Over here in the Cradle of Humanity Jews are ardently building their sukkahs. The serious ones are already finished. If you happen to be in Israel, or any other country with a sizeable Jewish population look out for small, fragile looking huts. Jews build these sukkah huts every year for Sukkot, or the Hebrew Holiday […]
A quiet little how-to book has been translated into Hebrew offering basic sex education to Israel’s Orthodox Jews.
Treading the path of righteousness involves the ecology too. It had never occurred to me that if I were to go camping on Mt. Meron for the upcoming Lag B’Omer celebration, that I’d actually be on pilgrimage. I never thought of my visits to the Western Wall in Jerusalem as a pilgrimage. But during the […]
Green Pilgrim Jerusalem hosts a week-long international symposium on greening pilgrimage, with major religious leaders from around the world. Faith and community leaders from around the world will be speaking on ecological, urban and social development as influenced by mass pilgrimage. Our report on the massive urban sprawl that Mecca is becoming illustrates the ecological […]
Matzah balls, the only Eastern European food that crossed over to Sephardic cuisine. While Ashkenazic Jews have enthusiastically adopted the spicy foods of Israeli’s Sephardic communities, there hasn’t been much culinary exchange from the other direction. Ordinarily, Sephardic Jews (Middle Eastern and North African origin) wrinkle their noses at the foods of Eastern European Jewry. […]
The Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shvat, a day especially loved by children, is a special eco-day in Israel. Celebrate it with a fruity feast. It’s true, a few days before the Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shvat occurs, the almond trees in Israel begin to shake blossoms out along their branches. Travelers along the Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem highway […]
Legal, or a human rights violation? The “Bodies” exhibit raised a storm of controversy in Israel. Israelis are no strangers to making art from live naked humans. Green Prophet’s coverage of Spencer Tunick’s photo events showing hundreds of social and ecological activists standing nude in the Dead Sea proves that “prudish” doesn’t describe the Israeli […]
“We’re one of the most environmentally friendly cities in Israel,” says Kfar Saba mayor Yehuda Ben Hamo. In Israel, each municipality raises a Jewish holiday temporary tent called a succah for the benefit of local workers and visitors. This year, the very first succah illuminated by solar energy will go up in the central-region […]
Miriam talks of Yom Kippur and the power of consciousness. The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur is a day of introspection and prayer. In Israel, it’s a day of closed business and empty streets. The great soul-searching that began on Rosh HaShana climaxes at sunset on this holiest of days, when we seek to connect […]
Going into the London Olympic games, Green Prophet covered issues affecting Arab athletes who planned to compete in the 26th modern Olympiad since the games were revived in Athens in 1896. These are also religious ones, such as whether Muslim athletes could be exempted from fasting on Ramadan, as well as the perennial one over […]
All conferences, regardless of their topic, are inherently unsustainable. International events with attendees and speakers from around the world often leave an enormous carbon footprint before they even begin, mostly due to guests’ air travel. And, when the events do begin, their operations often consume enormous amounts of energy and produce massive quantities of waste. […]
Faith is something which the Middle East has a lot of. Whether that faith is being used solely for good is another matter altogether – some are trying to change that by invoking the shared green aspects of the Abrahamic faiths Sharing Eden – Green teachings from Jews, Christians and Muslims is a small book […]
As we learn from Starbucks and their new sustainable approach of using a red beetle to color their pink drinks (that’s instead of oil tar), when you follow dietary laws for any religion, sometimes the least healthy option is the one you have to take. In the midst of the Jewish holiday of Passover, Jews in […]
Jews in Israel and around the world prepare at least a couple weeks in advance for the week-long Passover holiday More than any other Jewish holiday, Passover is all about the food.
Starbuggs? Starbucks is now turning to natural food colorings, using bugs? The bad news for vegans and those who keep kosher. It might not be able to turn a profit in Paris, but Starbucks coffee has a sizeable presence in the Middle East, operating in nine countries, employing thousands and serving up coffee and treats since […]