Throughout
the ‘90s, among both Jews who made aliya (moved to Israel) and
those who remain in the Diaspora, many invested time and energy in projects
that help build peace and collaboration with Arab citizens and neighbors,
promote religious diversity, and support other social justice initiatives. Some
have turned to environmentalism as a means of protecting the people, land and
state of Israel.
Diaspora
Jews are connecting to Israel
through environmental concerns. Preserving the land of Israel
is becoming a sacred mission.
On
a“Tech and
Teva [nature]”trip to Israel (February 2008) with 34 Jewish educators
from Long Island, I had the opportunity to meet both olim (immigrants) and tourists,
and see how their dedication to Israel’s
environment has changed their
relationship to Israel
and themselves. Through the olim we met, leaders in Israel’s emerging environmental
scene, we encountered a new kind of chalutz (pioneer) – an educated, motivated and enthusiastic
immigrant ready to bring environmental responsibility to a country that
desperately needs it.
Rethinking
Water Usage in a Land Flowing with Milk and Honey, but Little Water.
Ushavtemmayimb'sason. Draw water
in joy. A classic song danced to at every celebration bymillions
of Jews worldwide. When Jews sing and dance about water, we are praying that Israel will
have enough for the coming year. Currently demand for water is high, and Israel's fresh
water resources are quickly drying up. But Israeli society today is working
hard to solve the region's water shortages before they become a crisis.
Developments are being made daily to conserve water in agriculture, industry
and home. There are initiatives to reduce water consumption, reuse semi-dirty
'grey' water, and rethink techniques to produce or collect water. They fuse
cutting-edge technology with ancient agricultural practices.
Reduce
Israel's most famous water saving innovation is drip
irrigation. Now in practice in most of the arid world, Israel's Netafim brand irrigation systems specialize in computer
controlled drip systems that nearly eliminate evaporation. By releasing small
amounts of water through holes in piping and by regulating the times of day you
water, nearly all water is absorbed by the soil.
In
some communities, older systems of water collection and storage are being used to
solve the problems of today, including a move back to terracing (the ancient
technique of leveling land to hold water) and planting native trees and crops
which require less water.
“We have come to our homeland in order to be planted in our
natural soil from which we have been uprooted. To strike our roots deep into its life giving
substances, and to stretch out our branches in the sustaining and creating air
and sunlight of our homeland… We, who have been torn away from nature, who have
lost the savor of natural living - if we desire life, we must establish a new
relationship with nature.” A.D. Gordon
But what relationship have
Israelis established with nature over the past 58 years?Every child has been hiking in Ein Gedi,
celebrated Lag Ba’omer from the top
of a mountain, and taken a class in yedidat
ha’aretz - knowledge of the land. Yet the Yarkon river which runs through Tel Aviv is so polluted it killed four
Australian athletes at the Maccabbi games in 1997.Ironically, the Dead Sea
is dying of thirst at a rate of more than 1 meter (3 feet) per year. A concrete jungle covers most of central Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,
Ashkelon to Haifa.Is this truly our Zionist dream?
At its core, the early
Zionist dream was a dream of reconnection to the land from which our ancestors
were torn almost two thousand years previously.Whether a religious connection to Jerusalem
and God’s promise of this land, or a cultural nostalgia and connection to an
ancestral home, the land
of Zion was the key.When the World Zionist Congress debated the Uganda option, one fact was unmistakable; a
Zionist revolution could not be successful unless it had Zion at its core.
Treif Tomatoes - Biotechnology, Judaism and the Food we Eat
Biotechnology, Judaism and the Food we Eat
There are two types of holidays in the Jewish
tradition.There are the holidays like Sukkot that go “G-d created us, gave us a world full of
food, thank you G-d, let’s eat!”And holidays like Hanukkah and Purim that go,
“They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat!”No matter what, we Jews like to eat.Come over to a Jewish house, any time of the
year, you will be fed.But what are most
Jews eating? How are the ingredients of
our hamantashen and kugels
grown and how are the seeds created?
Does modern food technology allow us to live in accordance with Jewish laws and
values?
Jewish law and tradition have developed a set of rules
governing food production and consumption.These rules governed what and how we ate, farmed and shared our
food.They also governed us through the agricultural and industrial
revolutions, helping us figure out how to adapt to these developments.
In the last two decades, new developments in food
technology, are forcing people to rethink their values around food production
and consumption.Biotechnology, genetic
modification and genetic engineering, are all terms used to describe how food
producers manipulate the DNA of plants, by infusing them with genes from other
species or that have been manipulated in the lab. Two examples include pig
genes in corn, and fly genes in tomatoes.
In my role as a progressive Jewish educator, I am faced daily by the challenge of what excites people and connects them to Klal Yisrael, the community of Israel, and Jewish practice. I work to encourage Jewish identity and practice by exploring how Judaism is relevant in the lives of my peers. To do that I use the tools that have so successfully worked for me, in my Jewish journey.
My personal path to Jewish identity has been infused by a strong sense of community, past, present and future, ethics, and personal practice. I grew up in a spiritually supportive Jewish Renewal home, and attending Habonim Dror summer camp and youth group. Both environments fostered in me a true sense of community, personal action and dedication to tikkun olam (repairing the world.)
Below is an account of what happened to me on the streets of New York yesterday (April 7th). I encourage each of you to take a moment to read as much as you can and pass it along to anyone you know who cares about freedom, peace in every form, and democratic values. Peace. ----------------------------------------------------------------
Monday morning and I’ve decided to wake up early to attend a protest in midtown Manhattan in front of The Carlyle Group, a war profiteering company with direct ties to Bush Sr. The protest had been organized to have two parts, a direct action blocking the door of the building, and a legal protest of the company and the governments’ motives for war, as well as to support those getting arrested.
As it played out we were in three groups. 20 people stormed the door and blocked the building, 50 people supported them by marching on the sidewalk directly in front of the building, and 50 people were across the street on the opposite sidewalk. It is important to point out that both protests were on the sidewalk, car traffic was moving (though it was mainly police vehicles, and so was pedestrian traffic. I was on the far side of the street, standing on the curb with my back to a mailbox, holding a banner (of a corrupt dollar bill) and chanting.
Just as the direct action group moved on the door, a line of police officers and vehicles moved in front of us on the street, blocking us off from the central protest. A normal tactic of separating crowds. It was not until 3 or 4 minutes later that I noticed the police had not only blocked access to the street, they had surrounded us on all three open sides, corralling the 70 or so of us in our own protest bubble. Then to my left they quietly began arresting people. I happened to look over as the first woman to be arrested was cuffed with a look of confusion and sadness on her face. Soon they began to arrest a second. I turned to the lieutenant (or at least the man in white who was telling the cops where to stand) “What’s happening here?”
“You’re under arrest,” he said nonchalantly, “For disorderly conduct.” The first words offered by a police officer anywhere in my surroundings.
