1989 results for tag: Uncategorized

What We Do

Half-day, full-day, or multi-day seminars are available. For pricing, please contact us. We offer the following programs: Israel’s Water Challenges- At the Sataf Spring Nature Reserve enter a hewn-out water cistern and see first-hand age-old water collection methods and how they irrigate agricultural plots. Explore Jewish sources on water conservation in relation to this contemporary challenge, and consider possible solutions for Israel in the 21st century. Israel’s Environment- Enjoy an active and exciting experience on the ground in Israel linking modern Israel, contemporary environmental issues, and Jewish sources. ...

US Tour

The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, in collaboration with the Elijah Interfaith Institute, aims to undertake a North American Speaking Tour on Interfaith Environmental Perspectives for late 2011 or early 2012. The project will involve a group of five religious leaders from five faiths speaking as interfaith panels on environmental sustainability from religious perspectives. The Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu religious leaders will appear at community wide events at a range of secular and religious institutions that will be open to the general public. The tour will likely include New York City, northern New Jersey, ...

UN Climate Summit

The Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change (www.interfaithdeclaration.org) is working to convene leading world religious leaders at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa in November, 2011. Invitees include the Pope, the Dalai Lama, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, and Jewish religious leaders. The presence of some of these religious leaders at the conference will encourage both religious adherents and political leaders to act on climate change. We plan to hold press and other events inside and outside of the UN climate change confere...

Emerging Leaders Project

The Emerging Religious Leaders Sustainability Project brings together Muslim, Christian, and Jewish seminary students from Israel and the West Bank for a series of ten interactive seminars on human coexistence and environmental sustainability. The seminars, spread out over six months and centered in Jerusalem, will focus on how we live on the land (environmental sustainability) and how we live together (human sustainability). The seminars will incorporate sources of profound wisdom and teaching concerning harmony and balance with nature that have arisen in several religions across space and time. Five of the sessions will include experiential, ...

About Our Organization

The Need for What We Do: Studies show that young people, and young Jews among them, are extremely concerned about environmental issues and the future of the planet. In an October 2008 poll of the Pew Research Center, 64 percent of U.S. voters under age 30 said the environment is “very important.” Jewish education has the potential to speak to the most burning issues that excite young Jews and the most pressing issues facing humanity. Yet Jewish education has yet to capitalize on this core concern as a key engagement point for young Jews. In particular, the link between Israel and the environment has been underemphasized. In an age where being ...

Jewish Eco Seminars

* Jewish Eco Seminars engages and educates the Jewish community through inspiring programs linking Israel, the environment, and Jewish values. * In Israel, we provide experiential, guided programs in English, Spanish, and Hebrew on a range of subjects and places for groups, couples and individuals. * In North America, we deliver dynamic talks, classes, and activities on Israel-focused Jewish environmental topics to a range of Jewish institutions. * We also offer free distance learning classes on Jewish environmental teachings through an online platform.

The Interfaith Climate Change Forum

Shared Earth, Common Destiny: Muslim, Jewish, and Christian Leaders Speak Out on the Environment Interfaith Environmental Forum sees launch of Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development Jerusalem – July 25th, 2011: Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders today spoke out on environmental issues on a joint panel at an Interfaith Environmental Forum in Jerusalem. The panelists, members of the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, were Bishop William Shomali of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Deputy Minister of the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Religious Affairs Haj Salah Zuheika, and American Jewish Committee ...

Back from KAYAM

Back from The Farm Kayam Farm- the scene of "Planting Seeds: The First Jewish Early Childhood Conference." It was better than imagined. It was the participants willingness to "dig deeply" on all fronts that mattered. People came from as far as Seattle,North Carolina, Texas, Boston and Worcester, Florida and New York as well as from nearby Virgina, Pennsylvania,New Jersey and of course Baltimore. There were nature specialists, ece directors, teachers, a rabbi and a great mix of ages and persuasions. There were the gardeners and the wannabes and together we weeded, worked on the farm, engaged with the farm ...

It is revolution time

To those living in the world of social justice, the idea of a violent revolution seems repulsive. Taking the lives of many to improve the lives of others is oxymoronic, paradoxical, a nightmare. We live in the world in which we dream of peaceful revolution, one of love, respect, and gardens. To wrap up the first session of the gardening and environmental education at Camp Young Judaea Sprout Lake, I decided to welcome participants into the ever growing, ever changing revolution of Jewish environmentalism. To my heart’s dismay, when I asked the campers what came to their mind when they heard the world revolution, their minds only went ...

The Mitzvah of Planting Trees

“Let no one ever cease from planting. Fields filled with trees greeted us at birth, and we should add to their number even in old age.” Midrash: Genesis 2:8 “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” Anonymous One of the best things individuals can do to help the environment is to plant a tree. Trees alter the environment in which people live by moderating climate, improving air quality, conserving water and harboring wildlife. Planting trees is also a Jewish imperative. It is one way that we as Jews can help repair and restore the Earth, tilling it and tending it as commanded in the ...

How to Achieve Sustainability Through Local Community Action

Hello! My name is Rachel Berndtson and I am a doctoral student in the Department of Geography at the University of Maryland, completing my dissertation research is on the diffusion of the Jewish farming movement in Baltimore. As a geographer, it is my aim to better understand the interactions between humans and their physical and social environments at the local level. As we progress into the 21st century, the notion of achieving sustainability through local community action is emerging as a promising system for positive, tangible change. International and state legislation aimed at ecological and social improvement is increasingly structured ...

Lessons for Israel from Ghana

SEFWI WIAWSO, Ghana — About six years ago the Ghanaian government brought a delegation of Jews from the Israeli town of Dimona to Accra, Ghana’s capital, to speak about the importance of local agricultural production and consumption. But even though Ghana has a long way to go on its path to becoming a developed nation — becoming part of the so-called “First World” — there's a lot that Israel can learn from Ghana. For example, here in Sefwi Wiawso, a small town in southwestern Ghana near the country’s border with Ivory Coast, the synagogue — the only one in Ghana — is lit at night by ...

Burning Bush Adventures: Wilderness Trips Good for the Body and Soul

Wilderness Trips Good for the Body and Soul Combining Judaism and Wilderness Camping since 1990 Burningbushadventures.com Burningbushadventures@gmail.com 413-652-7086 Wilderness Canoeing in the Northeast Dog Sledding in Maine Now Accepting Registrations for: Rosh Hashanah & Shabbat Shuvah in the Green Mountains: Sept. 28 - Oct. 2 & Sukkot on the Delaware River: Oct. 14 - 16

New System Tells You How Much Electricity Every Plug In Your House Is Using

By Alona Volinsky Photo by Rennett Stowe It doesn’t matter which country you live in, the price of electricity is high. So let’s say you want to reduce the monthly electricity bill for your home, or your office — how do you know where to start? Does a fridge consume more electricity than a dishwasher? A dishwasher more than a television? Does it cost anything to leave a device plugged in overnight? These are all questions most of us don’t know the answer to, because our electricity bills don’t break down electricity consumption for the various devices. That is why Dr. David Almagor, co-founder of ...

My Mother Rose and Apples

Jewcology's intensive one day "Connecting to the Heart Public Narrative Training" in June helped me formulate the following narrative to share my ideas, emotions and move others to act. "My mother Rose immigrated to Canada in the 1930's from a shtetl called Checiny. As a child in Poland she was often hungry and malnourished. She did however remember with delight receiving an apple as a special treat at Chanukah. 'Poor mom,' I must have thought. 'I get Gelt, chocolate and all kinds of stuff to help celebrate the Festival of Lights and she just got an apple.' An apple or any nutritious food was something I ...

First ever Israel Tour for Jewish Animal-Lovers

Shalom! "Israel Unleashed" is very exciting opportunity to tour Israel, specially geared for animal lovers. It is a one-of-a-kind experience that blends a love of animals, the Land of Israel, and explorations into Judaism. This adventure will include major tourist sites, animal-related sites, Israel's exquisite nature trails, and several Jewish experiences, such as Friday evening at the Western Wall. Many people are not only animal-lovers, but are also very involved with animal rescue or wildlife conservation. Many have a trip to Israel on their “to-do” list. This tour, during which they will travel with kindred ...

On Technology and Faith

I have worked myself up into a state of near-frenzy lately, driven by my concern for the state of the world and its inhabitants. Despite my best efforts to remain calm, it seems to me that Chicken-Little’s call of, “The Sky is Falling” rings truer every day. From widespread environmental destruction to pending economic collapse to illegal and unconstitutional U.S. military aggression, the future of the humanity is looking gloomier on a daily basis, headed, it seems, for a catastrophe of biblical proportions. This is perhaps an appropriate feeling for this time in the Jewish calendar, as we have just entered the period of ...

A Sense of Place

Modern American culture doesn’t have much to say about the importance of place. Of course, we have landmarks: the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument, Mount Rushmore, to name a few. But what is important about those places is what is there, or what once happened there. It’s not the place itself that claims us. It’s a combination of monument and memory. As Jews we are more likely to have a real sense of what place means. We’ve been to Israel, a land that has been a part of our history for millennia, and that today represents all sorts of dreams and magic and meanings. A land infused with holiness. ...

Scholarships Going Fast for 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 ...

The answer is blowin’ in the wind

Today was political action day in the Amir project garden at Camp Sprout Lake. Over 100 letters were written to the senators of New York, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island tackling issues of litter, climate change, rainforest preservation, safe water and hydrofracking. As the eleven and twelve year olds were busy listening to protest music while trying to convince their parents’ elected officials that those in generations to come must be given a voice, the voice of a prophet came over the speakers. He sang, “Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call, don't stand in the doorway, ...