Last week, God took care of the waste in the camp. This week Moses hits the rock. The Israelites had been traveling in the desert for roughly forty years, and Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, dies. After Miriam dies suddenly the People of Israel lack water. Commentaries explain that in Miriam’s merit a […]
This is the first book I’ve read in a long time that I have felt so conflicted about. I bought it after having seen it prominently displayed in UK bookshops, and having read some of the author’s incisive political writings in The New Yorker. I anticipated that it would be illuminating and instructive, and expected […]
In the spirit of using every possible material available and avoiding waste, Israeli designer Zohar Yarom has found a creative and functional purpose for furniture fabric samples. She makes handbags out of them. After receiving degrees in design from the Bezalel school in Jerusalem and Parson’s in New York, Zohar founded her own ZY design […]
We had just settled into a quiet cottage near the Dead Sea. Despite the intense heat outside our windows, we were still excited about getting out to float in the mineral-rich salty water. My friends had their swimsuits on and were just out the door. But wait a second, I said. All the lights are […]
This week’s Bible segment describes revolution and miracles. The leadership of Moses and his brother Aaron are questioned and God comes and backs up his choice with various miracles. But the challenge was no simple disagreement. Korach’s challenge to Moses was seen as blasphemy. God had set up the camp to be an incubator for […]
“The illumination is made possible thanks to the emergence of an exhilarating new discipline, one that integrates unprecedented knowledge of plants as living organisms with their fossil record and the role they play in driving global environmental change. “As we do so, we can see clearly that plants are not ‘silent witnesses to the passage […]
Baladi, a word that Israelis adopted from Arabic, means “national” or “of the country”. It is also the name that French-born Israeli designer, Brigitte Cartier, decided to give her design studio. Her Baladi Company for Ecological Progress takes our national garbage and transforms it into beautiful designs that we can all be proud of. After […]
According to that old expression, beggars can’t be choosers. But Israeli designer Amit Brilliant proves that saying wrong with her line of recycled wallets, bags, notebook covers, and hats – Beggars. She chooses not to dump what would normally end up in the trash and turn it into something useful and aesthetic instead. In other […]
“We face the most almighty hangover, as the toxins unleashed by our century-long binge work their way through the earth’s system. We have to detoxify. We have to sober up. We have to come to grips….” from ‘Confessions of an Eco-Sinner’ by Fred Pearce. Pearce has written a book for the ecologically and socially minded. […]
It’s one thing when designers take brand new ready-made materials and transform them into something else. It’s another thing entirely when designers take old ready-mades and reincarnate them in order to avoid waste. Reincarnation is what Israeli designer Doron Sar-Shalom is all about. His designs, which consist mainly of lamps, are constructed out of unlikely […]
Strolling down the glitzy northern part of Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Street this week, something strange caught my eye among all the designer gowns and stiletto pumps. Garbage. Literally, garbage. No, not on the street. In the window display. The garbage – which included aluminum cans and newspapers – was in the window display of Cotton, […]
I recently wrote about Environment California’s report on Formaldehyde in nursery furniture and the potential threat to our children’s health. Well, Friends of the Earth (FoE USA) are hot on the heels of this report and have released their own findings regarding toxic fire retardants common in baby products and it does not paint a […]
For those of you following our Great Green Prophet Giveaway with Yoav Kotik, we are proud to announce our two winners – Rebecca Markowitz and Herman Gregorian! Both of them came up with very creative ideas for reusing things that would otherwise end up in the garbage bin, and we are going to reward them […]
There are lots of great environmentally friendly outdoor activities to do during Shavuot, but if you don’t feel like going outdoors (or if you’re in a cheese coma) then the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership is hosting an online seminar about Shavuot and the environment. We applaud the Heschel Center for this creative […]
When attempting to incorporate new elements and habits into our life what is the best way to do this? If I want to be greener, how do I go about doing it? If I want to be friendlier, how do I add this to my life? In this week’s Weekly Bible segment the laws of […]
Here is the first in the summer season of Green Prophet ‘eco-reads festival’: environment-focussed books , some sharp and caustic, some funny or fact-filled, all written to get us thinking and working for the earth. Over the next month or so, a new review will go live each week, written by a diverse group of […]
Forget the eco-friendly lightbulbs. Arik Levy’s got a new solution: Teaming up with couture lighting company Saazs and other noted designers, the invention is light-emitting glass plates. Apparently something called “planilum technology”, which sounds like it’s straight from a work of science fiction or comic book, enables the glass itself to emit light. And cutting-edge […]
I hate to admit it (especially since I’m a vegetarian and like to think of Shavuot as my holiday), but sooner or later the cheese thing is gonna get old. And not in a French, moldy blue cheese kind of way. More of in a self-induced lactose intolerance kind of way. Which is why it […]
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) just published a lengthy article about the cleantech scene in Israel. JTA articles are republished in Jewish newspapers around the world, and it is nice to see Israel’s cleantech sector getting publicity in the Diaspora. For another example, see Karin Kloosterman’s interview in the New Vilna Review. I am quoted […]
We’d featured Vertigo’s eco-village taking root in a chicken coop on Green Prophet before, and our friend Ehud from the Jerusalem Post, wrote a brilliant piece on the village. Today Rivi Nissim, our multi-talented dance friend, photographer and architect from Bodyways, Israel’s largest dance portal, sent us a notice of a new eco-themed festival she’s […]
In one of our past prophecies we wrote about Israeli clothing company, Bagir, and their men’s suits made out of recycled PET plastic bottles. But the EcoGIR suit is not the only environmentally friendly product that this company has up its sleeve. They’re always thinking of ways to make their suits greener. I talked with […]
For those of you who missed out on our first Great Green Prophet Giveaway, the competition is on again! And this time the prize is local, handmade, and recycled – so we’re especially proud. Yoav Kotik, an Israeli artist who reinvents garbage materials into beautiful jewelry and other creations, has graciously agreed to give an […]
One week a year, every year, Hebrew books get their chance to shine. A tradition that began with modest book stalls on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv in 1926, Hebrew Book Week has since grown to enormous dimensions and every municipality and book store in Israel finds a way to celebrate the event. Usually, this […]
Could nature ever obliterate all our traces? How would it undo our monumental cities and public works, and reduce all our myriad plastics and toxic synthetics back to benign, basic elements? Alan Weisman: ‘The World Without Us’ 2007 Halfway through reading this enthralling book, I realized I was looking at the world in a new […]