By Sara Kohen, Director of Advancement Friedel Jewish Academy
“There are Jews in Nebraska?” is a question I often hear when people ask where I live. The answer is yes—Omaha has a vibrant Jewish community, including an outstanding Jewish day school, Friedel Jewish Academy. At Friedel, we are proud to be part of that community and connected to the broader Jewish world through organizations such as Adamah’s Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition.
Friedel is a community Jewish day school serving students from kindergarten through eighth grade. We joined the JCLC in 2023, and it has been an invaluable resource—offering guidance on climate action, financial support, and opportunities to learn from organizations with similar goals and challenges.
Even before joining JCLC, our school leadership had identified environmental education and sustainability as goals. We seek to develop positive middot (“character traits” in Hebrew) in our students, including preparing them to be responsible stewards of our world and working to reduce our school’s own climate impacts.
We had taken steps in this direction—including a regular environmental education and garden class and multi-stream waste disposal—but we wanted to do more. We also were planning a capital campaign to build a commercial kitchen so that we could bring food service in-house. We wanted this project to be both environmentally and fiscally responsible.
The JCLC helped us turn these goals into action. With its support, we created a clear climate action plan that helped us assess our current practices and plan for future improvements. As we designed our kitchen, we knew our choice of appliances would lock in emissions for years. We wanted electric, energy-efficient equipment, but like many small Jewish organizations, cost was a major barrier. The electric options were, in many cases, more expensive than the gas versions. This is where the JCLC was instrumental.
Through the JCLC, we received an Adamah North American Climate Grant to purchase electric, energy-efficient kitchen equipment. That commitment helped us secure additional funding from local partners, including the Lozier Foundation, the Shirley & Leonard Goldstein Supporting Foundation, and the Special Donor-Advised Fund of the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation. We are also grateful for the support of the many other individual and institutional donors who supported this project.
We finished construction in December of 2025, and we began food service in January. Our new chef creates delicious, fresh, kosher, and plant-based meals and snacks for our students, and we are exploring ways that we can serve as a kosher food resource for the whole community.
Thanks to Adamah and the JCLC, we have reduced emissions from cooking and cut waste by replacing packaged foods with meals made from scratch. We are also working toward eliminating disposable plates and utensils altogether and are holding a “kitchen shower” to help make this a reality.
The initial financial support from Adamah and our other funders also allows us to operate the food service in a way that saves the school money over time. This, in turn, helps us to continue to focus on our mission: providing the educational foundation to develop inquisitive learners who confidently engage with the world through Jewish values.
Our involvement in the JCLC continues to support this mission, and we recommend it to other organizations that are considering joining.