As Passover approaches, a global online gathering is inviting people to explore the holiday’s ancient story of liberation through a modern lens of compassion, sustainability and ethical food choices.

An American group called Jewish Vegan Life (JVL) will host a virtual event titled “Liberation for All: The Compassionate Passover” on March 19, 2026, bringing together rabbis, activists and food innovators to discuss how the themes of the Passover story can inspire more compassionate holiday traditions.

Passover, which commemorates the biblical journey from slavery to freedom, begins during the Hebrew month of Nisan, the biblical new year associated with renewal and transformation. Organizers say the holiday offers an opportunity to rethink how the concept of liberation might extend beyond human freedom to include animals and the natural world.

“Passover is the story of moving from constriction to freedom,” said Michael Gribov, Head of Movement Building at Jewish Vegan Life. “This event invites us to expand that liberation, to our plates, to the planet and to all living beings.”

The live online program will be hosted by Stephanie Dryer and will feature a number of speakers exploring the connection between Jewish tradition and plant-based living.

Rabbi Donn Gross, head of Congregation Bet Dovid in New Jersey, will speak about the spiritual meaning of Passover and how a vegan Seder can deepen the holiday’s message of freedom and compassion.

Megan Tucker, founder of the Los Angeles plant-based company Mort & Betty’s, will share her personal vegan journey and demonstrate a Passover-friendly recipe that brings plant-based cooking to the Seder table.

Gribov will also introduce Jewish Vegan Life’s Passover Earth Day campaign, which connects the themes of liberation and renewal with environmental stewardship.

Participants will learn how to host a plant-based Seder, explore vegan Passover recipes and discuss how Jewish teachings on responsibility and compassion can guide modern food choices.

The event is open to anyone interested in the intersection of Jewish tradition, ethical eating and environmental responsibility. Organizers emphasize that participants do not need to be vegan to attend — only curious.

Registered participants will be able to watch the livestream, interact with speakers during a live chat and receive access to a recording of the event. Members of Jewish Vegan Life will also receive a complimentary copy of the organization’s Vegan Haggadah following the program.

The event takes place Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET and registration is now open online.

Want some more resources on a sustainable Passover? Green Prophet has you covered. Browse below for more.

• 10 Tips For Greening Your Passover
• Passover Recipe: Traditional Matzah Balls
• Haroset, The Passover Seder’s Sweet Treat Recipe
• A Sustainable Passover
• Eco Rabbi Explores Passover Cleaning To Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
• Yoko Ono Greens the Passover Atmosphere at the Ecosphere Festival in Israel
• Ecological Activities in Israel During Passover
• Jews Celebrate “Solar Seder” in the Arava Desert at Kibbutz Lotan
• Recipes for Simanim (Signs) for Rosh Hashanah’s Symbolic Foods

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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. Too bland, too sweet, too overcooked! We know this isn’t always so, but admit that  Sephardic cuisine fits into Israel’s hot, dry climate perfectly.

There’s one Ashkenazic food that everyone in Israel loves, though, and that’s matzah balls. Come Passover, you can walk into a Yemenite or Moroccan housewife’s kitchen and see, floating in the soup pot, a batch of matzah-based dumplings made from a recipe that any Polish grandmother knows by heart. Your haroset may be based on dates or on fresh apples; you may chose to drink toxic kosher-for-Passover coke  or healthy Syrian mint lemonade – your very matzah may look and taste different from your neighbors’ – but matzah balls are pretty much the same all over.

How to make matza balls

This version uses olive oil instead of the traditional fat, shmaltz – rendered chicken fat.

Ingredients:

2 eggs, beaten

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 scant cup matzah meal

1/4 – 1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger (optional)

Combine the beaten eggs, oil, and matzah meal.

Add 1/4 cup water, salt, and ginger.If the mix seems stiff enough to roll into a hard ball, add more water by tablespoons till it’s a stiff batter, not a firm dough.

Cover the batter and put it in the fridge for 2 hours. This step is important if you want light matzah balls. The batter can rest, refrigerated, up to 8 hours or overnight.

Have a medium pot with plenty of boiling, lightly salted water ready. With wet hands, form walnut-sized balls of dough, and drop them in.

Cover and cook the matzah balls over a medium flame for 30 minutes. Lower the heat so that the water simmers after the initial boil.

Remove the matzah balls from the water and either set them aside for later or put them in your soup right away. They may be drained and frozen.

Matzah balls may be cooked directly in the soup, but the result is heavier.

Enjoy!

Eco-Passover hints on Green Prophet:

• 10 Tips For Greening Your Passover
• Avoiding Food Waste On Passover
• Jewish Passover And The Environment

The post Traditional Passover Matzah Balls Recipe appeared first on Green Prophet.

The kosher version of Coca Cola (made without corn products) contains a carcinogen chemical called 4-methylimidazole, or 4-MEI, and California has listed it as a carcinogen.

According to Jewish tradition, the week-long holiday which started on Friday night must not include leaven, or related products in their diet, to remember the story of Exodus. For many Jews, leaven products can include corn, and for that reason to make their soda kosher for the holiday, the toxic replacement is needed. Instead, the kosher version is made with sugar and that 4-MEI chemical to make it taste like the original Coke.

Some stores have brought in Coke from other states, and there is also the Pepsi kosher beverage called Throwback.

It’s not like soda is good for you anyway, and I know that. Drinking it can lead to tooth decay and severe health effects like heart disease. But still, for those of us that drink the stuff here and there, there is no way that the chemicals in it should be carcinogenic.

In US states like California, where environmental awareness is the highest in the world, and legislators are in tune with public outcries, we should be watching with very open eyes what’s going on there to protect ourselves in other parts of the world where toxic chemicals easily pervade our food chain with nary a whimper. If you want to follow deeply what’s happening in Cali, follow our friends at Grist who’ll keep you updated.

::Washington Post

Image of toxic soda from Shutterstock

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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.

We get rid of the chametz (leavened food), buy matzah (unleavened bread), and cook up the dishes that make the holiday special. But Passover doesn’t have to mean throwing out food. 

Here are tips to make the most of your food this Passover, so you don’t waste, and therefore make the holiday more “green.”

1. Use up your chametz (leavened food) before Passover instead of throwing it out. If you have extra, sell it or give it to a non-Jew. You can even sell chametz online. Many charitable organizations collect unopened packages for distribution to the poor after the holiday.
2. Make a detailed menu and shopping list, then buy only what you need. Keep your list from year to year, noting how much you actually used. If your family eats matzah at every meal, a kilogram (two pounds) per person is a fair estimate.
3. Avoid buying Kosher for Passover specialty items like cake mixes. They often aren’t as tasty as the year-round variety, and tend to get thrown out later. Making simple food from scratch is better for the environment and healthier too.
4. Plan an easy menu. The more items you make, the more likely leftovers will get thrown out. You’ll save on cooking gas, water and electricity too.
5. Don’t overeat. Food that ends up on your waist is also a “waste.”
6. Turn your refrigerator to the coldest setting in advance of cooking. Put cooked foods away while they are still hot, to protect them from spoiling. Don’t forget to switch the refrigerator setting back once the food has chilled.
7. Stagger cooking so that your refrigerator can cool food efficiently.
8. Return leftovers to the refrigerator quickly. Save food containers with covers for storing leftovers.
9. Share extra food with neighbors and friends.
10. Donate the money you’ve saved for the mitzva (commandment) of kimcha de-Pischa (Passover flour), to help those in need enjoy their holiday.

For more green saving tips:
Five Edible Wild Plants You Can Pick Yourself
Save Water and Energy in Your Washing Machine with Top Tips
Ten Common Misconceptions about Breastfeeding Your Baby

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The Jewish festival of Passover or Pesach is one in which most people in Israel and Jewish people around the world spend much time in preparation, especially house cleaning and disposing of unwanted items, and over eating highly caloric packed foods, much of which often  goes to waste afterwards. Observant Jews are also made aware of the many Biblical laws and commandments that God gave to the Children of Israel while they wandered in the wilderness of Sinai for 40 years. These laws and commandments are meant to make Jews more aware of the connection between this beautiful holiday to helping to preserve the environment.

Plastic polymers are health hazards

Jews who observe the seven day festival fully also use special dishes that are otherwise in storage in their homes during the rest of the year.

These dishes insure that the family using them will be Kosher for Passover, meaning that no leavened bread products or “hametz” contaminate them. But now, in Israel at least, a new trend is developing in which one-time-use dishes, cutlery, and even cookware is readily available at reasonable prices.

One store chain known as the Peamit Store offers a huge variety of plastic and paper items that can no only cook  and serve your food, but allows you to enjoy the festival without the need without the need to get out the “Pesadiche” dishes and afterwards put them away again.

While this may seem very nice and convenient, those who are concerned environmentalists may wonder what happens to all those used up disposable dishes and utensils during and after the seven day festival.

Well, you guessed it; most of them get thrown into landfills, just like the million dollar mattress did a couple of years back.

Except of cookware made from thin aluminum sheeting, itself polluting to soil and ground water after a period of time, the one time use throw away dishes glassware, and cutlery is made from the same polymer and polystyrene plastics
that plastic beverage bottles are made of. Although some for these disposable items will surely be sorted out and put in recycle bins for plastic materials, it’s probably a sure bet that most of this stuff will wind up in land fills where they will lay for perhaps hundreds of years.

One shouldn’t blame the stores selling the utensils; they are just filling a need expressed by people living in today’s throwaway and fast food influenced society. The real responsibility falls on the general public who can help the environment by recycling these items; or even better, not use them at all and simply go through the process of using the stored Passover dishes and properly cleaning cookware in order for them to be Kosher for Passover.

Naturally, the use of throwaway plastic ware applies during the rest of the year as well.

Read here about Passover environmental issues and those involving use of plastic utensils:

A Plastic Pollution Cocktail: Toxic Chemicals in Everyday Items
Connecting the Profound: Jewish Passover and the Environment
Ten Tips to Avoid Food Wastes on Passover
Eco Rabbi Explores Passover Cleaning as a Good Way to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The post Throwaway Passover Dishes to Fill Landfills appeared first on Green Prophet.

Every year the government warns Israelis to avoid Sinai during Passover. Friends and relatives worry that they will become the next Ghalid Shalit, which is silly given there are now zero Israeli captives, but the fear is real for a people who have always felt surrounded. Even so, many intrepid Israelis in the past made the journey south, where they stayed in small sustainable beach shacks from Dahab to Sharm el-Sheikh, eating local food, living in harmony with the Bedouins – if only for a week. This is as close as Egypt gets to eco-tourism, but this year, it is very unlikely that even the most courageous Israelis will cross the Taba border into Sinai.

The revolution has changed Egypt. Instead of giving its residents a new lease on life, a chance to fix past mistakes (such as haphazard development and poor environmental regulation), it has created more divisions among those on either end of the political spectrum.

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has wiped out thousands of livestock, food prices are high, energy supplies are scarce despite a new oil field in the Gulf of Suez and muggings and kidnappings are on the rise.

This is particularly true in Cairo, where street lights are dimming, and along the Sinai peninsula, one of the most popular tourism areas in the country. Although Americans, Russians, and other foreigners might still be willing to take the risk that a visit might entail, Israelis are very unlikely to bring their business to Egypt this year.

It was always kind of ironic that the Israelis would head back into the territory from which they were supposed to be commemorating their hard-earned escape from slavery. And it had to have been a sore spot for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who each year send out a press release describing how religious Jews should celebrate this important holiday.

But this is actually a depressing development in the relationship between residents of the countries, not to mention the economic strain that continues to plunge Egypt deeper and deeper into trouble.

Forget the government for one minute and think only of every day people. People like you and me who may not love Iranian politics but we would be hard pressed to dislike a normal citizen of that country.

As Sustainable as it Comes

Despite longstanding political fractions, every day Israelis interacted harmoniously with the Bedouins, if not other Egyptians, at least once a year. They brought their families and their good will and left politics at home. They also brought a nice chunk of cash that was injected into the local economy.

Hundreds of Israelis used to flood across the Taba border. In fact, it was almost impossible to go anywhere along the peninsula during Pesach (Passover) where there were no Israelis. But this year, they will be a rare sight.  And the rest can’t be blamed for heading elsewhere when so many reports of trouble have emerged from the region in the last few months.

In January, the Chief of Police told Al Jazeera that they have gotten Northern Sinai under control. But he can’t be trusted. Instead, the popular Egyptian commentator Sandmonkey claims it will take at least 10 years for Egypt’s police force to become adequately dispossessed of their old bad habits and trained again as effective peacekeepers.

In the meantime, Egypt’s troubles grow thicker.

Image credit: Moses Parts Red Sea, Shutterstock

More on Eco-Tourism in Egypt:
Is Troubled Egypt Ripe Enough for Eco-Tourism?
New El Mandara Eco-Haven Pops up in Fayoum
Romantic Desert Lodge in Egypt Offers Fresh Eggs and Sanity

The post Egypt Suffers When Israelis Spend Passover Elsewhere appeared first on Green Prophet.

Today Jews around the world are working vigorously right now to remove each and every last speck of hametz (leaven) in their homes, and most see it as a time to do some spiritual housecleaning as well.

Green Prophet is always looking to religious sources for answering the complex challenges that the world faces today in the green movement. And here in the Middle East, the time is ripe for an environmental revolution too.

Here I dig up an old interview from 2007, on the green connection to Judaism’s Passover and the environment. The interview is with Rabbi Yehudah Leo Levi, a physicist, rabbi and author who lives in Jerusalem.

Q: How is Passover connected to the environment?

A: The connection between Passover and the environment is somewhat indirect, but extremely profound. According to the Torah (Jewish tradition), one central purpose of the creation of the human being was to complete the development the world God had created in His wisdom.

The human being was put into the wonderful Garden of Eden, not, primarily, to enjoy its delicious fruits, but rather “to serve it and guard it” (Genesis 2:15). Or, in the words of the Midrash: “When God created Adam, he took him to survey all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him: ‘See My works, how pleasant and praiseworthy they are… be careful not to spoil and ruin My world. For, if you spoil, there is no one to repair after you” (Qoheleth Rabba 7:13).

In other words, the human being is to be a caretaker, not owner, of the world.

Subsequently mankind forgot this message and turned to paganism, serving the powers of nature instead of their Creator. Thus they travelled on a path of self-destruction. To save humanity, God chose Abraham to become the progenitor of a nation which was to bring God’s message to humanity. That nation was formed on the night of the first Passover for the explicit purpose of teaching mankind what God wants of them, which is primarily the development of the world, physically, socially, and spiritually. Thus, in a sense, Passover commemorates the creation of the mentors, who were to make mankind aware of their duty to care for their environment.

Q: What is the spiritual message of Passover

A: Because of His concern for a faltering humanity, God “created”, on Passover night, a new nation (Israel) to become a “lighthouse” to humanity.

Q: What are some Jewish traditions in general that show the faith is concerned with protecting the environment

A: Judaism commands the preservation of the environment by prohibiting its wasteful utilization.

Even during war, which may occasionally be forced on the Jewish people, they are forbidden to cut down fruit trees – even their enemies’ (Deuteronomy 20:19).

Jewish tradition expands this to forbid unnecessary destruction of all elements of the environment (Maimonides, Melakhim 6:10); even wasteful use of fuel is explicitly forbidden (Babyl. Talmud, Shabbath 67b).

Another interesting example is the concern lest discomfort be caused to the neighbor. Especially sources of excessive smoke, unpleasant odors, dust, and vibrations are forbidden, without the permission of the neighbors (Shulchan ‘Arukh, Choshen Mishpat 155:36). The reader will find there over a hundred paragraphs listing such prohibitions.

A third illustration is the Torah’s concern for proper city-planning. It demands a “green belt,” about a kilometer wide around each city, a belt which may not be used for building. If you need more housing, start a new city. (Cf. Numbers 35 & Rabbi S.R. Hirsch’s commentary to Leviticus 25:34, at length.)

For more reading:

1. Torah & Science – Their Interplay in the World Scheme, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem & Nanuet, NY, 2006; chap. 3.
2. Facing Current Challenges – Essays on Judaism, Lambda, Brooklyn, NY, 1998; Essay 36.

Rabbi Levi’s bio: I grew up in New York. There I got my academic degrees: B.E.E., M.Sc., Ph.D. (Physics), my Rabbinic ordination and a professorship at City College. In 1970 I moved to Israel to set up the Physics/Electro-Optics Dept. at the Jerusalem College of Technology – the second such department in the world. (I had to write the text-book myself; it was eventually published by Wiley in N.Y.)

Ten years later, I was appointed Rector there. Since my retirement in 1991, I am continuing bi-weekly lectures there, primarily in Judaism. I also give a weekly lecture at the Jerusalem Academy of Jewish Studies.

The post Connecting the Profound: Jewish Passover and the Environment appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Jewish Passover holiday is associated with springtime, freedom and joy. The pleasure of cleaning out the old for the new and a good spring clean. Well the joy of the Passover spring clean took a very nasty turn for me and my family yesterday, and it was an an even sadder one for another family.

My husband took our son to work with him yesterday, and while in the kitchen he watched as our toddler played with a small water bottle. The next moment he was gagging and screaming, my husband quickly checked the bottle – it was bleach!

This is a heart stopping moment: an ambulance was called and our small, baby boy was rushed to hospital. Fortunately for us he is okay, but while in the Emergency another young boy was rushed in, unconscious, poisoned: he had also drunk from an innocent water bottle, though this time filled with pesticides and he didn’t survive.

Spring cleaning has become a madness of chemical cocktails to get your house sparkling and clean but along side this, people become careless and the rate of accidental poisonings takes an enormous jump and a large percentage of these stories have very unhappy endings.

Apart from all these cleaning chemicals being extremely bad news for the environment, they are also poisonous for your family and home, and you breathe in the fumes as you clean. The cleaner at my husband’s place of work had brought in bleach in a water bottle from home and left it in the kitchen – that is how simple it was.

This Passover, being green is not just for the environment but for your family too – use vinegar and baking soda and I promise they do the job very well and you will all be a lot healthier and happier.

Read more on injury prevention tips here.

Read more on green cleaning products:
A green guide to home cleaning products
Get your dry cleaning wet
Eco-Rabbi on Passover Cleaning

Image via gamenerd

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Pessach, or Passover in English, is an interesting paradox of both returning to a way of simple living as well as celebrating the holiday in a truly royal manner. Matza, one of the primary mitzvot of the holiday, is made of the most basic ingredients – flour and water.

Yet, the Seder (the holiday meal) should be a truly royal event to the extent that it is the only day of the year when Jews are supposed to use all of their finest dishes. Dig into matza ball soup!

Perhaps this paradox is symbolic of the Jewish belief that one can only become a free man, a member of royalty, by freeing oneself from materialism. In this guest pot, Sviva Israel – an environmental education center – offers 10 tips to make Pesach more meaningful and kinder to the environment and one another.

1. Clean out your shelves– Do we really need all the things in your closet? Most of us don’t need 30% of what we own. Clear up your shelves and enjoy the extra space. You don’t need to rent space in Public Storage for unnecessary possessions.

2. Your Trash Can Save Others Cash – Clothing, food and other items in good condition can be used by others if you don’t need them. Give them to friends, charity organizations, or leave them neatly by the trash bin for others to take. What must be trashed can be separated into paper and plastics for recycling, which reduces landfill and helps preserve our green spaces.

3. Scavenger Hunt – There are some great treasures to be found that others have thrown out. Before Pesach, many people leave out great books, toys, furniture and the like. Save money and landfill space by taking them home and enjoying them.

4. Avoid Harmful Chemicals – Heavily acidic chemicals are bad for your health and the environment. If you can afford it, buy organic cleaners, or try old-fashioned alternatives like vinegar and baking soda.

5. Holy Fire – Fuel your hametz fire with recycled mitzvoth by burning your lulav from Sukkot . Burn your hametz in an area that won’t leave the fire marks until the winter rains. Remove the hametz from plastic and polystyrene packaging before burning, to avoid releasing dangerous chemicals in the air that can cause respiratory disease.

6. Seder Solutions – Ideally, according to Halacha and to minimize our environmental impact, one should not use disposables for the Seder. If you feel you can only host the 30 guests you have invited to your Seder by serving it on disposables, plan to use the minimal amount for each table setting, without superfluous courses and trappings.

7. The Simple Life – Do we really need flour-free Cheerios and pot-noodles for Pesach? Try skipping processed and over-priced Kosher-L’Pesach Foods and enjoy the simple pleasures of a baked potato and salad. Your body, your wallet and the earth will appreciate it.

8. Afikoman – Don’t offer the kids the latest electronic fad. Try suggesting your children a family trip during the year. You may be surprised to find they prefer to spend special time with you to the latest gadget. Alternately, think of gifts that can inspire their love of the natural world – binoculars, bug-identification kits, nature books, etc.

9. Stay Close to Home – Instead of guzzling gas by driving for hours up north and getting stuck in traffic jams, discover the beautiful trails that can be found near your home. There are some beautiful trails and nature sights close to most cities in Israel.

10. Aliya LaRegel – Recall the traditional pilgrimage on foot or mule to Jerusalem using the modern-day equivalent of public transportation. You’ll discover that it can be fun, economical, less stressful than trying to find parking places, and you’ll help reduce your ecological footprint.

The post 10 Tips For Greening Your Passover appeared first on Green Prophet.

So what are you going to do during the days of the holiday?  What do you have planned? We’ve assembled a list of ecological activity suggestions for those of you living in Israel, and for those of you that are young and old.

Aerial Acrobatics on Hiria (aka Trash Mountain): On March 31st, Hiria Mountain (the huge garbage hill that has been trying to green its nasty reputation in recent years, and which is pictured above) will be offering tours to the top of the mountain where visitors will be able to enjoy a spectacular view of Gush Dan and a special acrobatics show.  For more information call Yaniv at 050-4488962.

The Earth is in Our Hands Eco Festival: On April 1st and 2nd, Neot Hashikma Park in Rishon Lezion will be hosting an eco festival for the entire family (check out the poster to the left).  Events include a green circus, paper recycling and crafting workshops, composting instruction, and eco-art exhibitions.

Potato Festival: This Potato Festival happening on April 1st in Hevel Habasor will include tours of the potato fields, a colorful farmer’s market, and a pet adoption station.  For more information call 052-9991003

Yevulim Farm Ecological Pesach Camp: The 5-10 year old campers at this ecological camp in central Israel will be exposed to a variety of activities that strengthen their connection to nature.

Read more about Passover:
Eco Rabbi Explores Passover Cleaning as a Good Opportunity to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle
A Happy, Sustainable Passover to All
Ten Tips to Avoid Food Waste on Passover

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