I commit to this Brit Adamah--Covenant with the Earth--in honor of Tu Bishvat, the holiday of the trees. Use this blank Brit Adamah card for students of all ages, as part of a discussion about Tu Bishvat, and their role in protecting trees, conserving resources and caring for the land.
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This five-page guide (with full-color pictures!) takes you on a tour of a successful URJ synagogue garden in Chicago, and outlines all the steps to create a garden project at your own congregation.
Learn more at http://urj.org/life/food/?syspage=document&item_id=27460 .
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Here are 18 easy things the Teva Learning Center suggests you can do in your daily life to live the value of Bal Taschit--do not waste.
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The goal of this activity is to learn practical solutions to energy reduction, to begin analyzing the energy use practices of the synagogue, and to discuss and develop a class-led project to help the synagogue reduce its
environmental impact/footprint.
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Perform a Synagogue Environmental Audit:
· In small groups, please answers the questions outlined in the audit sheet(s) attached.
· Your results will be used to help the synagogue measure its current environmental impact
(“footprint”) and to identify effective ways your community can make change!
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The Goals of this activity are:
· To learn the need for compromise and teamwork
· To learn Jewish values related to urban planning
· To learn to apply responsibilities and values in the “real” world
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Solar Oven progam
The goal of solar ovens is for all students to walk away understanding how solar ovens use the greenhouse effect, (which they just learned about in the intro), to use the heat of the sun to heat their food.
Set up a solar oven in advance, with something cooking in it. Have the kids try to guess what the outside temperature is and then point out the temperature on the thermometer of the solar oven.
Have the kids try to figure out all the different components of the solar oven based on what they learned earlier about the ...
The name of this exercise is taken from Birchot HaShachar, a morning prayer in which we thank God
for the restoration of our senses upon waking. These senses include bodily mobility as we wake,
stretch, dress and begin our day. One bracha (blessing) ends in, Pokeiach Ivrim, which means, who
opens our eyes, thanking God for the gift of sight.
Here is an easy and fun way to make a solar oven out of re-used materials. This one actually works!!!
Solar Oven program
The goal of solar ovens is for all students to walk away understanding how solar ovens use the greenhouse effect, (which they just learned about in the intro), to use the heat of the sun to heat their food.
Set up the “cooler” solar oven in advance, with something cooking in it. Have the kids try to guess what the outside temperature is and then point out the temperature on the thermometer of the solar oven.
...
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This activity explores the power of naming something. Often when we
think of the language of Breishit – dominion and ruling over Creation
and stewardship – we imagine physical acts or resource use. But it is
possible to enact dominion through more subtle intellectual pursuits as
well, such as naming. This activity highlights our ability and propensity
for putting ourselves above the rest of Creation through naming, the
positive and negative aspects of that ability, and the responsibility that
comes with it.
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This game has a magical power to create joyous camaraderie, as well as teach tree biology.
It's amazingly effective for drawing a group together. Players act out the various parts of a tree: the taproot,
lateral roots, heartwood, sapwood, phloem/cambium, and bark. In large groups, more than one player can
take each role.
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Excerpt:
Topics covered:
Is environmentalism a Jewish issue?
Where do I start?
What are CFL bulbs and why should I use them?
Which is better and what's the difference: Local vs. Organic foods?
Farm raised, free-range and cage-free: So many labels, what do they all mean?
How can I measure my efforts?
How can I solicit support for congregational greening efforts from my board?
Is there ...
By Rabbi Julian Sinclair
View a Printable Version | View a Source Sheet
Do we know who grows our food? Does it matter?
This question was first raised for me five years ago when I was the Campus Rabbi at England’s Cambridge University. Invited to High Table dinner with the professors at one of the colleges, I was surprised to discover that most of the conversation among some of Britain’s leading minds revolved around the food.
“This venison’s inedible,” complained an irascible professor of physics.
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