This week we begin our celebration of the festival of Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights. The main event of Hanukkah is the lighting of the Menorah, a candelabra.The Menorah has 9 arms, one for each day of the holiday, plus one more candle for lighting the other ones. One of the lessons […]
Noam Dolgin is a Jewish environmental educator and the executive director of the Green Zionist Alliance (GZA). Based in Vancouver, Canada, he travels regularly around North America teaching about Jewish environmental values and Israel’s environment. Green Prophet sits down with Noam to learn a little more about the Green Zionist Alliance and what it does. […]
Nearly one month before the climate talks in Copenhagen begin, a crucial event to reach out to the eighty-five per cent of humanity who follow a religion kicked off in London’s Windsor Castle. From 2-4 November, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon co-hosted the global gathering of inter-faith leaders: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet. The meeting […]
A ban on alcohol sanitizer products and a looming swine flu, may keep pilgrims away from Hajj. As the annual Hajj or pilgrimage to the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina draw near, the question once again is whether the Saudi government can adequately deal with more than 3 + million pilgrims that are […]
“Defenders of the environment,” Shireen Qudosi explores the “green” beliefs of Islam’s Sufis. Sufism is the undiscovered sect within Islam known only through its most famous disciple, the 13th century philosopher poet Rumi whose work reflected strong themes pairing nature and spirituality. Sufis, “heirs of a mystical ancient tradition”, helped propagate the faith to the height of […]
Planting green roots in the Muslim community in America, this video points out the Islam-inspired Green movements in Washington and California. Like the Jewish eco-groups established for years already in the US, we see over here in Israel how the green values from America translates well to Israel. America’s environment culture has a positive knock-on […]
Israeli Bedouin go back to the green roots they’ve always had. Sometimes, when an irresistible force meets an immovable object – like when the government decides to go through with a development plan in a certain area, despite the objections of local residents – you get a “big bang.” But in Israel’s Negev desert, an […]
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may still be considered as one of the most conservative from a religious standpoint. But with the opening of the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, otherwise known as KAUST, a new era in academic learning, combined with new innovations in ecological architecture and design, has begun in which […]
If you are in the California area this winter and you care about food issues, consider heading to Hazon‘s annual food conference, from December 24-27. This is the same group running the sustainable food tour coming up in Israel. This Jewish food seminar looks at the ethics of animal slaughter, sustainable Israeli and Palestinian farming […]
For Jews in Israel, there is probably no better time to reflect on one’s place in nature and the health of the environment than during Sukkot, the Festival of Booths or the Jewish harvest festival. When I lived in Jerusalem, I could see the small make-shift sukkahs (huts) erected everywhere outside my window – each […]
Yom Kippur, which starts tomorrow evening, is a time of reflection, atonement, and looking forward to the year ahead. It is also the only day of the year in Israel when everyone universally powers down – no cars are driven, no TV is broadcast, the radio waves are silent and no businesses are open. It […]
The high holidays keep marching on, and after a reflective and sustainable Rosh Hashanah (and Yom Kippur) comes a (hopefully green) Sukkot. The ecological greenhouse in Kibbutz Ein Shemer will be hosting their annual Green Sukkah Conference again (we wrote about it last year as well) with this year’s topic being “The Water Crisis as […]
With the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) coming up this week, many of us are reflecting on the past year and making resolutions for the next. These resolutions may include ways to treat ourselves better, ways to be better to those around us, and ways to make a more positive impact on our surroundings. Making […]
A new NGO, known as Green Ramadan, plans to make Muslims and non-Muslims more aware of protecting the environment. Daniella touched on the new Ramadan project earlier. Meanwhile the organization is so new that its website, www.greenramadan.org is still in the development stages. Yet, the message being given will hopefully bring a new awareness among Muslims, […]
Suburban mosques in Illinois are preaching carpools, recycling and reduced meat consumption this month as part of a Green Ramadan campaign launched by the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. According to the Daily Herald, the Council includes 50 mosques with 40,000 members. Five mosques have officially signed on, including the first solar mosque […]
Jordan opened 15 lower-cost vegetable markets Saturday in several cities in honor of Ramadan, the month-long Muslim fasting holiday that began Friday. According to the Jordan Times, the government began the market program last Ramadan. In exchange for a free stall, water and electricity, farmers agree to mark their produce down 30 percent. The program […]
A year ago, James wrote an article on Green Prophet about a unique organization known as the Sulha Peace Project and its role in reconciliation among peoples of different religious faiths and cultures, which is what the word sulha or reconciliation in Arabic is supposed to be about. The Sulha Peace Project was founded in […]
The links between religion and environmental concern/activism are no news to Green Prophet. We’ve covered them in our Eco Rabbi series, discussion of the environment and the Qu’ran, and in stories about multi-faith perspectives on the environment. But it was news to discover an Eco-Activist Beit Midrash (EABM) in Jerusalem’s Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo, which, in […]
Just six months ago, JGooders.com was started as way to build a global, accessible, vibrant, and transparent central Jewish and Israeli arena that would connect needs and generosity; social initiators and social enablers, and allow everyone to Do Good. [from JGooders.com] JGooders is off to a fast start, as hundreds of Non Profit Organizations have […]
Coming to Israel for the first time is now becoming more environmentally friendly. Not only does Taglit-Birthright still offer a free 10-day trip for Jewish 18 to 26 year olds, but now each trip incorporates at least one environmental awareness aspect, and some newer tracks are even environmentally centered. Taglit Birthright Israel first started in […]
Every month, observant Jewish women in Israel and around the world immerse in a ritual bath known as a mikveh. Some men do it too before the Sabbath and holidays. Now a unique project in Jerusalem intends to recycle water from the mikveh showers that people take before immersing in the pool of living water.
Twenty years, ago, Sally Bingham went to her local bishop and announced that she wanted to be ordained so that she could become the world’s first priest for the environment. She was received with some skepticism. Undeterred, she embarked on almost a decade of study and became an Episcopalian minister in 1998. She went on […]
(Modern-day Israelites “glean” at a Tel Aviv market to help feed African refugees in Israel.) Chapter 25 of the biblical Book of Leviticus relates how God instructed the Children of Israel on how to make of most out of the land when growing crops, and how to care for livestock, and for servants who worked […]
In last week’s Eco Rabbi I discussed aspects of vegetarianism and Judaism. This week’s Eco-Rabbi post I discuss cleaning for the holiday of Passover. This week Jews all over the world are cleaning up their homes in preparation for the festival of Passover (Pessach in Hebrew). On Passover one cannot own, in their home, an […]
Each week Orthodox Jews read one segment of the Five Books of Moses so that they can complete the entire Five Books within the course of a year. In this week’s Eco-Rabbi post I discuss a Jewish approach to meat. I’m a vegatarian… sympathizer. (Seriously, could you really eat lamb after looking at that picture?) […]