What is your T-shirt saying? Buy one of these and you plant a tree in Lebanon. T-shirts have been used to convey messages for decades. These days, popular messages on tees may indicate what city you’re a fan of (as in I heart NY) or what brands you like (in the form of a big […]
The Mayor of Omer insists that Bedouins are behind the felling of thousands of trees on disputed lands. Every so often we are put in the unfortunate position of having to weigh our environmental concerns against socio-political issues. A while ago, we wrote about Palestinian architect Omar Yousef whose philosophy and style are based on […]
This book is unusual. Firstly, by virtue of covering the topic of forest gardening at all, but also unusual in another respect. Many gardening books either concentrate on being packed with practical How-To information, or on offering glossy fantasies for gardeners. In Creating a Forest Garden Martin Crawford has expertly covered both bases. There are […]
[youtube width=”560″ height=”400″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anjsDjPvsN8&feature=player_embedded[/youtube] Trees tell stories. And it’s not just because you can see and measure their rings. In Israel there are thousands of old trees with history. Serious history. Some have “seen” great battles, heard prophets, witnessed the advent of new religions and the rise and fall of different empires through the ages. The […]
Tu B’Shvat (the Jewish new year holiday for the trees) happens in late winter. This means that many people are gathering dried fruits and nuts (in a squirrel-like fashion), but it also means that others are planning a Tu B’Shvat seder or meal. What is a Tu B’Shvat seder? The tradition of the Tu B’Shvat […]
Summer is always hot in the Middle East, but this season has gotten really fiery in Lebanon, where blazes have damaged over 15 million square meters of forest since June. The Lebanese Daily Star reports that farmers who burn their land after clearing it don’t take note of wind and dry conditions that quickly spiral […]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVZeLgs2aTs[/youtube] In Israel for the first time last week, Hollywood stars Liev Schrieber and Naomi Watts (and their two cute kids) planted a pistachio tree (and other trees) in the Galilee with the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Though we loved their appearances in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “King Kong”, we think that tree planting certificates […]
A UN worldwide tree planting campaign has now reached the 4 billion mark in its drive to plant 7 billion trees world wide. The campaign is being undertaken to fight the effects of climate change; as well as to prevent soil erosion, one of the most common reasons for desertification in many parts of the […]
Earlier this year, we saw members of the Lebanese group IndyACT trek out into the snowy wilderness to protect Lebanon’s snow from catastrophic climate change. This week IndyACT members, along with their friends in the Association for Forest Development and Conservation (AFDC) were back in action, putting the heat (so to speak) on decision-makers to […]
(Yuli Ziv, founder of MyItThings, cofounder of the Style Coalition) I first talked to Yuli Ziv when she was in the middle of a paparazzi storm. It was Fashion Week in New York and she was just about to enter the Justin Timberlake show. Walking over to her website MyItThings, the Tel Aviv native, now […]
“So Hiram, King of Tyre, gave King Solomon timber of cedar and timber of cypress according to all his desire.”-Book of Kings vs. 24 A recent article by Ahmed Khatib in the Lebanese Daily Star emphasized the dangers of climate change and global warming to Lebanon‘s remaining cedar groves, which have been a historic national […]
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 last week’s Eco-Rabbi post we discussed water and life. In this week I will discuss man, trees and the receiving of the Bible (Torah) on Mount […]
Our resourceful friends at the Bedouin NGO Bustan are refusing to allow the current tension in the South of Israel affect them. Despite having to cancel some tree planting dates due to the war and the related school closures, they have upped sticks to Tel Aviv and are organising a benefit evening this coming wednesday […]
Tu B’Shvat is the Jewish holiday marking the beginning of a new year for trees, and is usually celebrated by planting trees and exchanging gifts of dried fruit with loved ones. While these traditional activities are great and we support going out to plant trees (thus increasing the amount of carbon-eating leaves out there), these […]
In this week’s segment from the Torah, Parshat Vayigash, Jacob and his family go down to Egypt to Joseph, who is now second, only to Pharaoh, in Egypt. On his way down the Bible explains that Jacob went via Beersheba. The Midrash Bereshit Rabbah, a sixth century commentary on the bible, notices extra language used […]