The Jewish Ecosphere Springs Forward: Social Justice & Innovation in the Expanding Universe of “JOFEE”

By Erica Brody for Zeek

The JOFEE Dialogues with Nigel Savage, Jon Marker, Nili Simhai, Seth Cohen, Lisa Farber Miller & Jakir Manela

One night this week — before spring arrived! — a statistic kept popping up in my Twitter feed: “Americans spend 90% of their time indoors.” Disturbing, right? As it turns out, the architect Marc Kushner had mentioned this disturbing fact during his TED2014 talk about how design and space impact our culture, communities and lives, deeply. Although he was talking about architecture, I was struck by the amount of time Americans spend outdoors — or don’t. Could it really be so little? The EPA thinks so.

One day this week, one of the top international bodies of scientists issued a report that might as well have been called “Wake the F-ck Up” or “Everything You Need to Know to Refute Climate Change Deniers.” Bearing the somewhat more sensible title “What We Know: The Reality, Risks and Response to Climate Change,” the report came on the heels of an all-nighter pulled by 31 members of Congress who spent their night indoors – but not at home — to talk about the urgency of acting on climate change. Like many others, Senator Brian Schatz (D, HI, Jewish) talked about impact on local communities: from flooding and erosion to higher food prices. It’s been a headline-heavy week for climate change, what with President Obama launching the Climate Change Data Initiative and Cosmos doing its thing.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch — well, in the Jewish ecosphere — a jackpot of data emerged thanks to the findings of a broad-based study released last week called Seeds of Opportunity: A National Study of Immersive Jewish Outdoor, Food, and Environmental Education (JOFEE), created by Hazon, in partnership with the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Leichtag Foundation, The Morningstar Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, Schusterman Family Foundation, and UJA-Federation of New York.

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Mediterranean cleanup targets will not be met, says expert

Much of the garbage along Israel’s shoreline originated in Egypt and Lebanon.

By Zafrir Rinat for Haaretz

The countries of the European Union and the Mediterranean will not succeed in carrying out their ambitious task of treating the main concentrations of pollutants in the sea by the end of the decade. When 2020 rolls around, it will apparently be possible to deal with only about half of the 130 major polluting sites.

This was the assessment on Sunday by Nicholas Hanley, Head of International, Regional and Bilateral Relations at the European Commission Directorate-General for the Environment. On Tuesday Henley will participate in the Environment 2050 conference at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv. He comes to Israel from Amman, where an up-to-date picture of the treatment of pollution problems was presented at a meeting of representatives of the Mediterranean countries.

Eight years ago the Mediterranean countries and the EU adopted a resolution to apply a policy of treating the major concentrations of contamination around the Mediterranean by the year 2010. In the framework of the resolution, 130 such sites were identified throughout the countries of the region. Most of the sites are in urban areas that discharge municipal and industrial sewage into the sea, or where there are large waste disposal sites that get partially washed out the sea.

“Apparently by the target date we will be able to deal with about half the sites,” said Hanley, “but it is possible that there will be new sites because of population growth and the increased rate of consumption of various products in some of the countries.”

He offered the example of urban areas in Egypt that are developing without suitable infrastructures, where some of the waste ultimately finds its way into the Mediterranean Sea.

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Top 6 Green Passover Tips

by Claire Moshenberg for MomsRising.org

I love Seder, and I would never want to give up any of the traditional pieces of the meal, or any of the traditions my family shares. Luckily, I can make Seder less toxic without losing any of the components that I love, and you can too! A few simple changes will drastically reduce toxic chemicals on your table and in your home this Passover.

Charoset: Apples are a key ingredient in charoset; unfortunately, they’re also a member of the Dirty Dozen, a list of the most pesticide contaminated fruits and vegetables. Minimize toxic chemicals in this beloved dish by using organic apples. If your family uses raisens in their charoset, choose organic raisens as well: grapes are also on the Dirty Dozen list.

Wine and grape juice: Like I mentioned above, grapes are a member of the ominous Dirty Dozen, so it’s important to choose organic grapes, grape juice, and wine when possible. The Jew and the Carrot has recommendations on how to choose an organic Kosher wine for your Seder.

Washing the parsley and bitter herbs: The surface of fruits and veggies can be home to chemicals and pathogens, which is why it’s important to thoroughly wash all your Passover produce, like parsley, particularly if it’s not organic. Rub your fruits and veggies for 30 to 60 seconds under warm running water. Wash inedible peels, like the one on the horseradish; even though you discard the peel, cutting into the fruit or peeling the fruit can transfer chemicals into the fruits flesh through your knife. For edible peels, peeling non-organic fruits and vegetables is an easy way to avoid the chemicals that are absorbed into the peel.

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Sustainability Purim Tips

Purim – the celebration of Esther and Mordechai’s triumph over wicked Haman – is filled with amazing traditions. On Purim night, we rejoice through recounting Esther’s story and through drinking, wearing masks, and partying. We also give back to our community – by giving mishloach manot (gifts of food) to friends and donating to charity. Here is a number of suggestions as to how you can celebrate Purim in a sustainable, fun, and festive way!

SUSTAINABLE SNACKS & SPIRITS

Ditch the dry hamentashen.Crumbly, store-bought hamentashen stuffed with artificially-flavored jelly are a crime against Purim! Fight back by baking your own. Experiment with substituting whole wheat flour and agave nectar in the dough, and think outside the traditional fillings box. Pick up some local jams at the farmers’ market, or make your own apricot jam. Try pinching a dab of Nutella or a dollop of maple-sweetened Mascarpone cheese in the center of your cookies. Your belly will thank you.

Go savory. Who says hamentashen have to be sweet? This year, nix the sugar in the dough, and fill each “cookie” with a mix of sauteed onions, mushrooms and Gruyere cheese, or crubmled feta and spinach – or try making Pizzatashen!

Edible Groggers. Serve crispy, crunchy, NOISY foods this Purim (try things like: fresh veggies and yogurt-dill dip, blue corn chips and salsa or home made pita chips with your favorite store-bought or home made hummus). As guests snack away, their crunches will let Haman know what a wicked, wicked man he really was.

Can the canned fruit! You may want to buy fruit for your hamentashen filling, but try your best to avoid fruit from a can! Buy your fruit for your hamentashen in glass jars, or use fresh fruit. Cans (and most plastics) are lined with a chemical called Bisphenol-A (BPA) which is an endocrine disruptor, and a chemical that all should try their best to avoid. Learn more about Bisphenol-A from Grassroots Environmental Education.

Sustainable drinks. Don’t forget to drink sustainably this Purim. Pick an organic wine from our kosher, organic wine list. For some celebratory Whiskey for Purim, check out the Koval Distillery in Chicago for organic spirits. Or mix your drinks using freshly-squeezed juices (orange, grapefruit, carrot/ginger, wheat grass – it’s up to you!), natural sodas, Ginger Brew, or even homemade seltzer. And if you’re going alcohol-free, these delicious mixers taste just as great on their own.

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How To Get Your Kabbalah Fix While Skiing Down a Mountain

The Spirituality of Outdoor Winter Sports

By Anna Goldenberg for The Jewish Daily Forward

It turns out that I’ve underestimated the spiritual importance of chairlifts.

Give people a Rorschach test with an Austria-shaped ink stain (a spoon tilted to the right with an oversized bowl and a short handle), and skiing is likely to be among the terms associated with my alpine native country. Every winter holiday while I was growing up, my family would fill several suitcases with thermal underwear and we would travel west, from the top right corner of the bowl, where Vienna is located, to the beginning of the handle, or mountainous Salzburg.

Never much of an athlete, I saw skiing as one of the few national duties I had to fulfill (watching “Sissi,” a three-part movie screened every Christmas on TV that offers a heavily romanticized depiction of the life of Austria’s former empress, played by Romy Schneider, was another one). But I always looked forward to the breaks. They came in the form of chairlift rides. Among my favorite activities on the 10-minute trip up the hill were: eating the chocolate my aunt had stuffed in the pockets of my skiing jacket, singing Beatles songs off-key with my cousins, and shouting ‘Mama’ or ‘Papa,’ and seeing if any of the people skiing on the slopes underneath me would reply.

It came as somewhat of a surprise when I recently learned that there are more constructive things to do on the chairlift — like learning about Judaism and strengthening my Jewish identity.

Joshua Segal, a skiing instructor and retired rabbi of Congregation Betenu in Amherst, N.H., offers a program called Ski Kabbalah. On the chairlift ride up, Segal gives his participants a task related to kabbalistic concepts, to be performed while skiing. He says that elements of the Tree of Life, the central mystical concept of Kabbalah, correspond with parts of the human body, and thus kabbalistic concepts such as balance could be directly translated into skiing.

“For example, if you were to take away one thing, what do you have to do to compensate?” he asked. I always dreaded when skiing instructors demanded that I go without sticks, but Segal told me that he only takes skiers who are able to meet these sorts of challenges anyway.

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