Religious Dems Miss Opportunity to Fuel Climate Debate

By Yannai Kranzler
Democratic National Convention week opened with a first: An Interfaith gathering, hosted by Christian, Muslim and Jewish community leaders from around the the United States.
The gathering focused mostly on abortion and capital punishment, less on world poverty and Darfur genocide, and even less on climate change.
Why would the self-titled “Greenest convention in history,” [...]

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Rambam, 1.5 Million Hits and Youtube

YouTube is incredible. The video below “How it all ends” is the updated version of one that received 1.5 million hits and helped net its creator, science teacher Greg Craven, a book deal with Penguin. Please God by all of us!
With rapid fire delivery, a funny hat and some simple high school science lab explosions, [...]

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Breakthrough

By Rabbi Julian Sinclair
Last month Al Gore gave a rousing speech on climate change. He threw down an audacious challenge to the American people. By 2020, Gore declared, let America be powered 100% by renewable sources of energy.
Gore appealed to the Apollo Project as the model for an enterprise of such grandeur.
In 1961 President Kennedy [...]

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Climate’s Changing- Who’s Paying?

By Yannai Kranzler
I recently shared a car ride with Moshe, a factory logistics manager in Israel.
When I mentioned my work at Jewish Climate Initiative, his response was, “Sounds like quite the bit of nonsense.”
“New environmental standards make enormous demands of factories,” he explained. “We, as factory workers, have then to spend tremendous resources that we [...]

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The Beit Hamikdash was the Heart of the Jewish People

On the 9th of Av, By Michael Kagan
 
The Beit HaMikdash was the heart of the Jewish people, the heart of Jewish ritual, the heart of Judaism.
At the heart of the Mikdash was the Holy of Holies – the point where Heaven and Earth joined, where the Divine Presence was most immanent, from whence the source [...]

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Halakha and Climate Change: Because the Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

We were happy to have a piece in the recent special issue of Shma Magazine on Judaism and environment. Enjoy the article below- and check out the edition’s other pieces by a number of leading voices in the field.
(Reprinted with permission from http://shma.com/june_08/halakhak_climate.htm)
By Rabbi Julian Sinclair
Is halakhah a useful tool for addressing climate change?
If it [...]

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Part Two- Unknown Unknowns: A Comparison of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change with the Eighth Chapter of Talmud Bava Kama

By Rabbi Julian Sinclair

What sort of damages are environmental damages? What sort of restitution is necessary to put them right? This is a foundational question for environmental theory and practice. We will argue that Talmudic thought provides a very useful set of tools and concepts for thinking about the question.
The main means of compensation for [...]

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