Congregations focus on ecological issues
When Rabbi Leah Lewis conducts the Tu b'Shevat seder at Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles this year, congregants will learn about the special qualities of figs, olives and walnuts.
They will also learn about the Jewish mandate to be stewards of the earth and of their own synagogue.
"People are ready for it," said Lewis, explaining that in only four months the Reform temple, with 710 family units, has created a 10-member Green Team and scheduled an environmental audit to evaluate energy-saving opportunities.
Tu b'Shevat, literally the 15th day of the month of Shevat, which begins at sundown on Feb. 12, is known as the New Year of the Trees. A minor holiday with no prescribed mitzvot, it is often celebrated by planting trees locally or in Israel or by participating in a seder.
But more recently it has become a Jewish Earth Day, concentrating on the physical benefits of installing energy-efficient light bulbs, planting native, sustainable landscaping and setting up recycling bins.
Making synagogues eco-friendly, or green, can be traced back to November 1978, when Rabbi Everett Gendler, the father of Jewish environmentalism, climbed on the icy roof of Temple Emanuel in Lowell, Mass., to install solar panels to fuel the ner tamid, or eternal light, in the temple's sanctuary.
"We plugged it almost directly into the sun," said Gendler, now the temple's rabbi emeritus.
Several synagogues in the Phoenix area are also finding ways to preserve the environment.
Temple Beth Sholom in Chandler has introduced a recycling program, and installed programmable thermostats and an irrigation system to conserve energy and water.
At The New Shul in Scottsdale, volunteers John and Debbie Wolfe pick up materials for recycling each week and cart them to drop-off points.
Temple Chai in Phoenix works with Abitibi-Consolidated Corp., a recycling program that provides collection bins and pays participating organizations for materials collected by weight.
But in general, Jewish ecological efforts were sparse until after the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as Earth Summit.
The following year, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life was created to carry out a Jewish response to the environmental crisis. Recently, the coalition embarked on a Greening Synagogues program in conjunction with GreenFaith, New Jersey's interfaith environmental coalition.
It launched its pilot program in 2004, with four New Jersey synagogues representing the denominational spectrum - Congregation Sharey Tefilo-Israel in South Orange, Bnai Keshet in Montclair, Kesher Community Synagogue of Tenafly and Englewood, and Congregation Agudath Israel in Caldwell - offering a menu of options in the areas of facilities management, education and worship, and environmental justice and advocacy.
At Agudath Israel, there are now 45 committed Green Team members, according to the program's director, Randi Brokman.
"We have put environmental issues more in the consciousness of congregants. That's the goal," Brokman said.
And that's the coalition's initial goal also. "But ultimately we want this to filter down into homes," said Barbara Lerman-Golomb, the coalition's associate executive director. "We want this to become second nature to anyone involved in the project, to feel that it's the ethical, moral and Jewish thing to do."
That's also the goal for the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life of Southern California, an independent affiliate of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life.
Founded in 1999, the California coalition began its own Green Sanctuaries program around 2001, in conjunction with the Interfaith Environmental Council and 16 pilot congregations, more than half of them Jewish.
Greening can also be about savings. Lee Wallach, co-founder of the California coalition, said that, depending on size and building usage, a synagogue can save up to $40,000.
For Orthodox synagogues, environmental activism is still new. Canfei Nesharim (the wings of eagles), the first and so far only Orthodox environmental organization, was launched on Tu b'Shevat 2003.
While still at the concept stage, according to the organization's executive director, Evonne Marzouk, the volunteer organization is dedicated to educating the Orthodox community about protecting the environment from a halachic perspective.
The organization recently published "Compendium of Sources in Halacha and the Environment," and is discovering what Marzouk calls "a great response."
But perhaps the most compelling argument for preserving the environment, quoted by Marzouk and others, is a Midrash in Ecclesiastes Rabbah (7:13).
When God first created human beings, He showed them around the Garden of Eden and then warned, "Take care not to corrupt and destroy my world, for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you."
Editorial Assistant Julie Messner contributed to this article.
Environmental tips
Ten easy ways to begin greening your synagogue, from Barbara Lerman-Golomb, associate executive director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life:
- Switch to cost-effective and energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.
- Buy recycled paper products, use both sides of the paper, then recycle it again.
- Pre-cycle; buy products that are in recycled packaging or that can be recycled, such as cans, glass, plastic, paper and cardboard.
- Minimize use of disposable plates, cups, paper towels, napkins, plastic and silverware for synagogue functions. Avoid using plasticfoam products.
- Turn the thermostat down a few degrees in the winter and up a few degrees in the summer.
- Encourage congregants to carpool to religious school and to turn off engines while waiting to pick up children.
- Buy Energy Star (energy-efficient) appliances. Turn off lights and office equipment, such as copy machines, when not in use.
- Buy flow restrictors for sinks and water-saving toilet tank dams.
- Use nontoxic cleansers.
- Don't use pesticide on the lawn, and use a nontoxic integrated pest management system.
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