Why Being a “Good” Jew is Good for the Environment

Hi my name is Jack Reichert and I am a new writer for Green Prophet. Even as a kid I was interested in the environment.

Once, in the second grade, I rallied all of my classmates to donate one recess a week to clean up litter from the yard. That was the same year that a city councilman asked me to help him with his campaign because I wrote a letter to him that he should clean up Boston Harbor.

News about the environment is suddenly starting to take shape in Israel. Just last week a campaign to green Hanukkah spread like wildfire across the Internet.

The idea was to light one less candle each day of the holiday this would reduce carbon dioxide emissions and help save the world. I have a better idea for saving our planet… Why don’t we take one day a week, just one day, and not use any electricity?

I understand that this would mean putting away the Ipod for a day and not hopping in the car to check out what’s going on in the mall. But the benefits would not only be reducing our carbon dioxide emissions by almost 15% percent but we would also be able to re-connect with our quieter days back before electricity.

Let go of it all, for a day.

Wait a minute! Religious Jews already do this! The Shabbat is the day of rest, meaning, every week religious Jews refrain from using electricity, traveling, music. Only what lights that they have on from before the Shabbat are used. No turning on lights that were forgotten about.

And who said being religious was antiquated?