[Newsletter] March 6 – How Purim Leads to Pesach

From Overindulgence to Freedom: How Purim Leads to Pesach

Originally posted on The Jew and the Carrot.

Co-written by Nigel Savage, Executive Director, Hazon, and Leah Koenig, writer and cookbook author

[Image: Esther and Mordechai]
Esther and Mordechai writing the second letter of Purim
QuotationsMost of us have a sense of the distinct identities of different Jewish holidays. We eat latkes and light candles on Hanukkah; we fast and talk of forgiveness on Yom Kippur. But what we often don’t recognize is the larger framework of the holidays, the way that they connect to each other in an annual cycle of harvest and history. Purim is perhaps the most extreme instance of a holiday which is well-understood in its own terms, but little understood in relation to the season of the year that it inaugurates. Let’s look at the key motifs and traditions of Purim, and place them in the longer time frame that helps us understand their deeper purpose.Continue reading “How Purim Leads to Pesach…”

Healthy, Sustainable Purim Resources

Purim begins sundown, Wednesda[Image: Hamantaschen]y, March 7th

Check out our free Healthy, Sustainable Purim Resources and tips for creating Sustainable Mishloach Manot.

Check out videos from the Hazon Purim vault…

[Image: Meshugene Men]Featuring such hits as… Jewish Girls Gone Wild (2006), Tuchass (2007), Jewno (2008), and Meshugene Men (2009)!

Watch them all!


Whether you’re doing the New York Ride, Israel Ride, Cross-USA Ride, or just getting back on your bike this spring…

Hazon Ride Launch Party with Mark Bittman and Ruth Reichl

Help kick off the 2012 Hazon Ride season with your favorite Hazon alumni, and food writers, cooks, and food activists, Mark Bittman and Ruth Reichl.

[Image: Photo Alt]Tuesday, April 10th
92Y – Lexington & 92nd Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan

7 PM – Cocktails & snacks (kosher for Passover, local, delicious!)
8 PM – Interview with Ruth Reichl & Mark Bittman

Tickets available on a sliding scale, $18-$55. Buy tickets.

This event is graciously hosted by the 92Y and is presented with the Jewish Daily Forward and The Jew and the Carrot Blog.

More Information | Tickets


A Walk Among the Trees: Attend the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s Tree Exhibit – Do Not Destroy

Join Hazon and the Contemporary Jewish Museum for a Jewish Tree Hike

By Deborah Newbrun, Bay Area Director

[Image: Lisa Kokin, Fauxliage: No Birds Sing, 2011 via the Contemporary Jewish Museum]
Lisa Kokin, Fauxliage: No Birds Sing, 2011 via the Contemporary Jewish Museum
QuotationsThe pomegranates blaze red like giant burning grapefruits in Tal Shochat’s photograph where, in a series of images, she depicts fruit trees native to Israel. She hand washed each fruit and every leaf before taking the mesmerizing photos.The Tree exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum called: Do Not Destroy- Trees Art and Jewish Thought is a nature lover’s delight. Jews have a powerful attachment to trees – our most holy Torah is referred to as “The Tree of Life” and the law referred to in the title of this exhibit: bal tashchit, do not destroy, comes from a Torah passage instructing us not to cut trees in times of war. This leads us to understand that in times of peace, we must especially not cause destruction to our environment…Continue reading “A Walk Among the Trees…”These walks will take place on Friday, March 16th and Friday, April 20, 2012, from 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM. Tickets and more information


Rocky Mountain Jewish Food Summit

April 29, 2012, University Memorial Center at CU Boulder

[Image: Food Summit]A day of learning, celebration, eating, community-building, and hands-on doing at the intersection of food, sustainability, and Jewish life.

Presented by Hazon in Colorado.

Featuring:

More Information | Register Today


The 7th Hazon Food ConferenceΒ Back on the East Coast!

[Image: Food conference]
Participants shake cream to make butter
We’re thrilled to bring the Hazon Food Conference back to Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center this winter. Sign up now to meet and mingle with the nation’s foremost thinkers of the New Jewish Food Movement.December 6-9, 2012
Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center
Falls Village, CTDon’t miss the next gathering of the New Jewish Food Movement!More Information


Hazon Hosts Wilderness First Aid Class

[Image: Wilderness First Aidt]March 22-23, 2012, 8 AM – 5 PM
BJE (Bureau of Jewish Education)
639 14th Ave., San Francisco

Wilderness First Aid is the specific discipline of first aid which relates to care in remote areas, where emergency medical services will be difficult to obtain or will take a long time to arrive. Hazon is partnering with Foster Calm to offer a WFA class with lots of hands-on skills practice.

More Information

Additional Reading: Pikkuah Nefesh in the Wilderness – Saving a Life


Local Events and Features
from our Partners and Friends


Purim with Storahtelling

Storahtelling is the newest resident of Makom Hadash, a hub for the Jewish innovation community in New York, and a residency center for second-stage Jewish non-profit organizations. Makom Hadash is a project of Hazon. Visit Makom Hadash online and learn about its residents.

[Image: Storahtelling]Hadassah & Friends Read the Megillah
Purim Night, March 7th, 6:30 – 9:00 PM
Jewish Theological Seminary
3080 Broadway at 122nd St.

Romemu, Pish: The Purim Tish, 9:30 PM – Midnight
West End Presbyterian Church, 165 West 105th St.

More information


The Twelve: Conversation, Improvisation, Divine Inspiration

[Image: The Twelve]March 29, 2012, 7:00 PM
Makom Hadash
125 Maiden Lane, Suite 8B, New York, NY
Free and open to the public.
Sandwiches available for $10 (dietary laws observed)

“The Twelve” is a journey into the heart of twelve bible stories we all know, but know nothing about. Walk through these legends in the company of Storahtelling’s Mavens as we tackle one tale on the last Thursday of every month. Conversation. Improvisation. Divine Inspiration? Please RSVP

More information


Kayam Farm Beit Midrash: Shmittah and Society

An inspirational Shabbaton filled with learning, celebration, and groundbreaking Jewish thought

[Image: Kayam Farm Beit Midrasht]Friday, March 9 – Sunday, March 11, 2012
Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center
Reisterstown, MD

Join an intergenerational, pluralistic community of Jewish farmers, rabbis, educators, scholars, and consumers from across the country.

More Information


[Image: First Annual Shmittah Summit]First Annual Shmittah Summit

March 12-13, 2012
Pearlstone Conference & Retreat Center
5425 Mt. Gilead Road
Reisterstown, MD

Join grassroots activists and top leaders for two days of compelling Jewish learning, community organizing, action and advocacy.

Co-sponsored by Hazon

More Information


Colorado Interfaith Power and Light’s Creation Care Conference

Creation Care Conference: Climate Change & Faith

[Image: Photo Alt]April 14, 2012

Holy Cross Lutheran Church
4500 N. Wadsworth Blvd.
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033

For all faith traditions. Hosted by Colorado Interfaith Power and Light. Speakers on Creation Stewardship, climate impact in the West, moving away from fossil fuel, grass roots organizing. Plus choose 4 workshops from 16 topics and visit “green” vendor exhibits.

Cost $40 (with early bird discount before 3/21), additional discounts for senior/student/low income/volunteers and three or more from same congregation.

More Information | Registration


Celebrate Purim with Hazon at the JCCSF

Purim Unmasked: An Off-Street Festival

Sunday, March 11th, 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Free Admission, bring a can of food

Hazon will be there making smoothies with our bike-powered blender, sized for kids and families!

More Information


Uri L’Tzedek’s New Purim Supplement

[Image: Photo Alt]Uri L’Tzedek is proud to announce the third member of its social justice holiday-themed publications, Ve-Nahafoch Hu: Making Your Way in an Upside Down World, a collection of essays, text-studies, and calls-to-action centered on the holiday of Purim and its attendant texts, themes, and practices.

Download a free copy of Ve-Nahafoch Hu: Making Your Way in an Upside Down World.


Love, Hate and the Jewish State 5.0

Gender Discrimination in Israel

[Image: Photo Alt]Sponsored by the New Israel Fund
Co-sponsored by Hazon

March 22, 2012, 7-10 PM
Congregation Beth Elohim
274 Garfield Place, Brooklyn, NY

For many of us, gender inequality describes unfair salary disparities, constricting gender norms or under-representation. Join NIF for the fifth in a series of highly interactive, non-persuasive, non-political discussions with a diverse group of people in their 20s and 30s. Followed by a reception.

More Information and RSVP