Shavuot is the Green Festival

By Dr. Michael Kagan
In the opening verses of the Creation story we read about the daily work load of the Almighty as She creates everything from nothing.    A true birthing process requiring a lot of rest at the end.  Each period of creative burst concludes with the well known phrase “And it was evening and [...]

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Envy-Based Economics and a Forgotten Tenth Commandment

By Rabbi Julian Sinclair
On Shavuot morning next Friday, in synagogues around the world, we will read the Ten Commandments. It’s remarkable, when you think about it, what a success they’ve been. Over the past 3000 years the Jewish people has done an extraordinary marketing job on conveying these basic ethical and spiritual laws. Across the [...]

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The Whole World is the Land of Israel: Rabbi Dov Berkowitz on Water, the Desert, the Jewish People and Climate Change

By Rabbi Julian Sinclair
This was one of the most exciting and original talks at JCI’s April conference. In it, Rabbi Dov Berkovitz asks what the 3000 years of Jewish tradition, “one of the most remarkable human creations on the planet”, can contribute to helping humanity grapple with global climate change (video of Rabbi Berkowitz’s speech [...]

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Solar Power Pioneer, Arnold Goldman: How our Electricity can become “Fuel for Life”

Arnold Goldman has been impacting the evolution of solar power for three decades. His company, Brightsource Industries, is currently working on a solar field in California that will nearly double America’s solar energy output. Brightsource’s Solar Energy Development Center (SEDC) at the Rotem Industrial Park in Israel is the largest solar energy facility in the [...]

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Torah-Based Climatology, from Leading Israeli Climatologist, Dr. Pinhas Alpert

In the following video, Dr. Pinhas Alpert, head of Tel Aviv University’s Porter School for Environmental Studies, speaks about his research as a climatologist, his life as an observant Jew, and how climatology and Judaism can join forces in confronting climate change. Enjoy!

If you can’t watch the video from this page, click here.

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Pollution in a Promised Land: Alon Tal on Israel and the Environment

By Rabbi Julian Sinclair
Here in Israel we celebrated Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Independence Day, last week; fireworks, barbecues, mutual congratulations on how much we’ve achieved in 61 years (absorbing millions of immigrants, sustaining a vibrant democracy, building a dynamic economy, etc.), and a certain amount of soul-searching about how much we still haven’t: (peace, intra-Jewish harmony, a national [...]

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