COEJL's
policy positions are formulated through the Jewish Council for Public
Affairs (JCPA), a national coordinating body for 13 national
and 125 local Jewish public affairs agencies (Jewish community
relations councils). The Jewish Council for Public Affairs develops
consensus
positions on a wide range of public affairs issues for the organized
Jewish community. These policies constitute COEJL's policy platform
and the foundation for COEJL's advocacy work.
Top Action Priorities:
Tell EPA that CO2 Harms Public Health
Break Our Oil
Addiction
COEJL's Climate
and Energy Policy Priorities
COEJL's Environmental
Policy Compendium
COEJL's Environmental
Policy Platform, March, 2006
Greening Synagogue
Resources
Hazon works
to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community and a
healthier and more sustainable world for all.
Center
for Environment and Sustainability - affirming that environmental
stewardship is a primary ethical obligation. With our planet's ability
to support
life diminishing, a great change in our stewardship of the earth
is required more now than ever before.
SYNAGOGUE
GROUNDS
“
When you come into the land, plant all manner of trees…” --
Leviticus 19:23
“
The Holy Blessed One said to the people of Israel: ‘Even though
you will find the land bountiful, do not decide to sit and not sow.
Rather, be very diligent in planting. Just as you found planting done
by others when you arrived, so, too, you are to plant for future generations.’” --
Midrash Tanchuma, Kedoshim 8
Most
of the land that synagogues and other Jewish communities hold in
trust, besides a few dense urban areas where buildings fill entire
plots, is not built upon – but our synagogue grounds are
walked upon, paved and driven over, played on, planted, and admired,
reviled,
or ignored. Are we being good stewards of this gift of good land?
The choices that synagogues make about landscaping carry many serious
implications:
Budgetary: native plantings need less water, maintenance, and artificial
treatments to thrive, and are better for the local environment. Creative
use of topography, building site, drainage, etc. can save on water
bills, and potentially displace other expenditures on retention ponds,
re-grading, basement repairs, and more.
Health:
the fewer chemicals put on the grounds – pesticides and
herbicides, chemical fertilizers, and the like – the
more comfortable we can be about letting our children play
there.
Environmental: as more and more of our metropolitan areas get
made over in people’s image, we can use synagogue grounds
to create pockets of native habitat for the grasses and trees,
flowers and
ferns, birds and butterflies which once were all over our area.
Educational: mini-gardens are great places to teach about the Jewish
agricultural laws and traditions, which are at the core of our tradition;
they can also showcase biblical species, or be used for season- and
holiday-specific planting projects. Composting can be an object lesson
in the life cycle. And choices made by synagogues are always educational,
since they model what members can do in their homes, offices, schools,
and lives.
Aesthetic: “Wild” landscaping,
with just a bit of creative human intervention, can be breathtakingly
beautiful!
We need sacrifice
nothing to be good stewards of the land.
Pesticides, Herbicides,
etc.: Don’t poison your land! Learn how to avoid
the worst chemicals here.
Native Plants:
Make sure your landscaping plan takes into account what
naturally grows best in your region – and what’s most needed.
While you’re
at it, turn your synagogue grounds into a real refuge using
the resources of the National Wildlife Foundation via the COEJL Program
Bank– where
your synagogue grounds can even get accredited
as a sustainable backyard habitat!
Parking
Lot, and Parking Alternatives:
Many synagogues cover more land with asphalt for driveways
and parking, than with the building itself. Learn strategies for
minimizing the
environmental impact of your parking lot – along
with ideas for carpooling, ridesharing,
and other alternatives to driving to shul in the first
place (not
to mention
good old walking!).
Composting:
The cycles of life and death, decay and rebirth, are nowhere clearer
than
in a compost heap. Prevent hundreds of pounds of yard
waste, trimmings, and food leftovers from wasting away in a landfill;
instead, turn that
into the richest, sweetest, healthiest soil you can
imagine. It’s
much easier than you think; kids will really get into
it; and if you’re
ambitious, members can “contribute” to
the heap as well!
Mishnah
Gardens:
Since so much of our tradition is agricultural, and
the entire first of six orders of the Mishnah is called Z’ra’im
(Seeds), use a chunk of your land to practice sustainable agriculture!
Feed
yourselves, and those in need, while learning hands-on
about vital aspects of our tradition. While you’re at it, check
out some exciting new initiatives in Jewish sustainable agriculture,
like the Adamah
program at Connecticut’s
Isabella Freedman Retreat Center, or Farmer D’s
Atlanta-based Gan
Chaim project.
Lawn
Equipment:
Few things pollute as much as a typical lawnmower,
weed-whacker, or other gas-powered lawn implement.
The short answer
is to avoid two-stroke
motors or any other small gas engine, and to use
electric or rechargeable equipment wherever possible.
Find out
more here.
YOUTH EDUCATION
“V’shinantam l’vanecha, and you
shall teach / rehearse these [words] to your children” – Deuteronomy
6:6, also appearing in the V’Ahavta paragraph of the Sh’ma.
Tradition
teaches that immediately after establishing a cemetery and a mikvah – necessary for life cycle events on any given day – Jews
moving into a new area would establish a school right away. School
before shul – since a future generation
of shul-goers has to be trained, that education
must
begin right
away.
Kids,
much more than adults, tend to have an innate bond with other creatures,
and with
the environment.
We can
tap into
their sense
of wonder, their steep learning curves and
insatiable curiosity, and their
love of nature. In doing so, we not only
further these noble attributes (and help them continue
into adulthood!),
we also
deepen their
Jewish identities by linking ‘Judaics’ with
what they already know and love about the
world around them.
While
we encourage you to build whole curricula around Judaism and ecology,
we also know
the value of integrating
ecological
concerns into other topics. Hebrew classes
can go outdoors, and spend extra
time learning teva / nature vocabulary.
When teaching Bible or Talmud,
illustrate your points by looking at key
environmental texts from our sacred literature
(e.g. Lev.
25, Deut. 19, etc.) – so that even
as students are focused on classic texts, they also learn about the
environment. In Israel education, be sure to dwell on the concept and
reality of Eretz Yisrael, the land itself, and the challenges that
the land (and air and water and people and animals and plants) face.
If you do a “Jewish views on current events” program
or course, contrast environmental news
with Jewish ecological texts and
teachings. And so on…
In
addition to the areas listed below, many other educational resources
are scattered
throughout the COEJL website
-- some are cross-listed
here, but you’ll find even more
by searching the whole site. Meanwhile,
think
about how
you can integrate
visuals,
snippets from radio interviews, texts,
questions, exercises, art projects,
and
more into your lessons, making them interesting
as well as relevant. And
here, you should find plenty of starting-points:
Without
a doubt, begin with the SEEDS
Program Bank,
which contains over a hundred programs
or curricular elements for children of all grades. Search using keywords
from “6th grade” to “water” to “Talmud”,
and you’ll find plenty of ready-to-go
programs as well as ideas, texts, and
activities which you
can incorporate
into your
own lesson
plan.
Numerous
Jewish-environmental curricula are floating around out there, though
far too
few are easily
findable or searchable
on
the web.
The first organization’s site
to check out is the Teva
Learning Center,
where you’ll find a whole host
of useful resources. Register for Teva’s Teachers’ Resource
Center and
find dozens of ready-to-print-and-use
activities. Teva also inherited Shomrei
Adamah’s excellent publications,
including the full-length curriculum
book, Let
the Earth Teach You Torah.
Some
of Teva’s suggested resources are secular in nature, and
are found on environmental organizations’ websites. In fact,
many Jewish environmental educational programs draw heavily from the
works of Joseph Cornell and other nature educators, and from the models
pioneered in Nature’s Classroom
and other such secular initiatives.
Some secular
resources can
be easily spiced up with a few
Jewish texts; most experienced
Judaics teachers
can find
the authentic
Jewish language
with which to express
common ecological-Judaic values.
Another
helpful resource is the Jewish
Nature Center,
where you can find a whole host of hands-on activities, perfect for
informal education or to jazz up learning in a classroom setting.
Resources specific to Jewish
Youth Groups are
harder to come by. Obviously materials for grades 7-12 found in the
formal education resources above can be used in youth groups, especially
the interactive activities they contain. One
program from our Christian
brethren (literally – it started with the Church of the Brethren,
and then extended to all Protestant groups, with other faiths encouraged
to join as well) is both a fundraiser, a consciousness-raiser, and
a difference-maker: selling compact fluorescent bulbs.
And of course, each youth movement (Young Judea, Habonim, BBYO, NFTY,
USY, NCSY, Noar Hadash, etc) has its own programmatic resources;
look in archives for ‘tikkun olam,’ ‘ecology,’ and
so on.
ADULT
EDUCATION
“Lilmod u’l’lamed, to learn and to teach” – Ahavah
Rabbah, Shacharit liturgy
Adult
education – one of the most important aspects of any congregational
program – is a vital place for synagogue-goers to engage with
environmental matters. One approach is to simply offer a series (ala “Judaism
and Ecology” or “Intro to Eco-Judaism”) of sessions
on various environmental themes in Jewish texts and values -- for that,
feel free to use or adapt the many shiurim / lessons that you can download
here. Another approach would be to develop one theme well, such as “the
Environment in Israel” or “nature in Jewish thought”;
some of the examples of what other shuls have done, found below,
may be helpful here.
While
we encourage you to plan as many environmentally-themed adult education
classes as you can, we also know the value in integrating
ecological concerns into other topics. A class on Bible or Talmud
can illustrate its points by elaborating on key environmental texts
in
our sacred literature (e.g. Leviticus 25, or Bava Kama 80a) – so
even as participants come to learn classic texts, they also learn about
the environment. A class on Israel can, and arguably should, dwell
on the concept and reality of Eretz Yisrael, the land itself, and its
challenges. A class on rituals around death and dying can use “returning
to nature” and “simplicity” as leitmotifs. And
so on…
In addition to the areas listed below, many other resources for adult
education are scattered throughout the COEJL website; some are cross-listed
here, but some are not. Think about how you can integrate visuals,
snippets from radio interviews, texts, questions, exercises, and more
into your lessons. And here, you should find plenty of starting-points:
Perhaps the best place to start is the COEJL Program
Bank,
which contains dozens of various programs geared toward adults, plus
hundreds more geared toward children (which, though less relevant,
might offer useful insights or gleanings).
Perhaps
you will find models of synagogue environmental
adult education programs helpful. Here are various approaches
taken by synagogues doing eco-adult education – not
all are easily replicable in every shul, but each may offer a useful
template to consider. Among them is one movement’s draft attempt
at combining study materials, texts, policies, and resources into one
statement.
Finally, and perhaps most usefully, we offer here a series of Ready-To-Go
Shiurim (Lessons/Classes),
listed below – make the most out of them; make them your own;
make them real in the life of your community. Zil ul’mad – go
and learn, and go and teach!
VALUES
Modern Jewish Philosophy and Ecology
Planting, Prayer, and Piercy: Jewish Texts & Poems on Gardening
and Agriculture
Eco-Eschatology: Jewish Environmentalism and the Messianic Age
Hope in a Greenhouse: Eco-Tikvah
Shabbat as Weekly Earth Day
TEXTS
Basic Sources and
Values
Genesis 1
Genesis: Ecology, Gender, Theology
Bal Tashchit: Not Wasting as the ‘First and Most General Call
of God’
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN JEWISH THOUGHT
Why Energy is a Jewish Issue
Judaism and Energy
Jewish Resources on Climate Change
Biodiversity in Jewish Thought
Wilderness in Jewish Thought
Property Rights and Public vs. Private in Seder Nezikin
Jewish Global Environmental Network
What is JGEN?
In Israel, environmental issues such as air pollution, water
scarcity, poor water quality, desertification, and hazardous waste
are threatening
both the health and security of Israeli residents. Israel needs to
address its environmental issues successfully for the sake of present
and future generations of Israelis. The Israeli government – pressured
by a growing Israeli environmental movement – is starting to
take some action, but much more needs to be done. In particular,
the Israeli environmental movement needs help in developing the leadership
and expertise to address these issues as effectively as possible.
International
cooperation is also needed to marshal resources and technical expertise
from around the world to help Israel tackle these urgent environmental
problems.
COEJL,
the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership, and
the Jewish Agency for Israel founded the Jewish
Global Environmental Network (JGEN) in 2003. Together,
we have conducted two trips of senior North American Jewish environmental
professionals to Israel. Our delegations received a first-hand look
at Israel’s environmental challenges. They met with Israel
government officials and nonprofit leaders, and made plans for several
joint environmental
projects. The participants discovered that concern for Israel’s
environment resonates with professionals, activists, students, and
funders, and that it offers a new way for Jews in the disapora to
connect with Israel.
In the years ahead, we hope to expand a program to place interns from
the U.S. in Israeli environmental organizations. Among the groups involved
will be the Friends of the Earth Middle East, Green Course, the Israeli
Union for Environmental Defense, and the Society for the Protection
of Nature in Israel . COEJL will also work with the Heschel Center
to facilitate joint environmental projects between North Americans
and Israelis to secure funding for these initiatives.
Projects
Environmental Professionals
JGEN’s first project was a week-long seminar in Israel
in November, 2003, for 15 Jewish North Americans and 15 Israelis who
play a leadership
role in environmental protection. The group is now developing collaborative
projects through which Israelis and Jews in North America (and around
the world) can work together to address environmental challenges
in Israel.
Young Environmentalists
In the spring of 2004, JGEN also sponsored an Israel trip for Environmental
Students and Young Professionals to
learn about the Israeli environmental situation and incorporate their
ideas and experience into a framework for student outreach and partnerships
for young environmentalists (in North America and in Israel). This
trip was hosted by Green
Course: Students for the Environment in Israel,
enabling young Jewish environmentalists to most engage deeply with
the dynamics of the environmental movement and meet their Israeli
counterparts.
Jewish Faith