Jewish Greening Fellowship
 Isabella Freedman's Jewish Greening Fellowship aims to reduce the carbon footprints of our network agencies and place the environment high on the agenda of every agency that participates. Our goal is to generate a meaningful Jewish response to global climate change.
With the support of UJA-Federation of New York, the Fellowship provides intensive training and ongoing support over the course of 18 months to a cohort of fellows from our 20 participating agencies:
Fellows gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to become change agents within their organizations and communities. They reach out within their agencies to build Greening Partnerships with other key staff and lay leaders, who can also attend Fellowship training sessions relevant to their interests and work. At the same time, they are part of a community of peers that will provide them with friends, networking possibilities and opportunities for personal and professional growth. Agencies benefit from their Fellows opportunities to share best practices and programmatic ideas and to troubleshoot obstacles and challenges.
Greening Your Community Through Learning and Action
At the 2009 Hazon Food Conference, Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield, Director of the Jewish Greening Fellowship along with Evonne Marzouk, founder and Executive Director of Canfei Nesharim, shared experiences and offered practical resources to help community members bring environmental change to their communities, using Jewish thoughts, Jewish programs, and environmental actions as access points to attitude and behavior change. Click here to listen to Rachel and Evonne's inspiring talk.
Monthly Updates
Click on a date below to read about what our fellows have been up to.
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Heed the Warning Signs
an article by Fellowship Director Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield and Evonne Marzouk
July 15 Op-Ed from the Washington Jewish Week
Last month, the White House released an alarming and detailed scientific report of the catastrophic effects global climate change will have on our continent in by midcentury and beyond if we fail to reduce significantly emission of green house gases.
Hartford and Philadelphia could average more than 30 days of 100-plus temperatures per year, while New Hampshire's climate could resemble that of North Carolina. These are grim predictions and demand decisive action on global warming emissions.
But technological fixes are not enough. Any serious solution to global climate change must confront the behavioral paradigms that allowed humanity to engage in such widespread environmental degradation in the first place.
The Jewish tradition has a way of ritualizing our understanding of warning signs in such a way as to deter us from a destructive path. The Three Weeks, which we began last week in the Jewish calendar, includes an initial fast day (the 17th of Tammuz); a period of time restricted from celebrations like weddings (those three weeks); a more intense period of time (the nine days) in which we are further restricted from engaging in enjoyable activities like swimming for pleasure; and a final fast day of great mourning (Tisha B'Av), which commemorates the destruction of our Temple. Each of these increased restrictions warns us of potential impending doom, and empowers us to turn back.
The environment, too, is giving us warning signs. Climate change is one of them. The rate at which we use resources has already exceeded the carrying capacity of our planet; we face local problems like polluted air and water and global problems like ozone depletion and invasive species. Climate change is the most severe of the difficulties facing us, but it will hardly be the last.
Of course, we must invest in renewable energy, weatherize our buildings and, yes, remember to turn off the lights. But focusing on technological solutions alone fails to address that climate change itself is a symptom of much larger societal problems: our overuse of resources and our disconnect from one another. If we do not address these issues, we will have won the battle, yet lost the war.
The wisdom of the Jewish tradition can help us change our path.
"Who is rich?" The second-century rabbinic text Pirkei Avot asks. "The one who is happy with his or her portion." Imagine a community in which this value is lived out on a daily basis: People spend less time shopping and more time playing cards with their children, hosting friends at home. Neighbors exchange toys and share yard tools instead of purchasing new ones, and perhaps even help each other with household tasks. The synagogue has a community garden that provides food for kiddush and a communal compost heap. The Jewish community center has a bin for swapping and recycling textiles.
It sounds fairly simple, and yet it's a radical departure from the hyperindividualized, highly consumptive way we have been living; it is consistent with Jewish values and very much in keeping with the notion of environmental sustainability.
Environmental activist and educator Bill McKibben has called upon us to rethink the ways we conceive of community, focusing on local resources to sustain us and community to provide security and happiness. "In a changed world," McKibben writes in his 2007 book Deep Economy, "comfort will come less from ownership than from membership. If you're a functioning part of a community that can meet at least some of its needs -- for food, for energy, for companionship, for entertainment, for succor -- then you're more secure." Jewish teachings provide many guidelines for sustainable living: prizing community over hyperindividualism; relationship over wealth; and long-term well-being over instant gratification.
In November, religious leaders from across the world will gather at Windsor Castle to share long-range strategies for addressing global climate change and environmental sustainability in their communities. Jewish environmental leaders internationally have begun a high-level process to develop and implement a Jewish pathway toward sustainability. We should support this effort as a high priority investment in our long-term well-being. Let us embrace the opportunity of The Three Weeks this year to respond to the warnings of the scientific community, not just by reducing our electric bill, but by renewing our relationship with the world's limited resources and with one another.
Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield directs The Jewish Greening Fellowship, a project of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. Evonne Marzouk is executive director of Canfei Nesharim.
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