in Israel. A plane shot out of the sky. Israel in Gaza. Rockets in Israel. Too many children killed in the streets of Chicago. Too many deaths. When does it stop? In the Fox River Valley, Illinois, after a punishing winter of epic proportions, it is nice to be outside. Six congregations, part of the nascent Prairie Jewish Coalition, sponsored the Topsy Turvy bus. What is a ...
Earth Etude for Elul 9 – A Cry in the Night: My Decision not to Consume Dairy
- September 3, 2014
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by Diana G. A memory: Our newborn is up again. I turn to the clock. It’s 4:25 am. Less than three hours since she last awoke. My husband and I are exhausted, and we lie quietly for a few moments, willing our daughter back to sleep. But her cries are persistent. Who knows if she’s hungry, cold, or simply distressed and looking for comfort? Regardless, we’ve reached our “give-her-a-moment” limit; there’s only so long one can ignore an infant baby’s cries. My husband grabs for his glasses, makes his way to the nursery, and returns ...
Earth Etude for Elul 8 – Waves on the Beach
- September 2, 2014
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by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen I stand on the beach. Waves-- I hear them, see them, rising, falling, splashing, foaming. Deep within me waves form, rise up, are released, unite with the ocean waves. Throughout my body sadness.... grief.... despair.... engulf me. The Earth is suffering. I cannot simply stand, sit, lie, relax. Act, I must, driven by my grief, by my love, by the waves, in order to live with myself, with the Holy One of Blessing-- who is able to quiet waves, in the sea, in my soul-- who continues ...
Earth Etude for Elul 7- Rosh Hashanah Shemittah Seder 5775
- September 1, 2014
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Created by Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, to be shared, celebrated, and enjoyed Click here for a downloadable version to print out and use at your Rosh HaShanah dinner. Ever since the first breath of creation, time has unfolded in cycles of seven. Six days reach their crescendo in the seventh day, Shabbat - the Sabbath, the day of rest. Six years reach their crescendo in the seventh year, Shemittah - the sabbatical, the year of renewal. Seven cycles of seven years reach their crescendo in the Jubilee year, the ultimate enactment of re-creation. All ...
Living with Change
- September 1, 2014
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Earth Etude for Elul 6 by Rabbi Howard Cohen The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilisation. Ralph Waldo Emerson With the approach of the season of Teshuvah it is once again time to reflect on our relationship with the earth. In the past I would have asked myself questions such as ‘did I waste natural resources’; or ‘did I pour unreasonable amounts of carbon into the atmospher’; or ‘did I speak out against corporate environmental abuse’. These questions are important but I believe that there is ...
Earth Etude for Elul 3 – Let it Rest
- August 28, 2014
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Earth Etude for Elul 3 - Let It Rest by Carol Reiman Let it rest-- the land that we have worked so hard, the grassy fare for geese now taken by the high tech labs, the water diverted far away to leave the old spot bare, the day diminished by our dense cramming, electronics robbing our eyes of moisture... Let it rest-- the fish sleep still near the bottom, the standing horse relaxes muscles, the cat stretches and curls... Let it rest-- the yawn exchanges stale air for fresh, cells grow, the blood flows with its passengers for new destinations, ...
Dead Young Men: Mississippi, Israel, Palestine
- July 1, 2014
I spent several days last week in Mississippi, -- Mourning the murders of three young men 50 years ago; Celebrating a Mississippi that today is very different; Facing the truth that Earth and human communities –-- especially, still, those of color and of poverty –- are being deeply wounded by the Carbon Pharaohs’ exploitation and oppression; Talking/ working toward a future of joyful community in which Mother Earth and her human children can live in peace with each other in the embrace of One Breath. ...
Speak Up! Advocacy for Systemic Change
- March 19, 2014
Originally posted in the newsletter of the Jewish Greening Fellowship What was Queen Esther thinking when her uncle Mordechai told her to speak up to King Achashverosh? Many readers of the Purim story have tried to answer this question with midrash (stories written to fill gaps in Torah texts.) One intriguing story claims that Esther hid for 4 years before the King’s agents found her and brought her to the palace. In this telling of the story, Esther wasn’t some firebrand eager to stand up against the ruling powers. She preferred to stay completely out ...
The Urban Adamah Fellowship Now Accepting 2014 Applications
- October 17, 2013
Connect to Something Bigger: Earth, Community, Social Justice, Jewish Spirituality The Urban Adamah Fellowship, based in Berkeley, CA, is a three-month residential training program for young adults (ages 21–31) that combines urban organic farming, social justice training and progressive Jewish learning and living within the setting of an intentional community. Through the operation of Urban Adamah’s one-acre organic farm and internships with social justice organizations, fellows gain significant skills, training and experience in all aspects of ...