134 results for tag: Interfaith


Israel’s natural gas infrastructure is impressive, but we must aim for a clean energy future!

On Sunday, June 12, I toured the Israel Natural Gas Lines Ltd. (Natgaz) power station outside of Ashkelon with the Committee on Citizen Affairs. Natgaz is a public company responsible for establishing and maintaining the national distribution system of natural gas - from the relatively new gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea to customers in Israel and abroad. As the Subcommittee learned at the plant, natural gas is improving the Israeli economy, strengthening Israeli energy independence, and nourishing regional peace through natural gas sales to nearby countries such as Egypt and Jordan. I was impressed by the company’s professional ...

Alon Tal Zoom Event: Has the Climate Changed on Climate Change?

Join us on Sunday, June 12 at 1:00 p.m. EDT / 10 a.m. PDT / 8 p.m. Israel: Has the Climate Changed on Climate Change? Get more information, additional meeting topics, schedules and RSVP here: https://aytzim.org/rsvp Please note: RSVPS are accepted until two hours before the session start; links will be sent about an hour before the session start (please check your span folders)

Alon Tal Zoom Event–One Year After Glasgow, Towards Sharm Al Sheikh: Environmental Report Card

Join us on Sunday, October 23 at 1 p.m. EDT / 10 a.m. PDT / 8 p.m. Israel-- "One Year After Glasgow, Towards Sharm Al Sheikh: Environmental Report Card” Get more information, additional meeting topics, schedules and RSVP here: https://aytzim.org/rsvp Please note: RSVPs accepted until two hours before the session start; links will be sent about an hour before the session start (please check your spam folders)

Alon Tal Zoom Event: Ukraine and the Environmental Impact of War

Join us on Sunday, July 24 at 1 p.m. EDT / 10 a.m. PDT / 8 p.m. Israel: "Ukraine and the Environmental Impact of War" Get more information, additional meeting topics, schedules and RSVP here: https://aytzim.org/rsvp Please note: RSVPs accepted until two hours before the session start; links will be sent about an hour before the session start (please check your spam folders)  

Alon Tal Zoom Event: How a Male Legislator Can Help Improve the Status of Women in Israel

Join us on Sunday, November 20 at 1 p.m. EDT / 10 a.m. PDT / 8 p.m. Israel: "How a Male Legislator can Help Improve the Status of Women in Israel" (rescheduled from May) Get more information, additional meeting topics, schedules and RSVP here: https://aytzim.org/rsvp Please note: RSVPs accepted until two hours before the session start; links will be sent about an hour before the session start (please check your spam folders)

Interview with Rabbi Gabriel Cousens, a long-time vegan activist.

by Richard Schwartz https://www.youtube.com/embed/1hGjMx55EQA Rabbi Gabriel Cousens functions as a Holistic Physician, Homeopath, Psychiatrist, Family Therapist, Ayurvedic Practitioner, and Chinese Herbalist. In addition, he’s a world-leading diabetes researcher, ecological leader, spiritual master, founder, and director of the Tree of Life Foundation and Tree of Life Center US. In addition, he’s a bestselling author of There Is a Cure for Diabetes, Conscious Eating, Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and Awakening of Kundalini, Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine, Creating Peace by Being Peace, Torah as a Guide to ...

A Vegetarian New Year

by Susan Levine ~ The New Year, January 1 of the Gregorian calendar, is the same as Rosh Hashanah for me. I think about things I have done over my lifetime and the most important thing I’ve tried to do is to become a vegetarian. But let me start at the beginning: Both my parents grew up in kosher homes and when they got married, they had a kosher home. But it wasn’t kosher enough for my father’s mother who would visit my parents but wouldn’t touch the food. My mom didn’t see the point of being kosher if her mother-in-law still wouldn’t eat in her home. Instead she went full treif (completely non-kosher). As a child I pretty ...

Earth Etude for Elul 29: At the Hoh~A Rainforest in the Pacific Northwest

by Thea Iberall Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State The Amazon Rainforest is the most biodiverse region on Earth and provides shelter to three million species of plants and animals. Billions of trees absorb tons of carbon dioxide every year and produce 20% of earth’s oxygen. It’s been called the Lungs of the Earth. But I read something most disturbing. The Amazon rainforest is now emitting about a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year. From its role as a carbon sink, the lungs of the Earth have become a carbon source. Deforestation by fire of thousands of square miles a year is killing off trees. On ...

Earth Etude for Elul 28: The Falls and the Pebbles

by Rabbi Michael Birnholz It's not novel or unique.  Judaism is built on riding the energy of oscillations between values and experiences.  From every day to holiness or transcendence/ein sof to shechinah/immanence or sadness/tsuris to joy/simcha, we flow from one state of being or perspective, generating energy as we move. One of these oscillations takes us from the big picture to the small detail and back again.  We each have illustrations of this very motion, experiencing it in different times and places.  In this Elul, in this time of reflection, I will carry a recent trip to Yosemite National Park in my heart and mind. ...

Earth Etude for Elul 23: Teshuvah and Water

by Rabbi Steven Rubenstein ~Teshuvah is reflected in the power to change And the waters that cleanse our souls. Rabbi Steven Rubenstein recently celebrated his 25th anniversary since his ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion. In that time he served congregations in San Francisco, CA, El Paso, TX, and Beverly, MA.  In addition, he has served as Director of Spiritual Care at Shalom Park in Denver, CO and currently is performing a similar role at Jewish Senior Life in Rochester, NY.  He is equally as proud to be a member of NAJC, Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains where he received recognition as a ...

Earth Etude for Elul 22: Healing in Nature and Helping Nature Heal

by Joan Rachlin It has been just over 17 months since my husband suffered a stroke. It wasn’t just our lives that changed that day, though, as March 11, 2020 was also the day that Boston went into lockdown in an effort to stem the spread of Covid-19. We therefore found ourselves living in a bubble within a bubble and rehab services were consequently hard to find. All of the outpatient clinics were closed and home care was limited. In this “timing is everything world,” my husband’s rehab was slowed down because the world had turned upside down. We drove up to our cabin in New Hampshire on a mid-July weekend in hopes of having at ...

Earth Etude for Elul 20: Rolling

by Carol Reiman Scroll turners, wooden handles, trees of life, our thumbs evolved, rolled down from years to screens;Leading us through dry sands, streams, times of manna, now of drought;Fires of the burning bush, now woods flaming by dream homes;Wanderers yearning for place,kinship of community, ability to thrive;Where do we take our strength?When do we listen to the land, to those who warn us of what comes?Are we as sturdy as our hopes,As fragile as our whims,Intemperate in our senses,Inconsistent in our care?Lest our drives consume us,Let us rest in the shadows,Break of day or rim of stars,Calm the breath,Listen for the sourceOf streaming ...

Earth Etude for Elul 19: It’s All About the Soil

by Rabbi Robin Damsky “It’s All About the Soil.” So reads the headline for a website discussing regenerative agriculture. I’m torn between fear and possibility. Evidence of climate change worsens every place we breathe. I read several summaries of the most recent UN report on the climate crisis in which Antonio Guterres declares a “code red for humanity.” Yikes. I’ve always believed we have the power to heal our planet. I still do. But the window of opportunity is getting smaller and the actions we must take are more substantive. There are a bunch of terrifying data in the news. Most of what we need to heal seems ...

Earth Etude for Elul 18: Perfection

by Rabbi Katy Allen Perfection. I've been thinking about it a lot. Intellectually, I know I can't be perfect. Inside me, in hidden spaces, I feel like I'm not supposed to make mistakes. Which would, of course, mean seeking perfection. Perfection is supposed to belong only to G!d, though I'm not sure I know what that means. Sometimes, when I'm able embrace my humanness, it's incredibly freeing to acknowledge that I don't have to be perfect. But I also realize there's a balance between not trying to be perfect all the time and not trying to never make mistakes. I experience different kinds of feelings when I think about striving ...

Earth Etude for Elul 17: The Birds

by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein “Return again. Return again. Return to the land of our soul.”[1] The liturgy sings. I hear it in my head. This is the season of returning. ~ It’s quiet here. ~ A steaming cup of coffee, Billowing clouds of whipped cream. We thought it would be different by now. Stay at home. Wear a mask. Wash your hands.No guests for Shabbat dinner. ~ Inside, ~ It’s quiet. So very quiet. Too quiet. And lonely. ~ Ready to begin my morning, ~ I choose a book Ready to read, I open the back door, Coffee cup and book in hand. Ready to sit on the ...

Earth Etude for Elul 16: Lessons Learned from my Garden

by Maxine Lyons Reflecting on my connection to t’shuvah means returning more mindfully to positive words and actions and performing mitzvot - commandments. T’shuvah also includes recognizing our connection to the earth, and for me, learning what my garden has to teach me. In a short book, Don't Throw in the Trowel, the author quips, "a garden is a sublime lesson in the unity of humans and nature.” A good garden to me is one that is well planned and cared for, and I am grateful to the Earth’s wisdom and resilience to provide the basis for plants, shrubs and trees to grow and flourish if given the correct nutrients. As ...

Earth Etude for Elul 13: Crater Lake

by Rabbi Shira Shazeer Many months after the world changed After worry, adjustment, connections lost and found Relearning how to live How to work How to family How to community ~ After holding on Holding together Holding, holding, ~ I took to the open road Family in tow To see the land and the wonder it holds ~ To reach out and in and rediscover Who am I Wherever I am In this world ~ I am no Thoreau Not Diana of the Dunes Alone with the world In quiet contemplation Rugged self sufficiency Blissful isolation ~ I sought the beauty and peace of the world ...

Earth Etude for Elul 10: Too Much of a Good Thing, or When All You’ve Ever Wanted is Really Too Much

by Rabbi Judy Kummer When this summer started, we in the Northeast were facing a drought. The levels of water in area lakes seemed to be down by as much as 4 feet, and rivers that should have been tumbling with early spring melt weren’t rushing and gurgling so much as dribbling, the vegetation on their nearby banks a droopy stunted mess. I was skeptical that the seedlings I had nurtured indoors all winter would survive if planted in my garden. And then, as we moved into summer, the rains began to fall. Where we gardeners may have expected an occasional rainfall to water our gardens, rainfall which would need to be supplemented with regular ...

Can the Climate Crisis Bring Israeli and Diaspora Jews Together?

by Dr. Dov Maimon and Ambassador Gideon Behar ~The challenge of climate change may constitute a unique opportunity for joint action, especially among young Jews in Israel and the Diaspora, that would not only benefit the entire world, but also help create a renewed sense of mission for the Jewish people. Jews from across the globe could be mobilized for a task that transcends narrow Jewish interests: that of building an ecologically and socially responsible world, or in traditional Jewish terms: Tikkun Olam. Unlike the issue of human rights that galvanized young people a generation ago but also led to many disagreements, the climate crisis ...

Earth Etude for Elul 9~ Environmental Justice and the Legacy of Redlining: A Call for Teshuvah

by Courtney Cooperman Jewish teachings about environmental stewardship emphasize our responsibility to protect Creation for future generations. In the Garden of Eden, God instructs Adam and Eve: “Take care not to spoil or destroy My world, for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you” (Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13). Although Judaism frames our responsibility to care for the planet in forward-looking terms, our commitment to environmental protection demands that we look backwards, too. The concept of teshuvah requires that we consider the connection between historic injustices and who bears the burdens of environmental ...