Resources
What will it take to engage Jewish communities in bold action in the face of urgent challenges? The Jewish community’s collective commitment to fundamental change on energy and sustainability will emerge from exploration of the rich resources of Jewish tradition and contemporary life. COEJL develops and disseminates materials to enable Jewish organizations and communities to inspire, educate and mobilize communities.
Use the search engine on the right-hand side of this page to find resources for:
- Advocacy and Policy Issues: Statements, action alerts and background material on key environmental issues
- Jewish Thought and Texts: Weekly Torah portions, critical thought around Jewish text, and other thoughts that help form the basis for Jewish environmentalism today
- Jewish Life and Programs: Programs, Greening Communities, Holidays, and other tools that help weave the fabric of our lives as Jews
- Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign: Tools for COEJL’s current effort to mobilize leaders from all walks of Jewish life to bring communal inspiration to the global struggle of addressing today’s energy and environmental challenges
- Partner Organizations: Material by and for COEJL’s partners organizations
Many of the programs herein originally hail from COEJL’s Interactive Source for Environmental Education, Discourse and Study Jewish Environmental Program Bank (SEEDS) and are marked as such. Along with countless others, many of who are attributed directly in the resource material itself, we wish to thank the following people for their contributions to SEEDS: Vivienne Cato, Noam Dolgin, Rivka Gevurtz, Terry Gips, Jeremy Goldberg, Susanna Haas, Kirsten S. Kleinman, Josh Lake, Barbara Lerman-Golomb, Solomon Poretsky, Margaret Presley, Chad Rosenthal, Nili Simhai, Rachel Singer, Lori Yadin, Stefanie Zelkind.
See below for most recent resources.
Simple Tu B’shvat Haggadah
By Rabbi David Seidenberg Background Named for the 15th day of the month of Shevat, this festival is known as the New Year of the Trees or the Trees’ Birthday. Although it’s hard to believe when you live in New … Read more »
Cosmology and Biodiversity: The Divine Purpose in Creating Many Species
composed by Rabbi David Seidenberg for COEJL, 1996; revised 2012 for COEJL, Jewcology and neohasid.org Reflections on the Meaning of Diversity in Creation And God saw everything that He had made, and here: very good! (Genesis 1:23) Seeing the world … Read more »
Resources for Tu B’shvat
Tu B’shvat is the New Year for Trees, and falls on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat. We hope the following articles and resources will be helpful as you plan for Tu B’shvat. JTA: Our Tu B’shvat … Read more »
A Tu B’shvat Haggadah for Shabbat
INTRODUCTION: Reader: Tu B’Shvat, the New Year for the trees, was designated, following debate in the Talmud, as the time of renewal of budding in the trees. The early winter rains were mostly over, the sap in the trees had … Read more »
Why Earth Day is a Jewish Holiday
By Robert Rabinowitz April 22 is Earth Day. The very name makes many Jews nervous. A special day to celebrate the Earth sounds suspiciously pagan, bringing to mind images of Druids conducting fertility rites at Stonehenge or modern witches dancing … Read more »