Intentional Communities Subscribe
A selection of initiatives, blogs, resources and communities on Jewcology which focus on intentional communities.
Blogs
Earth Etude for Elul 7- Rosh Hashanah Shemittah Seder 5775
- September 1, 2014
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 ...
Giving Yourself an Autumn Break
- August 31, 2014
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by Andrew Oram This time of year always seems a hurricane of activity: coming back from vacation to reams of email, or starting school, or dealing with all the pent-up housework that went blissfully ignored during the easy summer months. Traditionally, Jews see this time of year very differently. Like typical Americans, this period is for them both an ending and a beginning: a recognition of the waning of life and an invigorating harbinger of new possibilities. But in place of the chaotic hurricane that starts for us after Labor Day, many Jews launch a period of ...
Using the New Jewcology
- August 29, 2014
Welcome to the new Jewcology! Using the site is pretty simple. Click on login — but your password from the old site won't work, so the first time you use the new site, click on "lost password" to set a new password: To create a new blog post, click on "Blogs" and then "Create new post." You can add a featured image: You can tag your blog post with keywords and phrases to help people find it easier: And when you're finished, just press "Publish"! You also can save your work as a draft and finish later; publish ...
Earth Etude for Elul 3 – Let it Rest
- August 28, 2014
- 1 comment
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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, ...
Meet and Greet The Beet-Eating Heeb
- November 5, 2012
The Beet-Eating Heeb is here to save the day! Or at least to fill a void. Blogs devoted to vegan and vegetarian Judaism have all but vanished. Consider: Heeb ‘n’ Vegan, once a thriving place in cyberspace, hung an “out-of-business” on its door in 2010. Shalom Veg, another favorite of meat-abstaining Jews, has gone months without posting new content. The last thing the world needs is another blog. Except in this case. As interest in all things vegan and vegetarian continues to grow, the Beet-Eating Heeb (BEH for ...
Support a joint Israeli- Palestinian organic farm!
- July 22, 2012
Despite all the headlines and rhetoric of conflict here is a positive project for understanding and co-existence- Heavens Field Farm- where the emphasis is on our belonging to the land, not ownership. A small group of Israelis and Palestinians are working together to create an organic farm- a piece of land where both sides will aspire to respect each other and the Land that is our common source- of life and strife. Please check out the video and campaign on http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/95349?a=552277 . We are trying to raise our seed money for the first years ...
Peter Yarrow (from Peter, Paul & Mary) invites you to his NYC home for an Eden Village fundraiser!
- April 22, 2012
Dear Friends, I'm very pleased to invite you to my home in Manhattan for a benefit supporting the extraordinary work of Eden Village Camp, the innovative Jewish farm-to-table & arts camp an hour north of NYC. Monday, April 30th 6:00 - 8:00pm Near Columbus Circle in Manhattan, NYC Local organic Kosher hors d'oeuvres & wine served Click here to buy your ticket: http://peteryarrowedenvillage.eventbrite.com/ The happiness, excitement and heartfelt way in which the Eden Village campers and staff interact is moving and beautiful. ...
Community is the Missing Piece
- January 16, 2012
- 2 comments
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 ...
Jewish Urban Farming Internship
- January 9, 2012
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 ...
What is Jewish Environmentalism?
- December 7, 2011
- 2 comments
When I try and answer the above question, I find myself dizzy with axioms and assumptions. This intellectual limbo is at time frustrating, however it is also liberating. Whereas I am without a definitive answer, I am free to entertain the endless possibilities of the question. There are a myriad of ways to practice Judaism – orthodox, conservative, reform, reconstructionist, renewal to name just a few. Environmentalism is similarly diverse. Within the environmental movement there are branches focused on conservation, preservation, restoration, sustainable develo...
Networks and the Jewish Environmental Movement
- November 21, 2011
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On November 8-10, I traveled to Boulder, CO for a unique post-GA event: the NetWORKS Gathering, organized by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation. According to the organizers, the event brought together "a group of exceptional innovators, activists and network curators pushing the boundaries of the most vibrant organizations, projects and communities comprising Jewish life today." It was an honor to participate and to represent a network that I'm quite fond of - the global Jewish environmental community as gathered together on Jewcology. In ...
Recycling Alone
- September 27, 2011
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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 drilli...
Coming Together
- September 11, 2011
Writing a blog post for Jewcology is usually a fairly fluid process for me. Throughout the month I generally collect different articles and compile thoughts in a document that I then go back to when I am trying to figure out what theme I want to address in my blog. This month was different. It did not occur to me until last week that the blog I was going to post had a deadline of September 11th. Sitting in the passenger seat of my car, with the Hudson River to my right and my wife listening to NPR which is playing personal stories of families who lost ...
What is Public Narrative?
- September 9, 2011
Although I have participated in all three of the Jewcology Public Narrative trainings, I still struggle to succinctly describe the experience (don’t tell). So I did what all good folks do in this day and age, I googled it. Marshall Ganz, Professor at the Kennedy School, long time organizer, has this to say in his course outline where he teaches the tenants of it: The questions of what am I called to do, what my community is called to do, and what we are called to do now are at least as old as Moses’ conversation with God at the burning bush. ...
Reflections on the Jewcology Leadership Training
- August 30, 2011
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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 ...
Leadership Training #3
- August 26, 2011
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 ...
Environmental Stewardship Can Be A Bridge
- August 14, 2011
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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 ...