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Maryland Organic Backyard Initiative

Maryland Organic Backyard Initiative: backyard gardeners and farmers trading organic produce. Website: takoma.mobi

OYL! — Corruption, the Spirit, the Earth, & Us

OYL! -- Corruption, the Spirit, the Earth, & Us By Rabbi Arthur Waskow | 5/14/2010 Bechukotay Climate policy Festivals, Life-cycle, & Climate crisis Global Scorching Tisha B'Av Click here to see a listing of all recent blog posts This is not an oil "spill" we are facing in the Gulf, the way water might spill from a dish or oil from a tanker -- a finite amount in the first place, and then we clean up. This is more like piercing, penetrating, raping the deep-hidden places in the body of Mother Earth, a mile beneath ...

Yankee Doodle, 2010

Yankee Doodle, 2010 By Rabbi Arthur Waskow | 5/27/2010 Festivals, Life-cycle, & Climate crisis Global Scorching Fourth of July [In the British Army of 1776, officers wore on their epaulettes what today we call "gold braid" or "scrambled eggs." They called it "macaroni." [In the rag-tag American Army of 1776, made up of farmers straight from the fields and furrows, many officers were elected by the men, and stuck a casual feather in their hats to denote their rank. [The British thought this was ridiculous, and made up a song laughing at such a silly ...

Tell Congress: The Earth is not for Burning

Tell Congress: The Earth is not for Burning Climate policy Tisha B'Av Action Description: Tell Congress: The Earth is not for Burning There are now two different Climate Policy bills before the US Senate. Most of the Big Media are mentioning only one -- sponsored by Senators Kerry & Lieberman. It panders to the power of Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Nukes, Big Bankers. Yet the Gulf disaster caused by BP's arrogance should have taught us that the last thing we want to do is increase the top-down, unaccountable, irresponsible power of these Biggies. So we support the other, far better, ...

Clouds, Yom Kippur, & Climate Crisis in the Balance

Clouds, Yom Kippur, & Climate Crisis in the Balance By Rabbi Arthur Waskow | 9/18/2008 Festivals, Life-cycle, & Climate crisis Global Scorching Yom Kippur ”Rabbi David Seidenberg, neohasid.org, rebduvid86@hotmail.com David is the Eco-Judaism Fellow of the Shalom Center We read in the Yom Kippur liturgy, “I have blotted out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a cloud.” [Machiti kha’av p’sha’ekha v’khe’anan chatotekha, shuvah eilai ki ga’altikha.] (Isa. 44:22) As climate change becomes one of the most ...

Beyond the Gulf Disaster: Tisha B’Av & Prayerful Grass-roots Action to Heal the Earth

Beyond the Gulf Disaster: Tisha B'Av & Prayerful Grass-roots Action to Heal the Earth By Rabbi Arthur Waskow | 5/17/2010 Devoting Jewish Holidays to Peace Festivals, Life-cycle, & Climate crisis Tisha B'Av Just as the oil blow-out in the Gulf grew from Big Oil’s unwillingness to restrain itself from gobbling up even the most hidden sources of fossil-fuel energy, so the growing planetary climate crisis grows from the same insatiable hunger. Big Oil and Bog Coal have bevcome “drug lords” who have shaped our society so as to force us into addiction to the ...

Hanukkah, Oil, & the Green Menorah: Talking Points for Sermons and Op-Ed Pieces

Hanukkah, Oil, & the Green Menorah: Talking Points for Sermons and Op-Ed Pieces By Rabbi Arthur Waskow | 11/7/2007 Beha'alotekha Festivals, Life-cycle, & Climate crisis Global Scorching Hanukkah By Rabbi Jeff Sultar & The Shalom Center’s Green Menorah Covenant Campaign (215) 438-2983 Greenmenorah@shalomctr.org During Hanukkah, we celebrate the use of one day’s worth of oil to meet 8 days’ needs. Hanukkah can be seen, then, as the festival that has the most to teach and inspire us about energy use. And it couldn’t come at a ...

Jews Challenge Environmental “Protection” Agency With Trees for Life

Jews Challenge Environmental "Protection" Agency With Trees for Life By Rabbi Arthur Waskow | 1/24/2008 Global Scorching Tu B'Shvat Report by: Rabbi Jeff Sultar, director Green Menorah Campaign of The Shalom Center 215/438-2983 In response to The Shalom Center’s call for the Environmental Protection Agency to live up to its middle name, Jewish groups brought living trees to regional EPA offices in New York City and Philadelphia on January 21, the trees’ Rebirthing Day in Jewish tradition. (You can use and modify the model letters at the end of this post to join in ...

Eicha for the Earth: The Text of a Ceremony of Sorrow, Hope, & Action

"Eicha" for the Earth: The Text of a Ceremony of Sorrow, Hope, & Action By Rabbi Arthur Waskow | 6/18/2010 Climate policy Festivals, Life-cycle, & Climate crisis Tisha B'Av Interreligious Relations As explained elsewhere on our Website, Tisha B'Av (the midsummer day of Jewish mourning for the ancient Temples in Jerusalem, and of hope for a transformed future) can be focused on the endangered Earth as our Temple. What follows is the text of what such an Earth-centered prayerful mourning/ action/ celebration might look like. Although here at The ...

Rainbow Sign: A Jewish Approach to the Danger of Global Eco-Disaster

Rainbow Sign: A Jewish Approach to the Danger of Global Eco-Disaster By Rabbi Arthur Waskow | 8/9/2010 Noah Earth Festivals, Life-cycle, & Climate crisis Endangered Species [This essay is Chapter XVII of Rabbi Arthur Waskow's book Godwrestling -- Round 2, published by Jewish Lights and available at discount from The Shalom Center's "on-line bookstore "Shouk Shalom" by clicking here. Though this essay was originally written in the light of the nuclear arms race of the early 1980s and the danger of world-wide nuclear holocaust, most of it applies as ...

Jewish Food Ethics – Text, Discussion and Theatre Activity

Procedure: 1) Divide into groups of 3 - 5 participants. Assign each group one theme from the text sheet (attached). 2) Direct the students to read the quotes under their theme and answer the questions. Make sure the students actually answer the questions and do not move to the second part till directed. What makes the most sense in the texts you read? What ideas seem weird, wrong or backwards? What is the moral or message that these texts teach us? Is this message this applicable today? How can you apply this teaching in your daily life? 3) Direct the students to develop a 30 ...

Earth Aid Kits

Participate in the JCPA/COEJL Earth Aid Kit Campaign. JCPA and COEJL have partnered with Earth Aid Enterprises to offer Earth Aid Kits to the Jewish community. Earth Aid Kits provide a collection of premium energy-efficiency products carefully selected to improve quality of life while reducing energy consumption, decreasing electric bills and carbon footprints. These kits can be used as a way to promote education about energy issues, fundraiser or community-service project. The possibilities are endless: Synagogues may choose to sell Earth Aid kits (or gift certificates for a custom-made kit) at Chanukah boutiques or as an ongoing fundraiser for ...

Advocacy Opportunities: Clean Car Legislation

On December 19, 2007, the US Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency denied California’s petition to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. California had sought to establish stronger emissions standards for cars and trucks sold in the state. The Clean Air Act explicitly allows California to adopt its own standards. And the federal government has granted similar requests fifty times since 1968. The last time it denied a request was in 1975. California has since sued EPA and seventeen states (representing more than one-half of the U.S. population) have joined as plaintiffs. Meanwhile, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and ...

Advocacy Opportunities: US Israel Energy Cooperation Act

On December 19, 2007, the President signed The Energy Independence and Security Act (H.R. 6) into law. Of particular interest to the Jewish community, the Act included a provision ("The United States-Israel Energy Cooperation Act", "USIECA") that would encourage cooperation between the United States and Israel on research, development, and commercialization of alternative energy, improved energy efficiency, and renewable energy sources. This provision would establish a grant program to fund joint ventures between United States and Israeli businesses and academic persons and to establish the International Energy Advisory Board....

Advocacy Opportunities: Senate

The United States Senate has finally begun to make strides toward addressing the climate crisis. On December 5, 2007, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed America's Climate Security Act (S 3036) out of Committee. The Bill, introduced by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA) took important first steps toward reducing our nation's greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, the bill did not secure the 60 votes needed to proceed to debate. Nonetheless, the June climate vote represented a historic moment for our nation. Forty-eight Senators voted in favor of consideration of the bill and relevant amendments ...

Advocacy Opportunities: Congress

U.S. House of Representatives Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) have created a vehicle for Congress to show its support for US climate leadership by introducing "Principles for Global Warming Legislation." The principles highlight four central features of effective legislation: 1. Reduce emissions to avoid dangerous global warming; 2. Transition America to a clean energy economy; 3. Recognize and minimize any economic impacts from global warming legislation; and 4. Aid communities and ecosystems vulnerable to harm from global warming The Jewish community supports ...

Learn About Energy Security

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States imported nearly 170 million barrels of crude oil from OPEC nations in April 2008. With imported crude costs at record highs, American oil dependence facilitated an $18 billion transfer of wealth from American consumers to a cartel that includes some of the most dangerous regimes in the world. With prices expected to remain high throughout 2008, the United States will send nearly $230 billion into OPEC nations’ national coffers this year. These petrodollars will be allocated with minimal transparency by a handful of governments that are hostile to both the United States and Israel, ...

Learn About Climate Change

Climate change is one of the most serious challenges facing the world today. Fortunately, we already have the technology and the knowledge to help protect the health and economic well-being of current and future generations. Our tradition teaches that Adam and Eve were asked to "till and to tend" the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 2:15). We are told that God literally took Adam and Eve by the hand, declaring, "Look at my works! See how beautiful they are—how excellent! For your sake I created them all. See to it that you do not spoil and destroy My world; for if you do, there will be no one else to repair it after you." ...

8 Days 8 Actions

This Hanukkah, join Jews around North America in 8 simple actions to help conserve energy, slow global climate change, and save you money! Day 1: Let there be sustainable light. Change one regular bulb in your home to a CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light). It is estimated that about three light bulbs burn five or more hours a day in the average US home. If those three bulbs were replaced with compact fluorescents in every home, it would eliminate about 23 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year! Don't be fooled by the seemingly higher prices of CFLs. They last ten times as long as standard incandescent bulbs and use only a quarter ...

COEJL on Copenhagen

Hanukkah lights in Copenhagen By Sybil Sanchez director, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life This year, the first night of Hanukkah falls at the halfway mark of the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen. While we light our menorahs, our planet's nation-states will be playing out a new type of Hanukkah tale. Now, as then, the question of oil and its ability to last is at hand. But the bigger question today is not only peak oil, but rather the survival of our planet as we know it. Having the faith that we can do more with less is the main theme that we are reminded of at Hanukkah. In Copenhagen ...