Environment

Together we can make a difference: JRF's Sustainable Synagogue Initiative

Lisa Tuttle — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:43:57 -0500

With the enthusiasm around JRF's Omer Learning Initiative, as well as the solid response of JRF congregations in the Climate Change Initiative, JRF is continues to deepen its greening work with member communities next year.

Our hope is to motivate and educate our congregations in sustainable practices, with the goal of reaching 100 percent participation in the years ahead, recognizing those JRF communities who excel at sustainable practices at the JRF Convention in Boston, 2008.

Learn about the Sustainable Synagogue Initiative on the JRF website's environment pages at jrf.org/green-call and jrf.org/climate.

For more information contact Rabbi Shawn Zevit, Director of Outreach and Tikkun Olam, SZevit@jrf.org

Omer Week Two - Sustainable Communities: Environment and Social Justice

Brian Fink — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:07:33 -0400

From constructing new buildings out of recycled materials, to installing a compact-fluorescent ner tamid, to joining together in song, JRF congregations are engaged in protecting their natural environment, reducing their carbon footprint, and ensuring a inheritance for those who come after them.

In partnership with COEJL and JCPA, our hope is to motivate and educate our congregations in sustainable practices, with the goal of reaching 100 percent participation in the years ahead. Building upon the resolution on the environment passed by JRF in 1990, our movement continues to labor towards facilitating a globally sustainable approach to living in faith community.

During this second week of Omer teaching, we are highlighting these many environmental sustainability initiatives taking place ...

Below, as an attachment, you will find a PDF resource packet and the recording from our environmental sustainability - PEARL tele-conference call, featuring:

A teaching by Rabbi Shawn Zevit of JRF
Links to environmental material on the JRF website
Notes from the Sustainable Synagogues Conference Call, held on June 6, 2007
A derash by Cantor Eric Schulmiller, from the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore
News clippings about the new building constructed by the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL - the greenest synagogue in America
The "Green Year Initiative" instituted by Congregation Shir Hadash in Milwaukee, WI
Urban Environmental Sustainability programming
created by Kol Tzedek in Philadelphia, PA.

As you read through the teaching, feel free to add comments on this page about your own experiences or use the listserve or web page to ask questions.

For more information, please contact Rabbi Shawn Zevit at JRF, 215-885-5601 x 24.

Omer Learning Initiative 2008/5768

Rabbi Shawn Zevit — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:30:56 -0400

From Seedtime to Harvest:
From the values and spirit of tikkun to community building and sustained action

Beginning on the eve of the second day of Pesach, we are instructed by our tradition to count the days of the “Omer” until the fiftieth day, which is when the first barley crop would be harvested. It is also the Jewish holiday of Shavuot when, according to our tradition, the Jewish People received the Torah at Mt. Sinai. The counting of the Omer is a bridge between Pesach and Shavuot – between a moment of liberation and a moment of self-definition and direction at the beginning of our evolution as a religious civilization. It is an opportunity to deepen our study and close the gap between ideas and action for the tikkun (rebalancing, repair) of the challenges we face in our world.

More than 800 participants and commentators from 90 JRF congregations are participating in the JRF On-Line Omer Study Initiative this year! Congregations with the most participants include:

West End Synagogue, NY
Mishkan Shalom, Philadelphia, PA
Darchei Noam, Toronto, CAN
Dorshei Derekh, Philadelphia, PA
Adat Shalom, Bethesda, MD
Oseh Shalom, Laurel, MD
Jewish Community of Amherst, MA
Columbia Jewish Congregation, MD
Temple Hillel Bnai Torah, West Roxbury, MA
Beth Israel, Media, PA
Kol Halev, Cleveland, OH
Dor Hadash, Pittsburgh, PA
Havurah Shalom, Portland, OR

Each week during JRF's fourth annual Interactive Omer Study Project, we will highlight resources, teachings, and wisdom gleaned from the Reconstructionist movement and our organizational partners, on the following topics, that cover the major areas JRF and our member congregations have been working intensly on these past few years. The goal is to pull together the wide array of resources and encourgae the sharing of best practices and additional resources across our movement:

Week One - Congregation-Based Community Organizing (CBCO)

Week Two - Sustainable Communities: Environment and Social Justice
Week Three - Hunger and Poverty
Week Four - Advocacy: How and When Do We Take a Stand Within Our Communities
Week Five - Praying With our Feet and Hands: Service Learning and Work in the World
Week Six- The Work of Jeiwsh Social Justice Organizations: Collaborative Partnerships in Tikkun Olam
Week Seven - Tikkun Across the Congregational System: From Schools to Shuls

This year, the teachings will arrive in one electronic packet at the beginning of each week and ongoing learning will take place through the accompanying study listserve.

To receive an email alert when new postings have been added to the JRF website, please sign up using the form on the right-hand side of the webpage.

For additional information please contact Rabbi Shawn Zevit at JRF, 215-885-5601 x 24.

2007 Omer teachings on environmental sustainability

2006 Omer teachings on hunger and povery

2005 Omer teachings on Pirke Avot

JRC in Evanston To Be Greenest Synagogue in America

Lisa Tuttle — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:56:43 -0500

New Green JRCMazal tov to Rabbi Brant Rosen and the Jewish Reconstructionist Synagogue (JRC) in Evanston, IL -- boldly going where no synagogue has gone before.

As noted in a JTA Breaking News story, JRC is in the process of applying to receive the highest rating from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program for the congregation's new building.

JRC's beautiful new arkThe "platinum" rating is being sought for features such as using recycled concrete, sensor-controlled lighting and a parking space reserved for a hybrid car. JRC's energy costs will be about 45 percent less than a typical synagogue of the same size, the report said.

For full teachings from JRC on their process see:

Presentation by JRC's Julie Dorfman

Omer Sustainability teaching by Rabbi Brant Rosen and

Omer Sustainability teaching by JRC's Carole Caplan

Read the article about JRC in Zeek magazine and the blog Champions of Sound.

Sustainable Synagogues, Part 2: JRF Congregations Best Practices of 2008

Isaac Saposnik — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:11:57 -0500

Start: Mar 5 2008 - 12:00pm

End: Mar 5 2008 - 1:30pm

Click here to register for this and other PEARL tele-conference sessions.

JRF's Sustainable Synagogue Initiative - NEW RESOURCES JUST ADDED!

Rabbi Shawn Zevit — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:47:22 -0500

Shawn Zevit and Derek Rosenbaum on Greening Conference Call: Derek takes the idea of a "green" call very seriously.On June 6th, 2007, JRF convened a North American conference call on Greening Synagogues and Living a Sustainable Life Rooted in Jewish Values. More than 60 people from 42 JRF congregations participated! Convening the call was a response to calls from lay and professional leaders at our congregations.

Read the notes from the call.

With the enthusiasm around JRF's Omer Learning Initiative, as well as the solid response of JRF congregations in the Climate Change Initiative, JRF is deepening its work with member communities and partner organizations (JCPA, COEJL) in the area of sustainability.

Our hope is to motivate and educate our congregations in sustainable practices, with the goal of reaching 100 percent participation in the years ahead.

The call included an overview of our movement's work in this area RRC rabbinical student Derek Rosenbaum (JRF's Tikkun Olam Intern) and myself.

Topics covered by guest teachers Julie Dorfman, Rabbi Yitz Husbands Hankin, Hazzan Eric Schulmiller and Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb included: Greening Synagogue practices, everyday sustainability across the synagogue system, eco-kashrut and greening synagogue practices.

A second call on Sustainability and Jewish life was held on Wed. March 5, 2008 as part of JRF's PEARL leadership learning initiative. You can view the 30 page information packet prepared for that call and the audio of the call as well.TO VIEW AND LISTEN CLICK HERE

Read Brant Rosen's Yom Kippur devar Torah that inspired the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston to reach for the highest level of sustainability in their capital campaign. You will also find documents from JRC about their Green policies, educational material and promotional flyer for environmental awareness attached below.

Also see the JTA's February 2008 coverage of JRC's receiving the first Platinum LEEDS rating for a synagogue in the United States:
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/106889.html

JANUARY 2008- NEW RESOURCES JUST ADDED!

For an equally inspiring High Holy Day sermon see Rabbi Sheryl Lewart's talk on living an environmentally sustainable life and Kehillat Israel's Five Mitzvot for Sustainable Living.

Also available is a wonderful meditation on environmental consciousness tied to the seven days of creation by Peter Goldberg of Shir Hadash, Milwaukee, WI, and inspiring materials from Dor Hadash, PA and Darchei Noam, Toronto, Canada and JRC, Evanston, IL (both moved into their new environmentally upgraded buildings in 2008).

JRF's landmark 1990 resolution on environmental issues and the evolving guidelines for Sustainable Jewish community are also available on-line! We have also included a scenario for your consideration, developed by Roni Handler, Derek Rosenbaum and Donna Kirshbaum for the 2006 JRF convention workshop on Jewish values-based decision making and the environment.

How does your community's practices align with the JRF resolution and the actions and commitments of other JRF communities? To add your resources to this initiative please e-mail SZevit@jrf.org

Tikkun Olam Issue Resources

Brian Fink — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:39:16 -0500

Below is a growing list of programmatic resources to aid congregations in their pursuit of Tikkun Olam, organized by issue, and type of resource.

The initial issues included are:

Anti-Poverty/Hunger

Homelessness/Housing

Public Education

Healthcare

Public Safety/Crime

Immigration/Immigrant Rights

Economic Development/Living Wage

Environmental Issues

Voter Registration/Mobilization

These represent the most common issues being addressed by Congregation Based Community Organizing (CBCO) groups throughout the country.

For a more expansive selection, please see the list of Tikkun Olam resources located within the JRF Resources Library, as well as specific resources on advocacy within congregations.

Milwaukee Congregation Institutes "Green Year"

Lisa Tuttle — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:30:32 -0400

Shir Hadash of Milwaukee is slating the upcoming "shemita" or "Sabbatical" year as a "green" year for its congregation. The central theme of the year will be to explore how we as Jews can give our stressed and endangered world a rest. An ad hoc committee chaired by two Shir Hadash members will oversee and coordinate events, classes, educational and ritual opportunities all tied to the yearly round of holidays and holy days of the Jewish calendar.

The year-long exploration of Judaism and the environment commenced during the Yamim Noraim (High Holy Days) with the distribution of meditations on our spiritual and practical connections to nature based on the successive days of creation as set forth in Genesis 1. On Yom Kippur one of the four Al Het (confessional) recitations was devoted to environmental concerns. During Sukkot, Shir Hadash's annual Sukkot dinners encouraged participants to use locally grown food.

Each congregational committee will be involved in some way in the exploration of environmental concerns. Some of the ideas being considered include discussion/study groups devoted to the study of Biblical, rabbinic, modern Zionist and contemporary literature on the subject, having the Religious School students grow wheat and barley for the Omer period as well as developing an Omer calendar they could sell to benefit environmental causes. Other ideas on the table include: study of oil/energy issues at Hannukah, using Passover to examine our enslavement to material goods and consumerism. By Shavuot the goal is to have worked out rules of eco-kashrut and an ethical purchasing guide for the congregation with suggestions for personal use. Other options include inviting a major speaker to the congregation sometime during the year and possibly a weekend retreat devoted to environmental issues. We hope to have the rabbi and other service leaders make creative use of the year's theme while leading services.

The congregation hopes to send a delegation to the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation convention in November of 2008 to exchange and expand ideas with fellow congregations - carrying the theme forward into the future.

Omer Series 2007

Brian Fink — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:42:25 -0400

In 2007 our focus was on Sustainability (balancing environmental, social, economic and spiritual life in our congregations and larger communities). See the text packet atached to this post.

Rabbis, Hazzanim (cantors), Educators and members of JRF congregations commented on classic Jewish texts in the light of the sustainability work being done in their congregations.

Links to Sustainability Related Web Sites

Rabbi Shawn Zevit — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:27:28 -0400