[Newsletters] October 26 – Reading Noah in 2011

In This Email

• Reading Noah in 2011 – Where Do Our Values Really Come From?
• Learn More About the California Ride and Retreat
• Grab Life by the Handlebars! 2012 Hazon Cross USA Ride
• The Hazon Food Guide and Food Audit Toolkit
• Local Events and Features from our Partners and Friends

Reading Noah in 2011 – Where Do Our Values Really Come From?

By Nigel Savage, Executive Director, Hazon

Dear All,

I’m back from my mini-sabbatical. My time away included riots in England, the European debt crisis, the Occupy movement, the Palestinian application for statehood, the death of Gaddhafi, the release of Gilad Shalit, and, most recently, Manchester United’s catastrophic home defeat to Manchester City.  In the Jewish world, JDub, The Curriculum Initiative, and Milestones all announced their closure, at least in their current form. This is an unsettling time.

Over the coming weeks I’m going to use these emails to reflect on some of what I’ve been thinking about, as we look back on Hazon’s first dozen years and look forward to the future. For now I want to think about this coming week’s parsha to reflect very straightforwardly (i.e. unromantically and honestly) on how we read the Torah itself.

This week is Parshat Noach, which includes the famous story of Noah and the flood. It’s often the occasion for sermons about saving the world. But why is that so, and how do we hear those sermons, and what do they mean? As each year passes, I’m less and less clear about this.

Continue Reading…

Nigel Savage, originally from Manchester, England, founded Hazon in 2000 by riding his recumbent bike across the US. He worked previously in the English equivalent of Wall Street, and was a founder of the New Israel Fund in the UK. He studied at Pardes, Yakar and Hebrew University. In 2008, he was listed in the Forward 50, the Forward’s annual list of America’s 50 most influential Jews.

Interesting Reads

• Almost Out of Time: Act Now to Save Samar on Green Zionism
• Shabbat Noach Resources from Jewcology
• Bill McKibben, author, educator, environmentalist, and founder of 350.org.

3rd Annual California Ride & Retreat

May 10-13, 2012

Help celebrate 3 years of successful biking in California by participating in the 3rd Annual California Ride and Retreat, May 10-13, 2012.  Over the past few years the California Ride has seen tremendous growth and positive change.  The number of participants has grown steadily and with your support and participation this event will continue to thrive.   Make your mark on the Jewish environmental movement by joining us for the California Ride and in doing so, supporting Hazon’s mission of creating healthy and sustainable communities in the Jewish world and beyond.

We’ve made some exciting changes to the 2012 Ride weekend.  The Ride will kick off on Thursday night at Camp Newman with a community-wide Lag B’Omer celebration.   In contrast to previous years, the Shabbat retreat will be nestled between two days of riding.  We’ll ride from Camp Newman to Walker Creek Ranch on Friday, break for Shabbat and continue on toward San Francisco on Sunday. Similar to the New York Ride, California Ride participants are required to fundraise a minimum sponsorship on behalf of both local Jewish environmental projects and Hazon.  As always, the Ride is fully-supported and intended to accommodate cyclists of all skill levels with route options ranging from 30 to 80 miles per day.

We are already cultivating the seeds of what will be an incredible California Ride and Retreat. Join us in making this experience memorable.

Register between now and December 15th for the lowest registration rate.

Contact Whitney for additional information: whitney.pollack@hazon.org or (415) 397-7020

More Information

Hazon Food Guide and Food Audit Toolkit

Over the years, many of you have come to Hazon asking “What next?” You’re already participating in the Jewish Food Movement, have started a garden or a CSA. However, you can do more to change the food at your Jewish institution.

Hazon’s New Food Guide and Food Audit Toolkit  will enable you to:

1. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your institution’s policies and practices for promoting food sustainability and justice.
2. Develop an action plan for improving your institution’s food sustainability and justice policies and practices.
3. Involve your institution in implementing this plan.

More Information

Grab Life by the Handlebars!

2012 Hazon Cross-USA Ride

June 7, 2012 – August 16, 2012

Seattle, WA to Washington, DC

• 72 days, 3600 miles, 70 miles per day
• Transportation of gear and luggage
• Meals are included
• Teaching, learning, and service opportunities

More Information and Application

Information Sessions Near You

Learn more about the 2012 Hazon Cross-USA Ride as, Wendy Levine, Cross-USA Ride Director, travels around the country this October and November to speak to potential riders. We ask that you RSVP if you’re planning on attending.

Information Session Schedule

Urban Adamah Fellowship

Now accepting applications for Spring and Summer of 2012

A program of Hazon’s partners

Urban Adamah is a three-month residential leadership-training program for young adults that integrates urban organic farming, social justice work and progressive Jewish living and learning. Fellows operate an organic farm and educational center in Berkeley, CA, while interning with community-based social justice organizations addressing issues at the intersection of poverty, food security and environmental stewardship. The Urban Adamah curriculum is designed to equip fellows with the tools to become agents of positive change in their own lives and in their communities.

Spring Fellowship: March 4 – May 27, 2012

Summer Fellowship: June 3 – August 26, 2012

Admission to Urban Adamah is rolling. Visit the Urban Adamah website to learn more and download an application.

More Information

High Tech Spirituality and the Environment in Israel

Co-sponsored by Hazon

Sunday, November 6, 6:30 – 8:00 PM

B’nai Jeshurun, 88th Street Sanctuary

257 West 88th Street (between Broadway and West End Avenue)

New York, NY

Meet Michael Kagan of The Jewish Climate Initiative in Israel. Michael has been an innovator and entrepreneur for 18 years. He has co-founded six high-tech companies, holds a doctorate in chemistry from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is an inventor with twelve registered patents.

Global Day of Jewish Learning

Co-sponsored by Hazon

We are delighted to announce that this year the second Global Day of Jewish Learning will take place on Sunday, November 13th. The Global Day of Jewish Learning unites Jewish communities around the globe to celebrate our foundational Jewish texts through community based learning. Last year’s inaugural event celebrated the completion of the Steinsaltz Talmud and counted over 400 communities in 48 countries and on six continents – clear evidence of the importance that Jews everywhere place on the shared experience of study.

Sunday, November 13, 2011,
Time: 1 PM – 5:30 PM

Mechon Hadar, 190 Amsterdam at 69th St., New York, NY

Format: 3 sessions of 50 minute classes, Parallel classes

More Information

Hunger Banquet: An Interfaith Call to Action

with Oakland city council member Rebecca Kaplan

A program of Hazon’s friends.

Sunday, November 6th, 12:30-2:00 PM

First Unitarian Church of Oakland

685 14th St., Oakland, CA

Free and open to the public

Register by October 28 at www.jvalley.org/jcrc

Experience the inequities of food resources in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not all guests will leave with a full stomach, but all will gain a new perspective on the root causes of hunger and feel motivated to do something about it.

More Information

Amazing Energy Innovations Happening in the Jewish State

with Dr. Daryl Temkin

Co-sponsored by Hazon

Dr. Daryl Temkin received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Southern California in Education and Counseling Psychology. Besides his work in counseling, for the past decades he has served as a guest lecturer at several North American universities, corporations and national leadership organizations. He is the founder and director of the Israel Institute for the Advancement for Alternative Energy Innovation, which serves to teach pivotal facts about Israel and Israel’s contributions to advancing technology.

More Information