Hazon: The Jewish Lab for Sustainability

The final episode features co-hosts Hannah Perez-Postman and Adam Brock and their guest speakers, Candi Cdebaca and Yoshi Silverstein. They discuss environmental justice and how to create equal access and rights to a healthy environment, including land, water, air, and food through the lens of Shmita. You will also hear what brought them to their work as activists and what we all can do to contribute to and organize for a more just society for everyone.

Candi Cdebaca- Member of the Denver City Council, 9th District.

CdeBaca is a proud fifth-generation native of northeast Denver, Colorado, and a graduate of Manual High School and the University of Denver. Raised by a single mother and grandparents, Candi understands the importance of tight-knit communities and stepping up for neighbors in need. Candi is also the first LGBTQ Latina and first Democratic Socialist to serve on Denver City Council.  She is a fierce advocate for justice and against the criminalization of poverty, environmental racism, and the displacement of Denver’s black and brown communities.

Yoshi Silverstein- Founder and Executive Director, Mitsui Collective.

Yoshi is a Chinese-Ashkenazi-American Jew and an educator, coach, speaker, husband, and father. Yoshi was Director of the JOFEE Fellowship at Hazon from its launch through its first four cohorts, catalyzing the growth and leadership of over 60 emerging professionals working across the US and Canada in the realm of Jewish relationship to land, food, culture, climate, and community. He holds over two decades of experience in both Jewish and secular outdoor, food, farming, and environmental education.

Enjoy this fifth episode, featuring co-hosts Hannah Perez-Postman and Adam Brock and their guest speakers, Renee Millard-Chacon Youth Program Development Coordinator at Spirit of the Sun, and Leora Cockrell, Organizer with Jews on Ohlone Land. They discuss Indigenous rights through the lens of Shmita, during which our guests will speak about what brought them to their work as activists and what we all can do to contribute and organize for a more just society for everyone.

Renee Millard-Chacon - Youth Program Development Coordinator, Spirit of the Sun

Writer, educator, Danzante Azteca, Xicana activist, and most importantly the mother of two sons. She is an indigenous womxn of Dine/Mexica decent, fighting for future generations and committed to relating climate justice to social justice. She has worked with the International Indigenous Youth Council, 350.org, Four Winds American Indian Council of Denver, Womxn From the Mountain, and Earth Day Live 2020, in hosting, organizing, and leading marches, workshops, and educational resources for social justice and environmental justice. She welcomes any respectful correspondence to start doing the tedious but powerful work of creating better relations in spaces that deserve to be healed because of the trauma from historical inequality and environmental racism.

Leora Cockrell - Organizer with Jews on Ohlone Land.

Leora grew up on Wopumnes-Nisenan-Mewuk land in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California. Leora received their bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Agriculture and minor in Gender Studies at UC Davis. Leora is now in the Masters of Social Change Program at Starr King School for the Ministry on Lisjan, Ohlone land studying and working on right relationships with land and Indigenous people as part of the diasporic Jewish community.

Please enjoy this fourth episode, featuring co-hosts Hannah Perez-Postman and Adam Brock and their guest speakers, Paul Sherman, Outreach Manager for Mazon, and Dr. Damien Thompson, Co-founder of Frontline Farming in Colorado and Director of the Center for Food Justice and Healthy Communities. They discuss food justice and food sovereignty through the lens of Shmita, during which our guests will speak about what brought them to their work as activists and what we all can do to contribute and organize for a more just society for everyone.

Damien Thompson, PhD

Co-founder, Frontline Farming in Colorado and Director, Center for Food Justice and Healthy Communities.

Damien is an Associate Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Criminal Justice at Regis University where he directs the Community Food Systems program. In addition to his training in anthropology, Dr. Thompson also holds certification in Permaculture Design and a 200-hour Yoga Alliance Teaching Certification. 

Paul has more than six years of experience in community organizing with both Jewish and anti-hunger organizations. After founding theUniversity of Denver’s chapter of Food Recovery Network, he completed a fellowship at theirnational office in College Park, Maryland. Paul has a B.A. in Religious Studies and International Studies from the University of Denver. Paul implements MAZON’s priorities on the East Coast by identifying and developing relationships with Jewish community-based organizations, including synagogues and anti-hunger organizations.

In October 2020, Hazon facilitated the first ever Virtual Israel Ride with our partner the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. This weeklong event brought the magical moments of the annual Israel Ride to a large community through a new medium. We would like to welcome you as we begin this featured episode:.

Join Nigel Savage, Hazon’s Founder & CEO, along with other Hazon educators from the National Program Team, for an immersive workshop sampling different elements of Hazon’s programming including the Brit Hazon, Hazon Seal of Sustainability, the Jewish Youth Climate Movement, and Food Rescue Work in Detroit.

For more information about the Israel Ride, please visit Israelride.org. Registration is now open for 2021. Join us Oct. 19-26 2021 for 5 days of riding from Jerusalem to Eilat all in support of the crucial sustainability and peace-building work of Hazon and the Arava Institute.

In a new COVID-19 world Nigel Savage, President and CEO of Hazon speaks with Jewish leaders from around the world on what this changing landscape means for Jewish communities near and far. Originally recorded on June 14th, we tune into this episode featuring Dasi Fruchter and Claudia Kreiman. Dasi Fruchter is the founder and spiritual leader of the South Philadelphia Shtiebel, a new and inclusive Modern Orthodox community. Rabbanit Fruchter also holds the position of Halachic Advisor for Niddah and Women's Health at Beth Sholom Congregation. Claudia Kreiman is rabbi for NOAM, the Masorti-Conservative Youth Organization in Israel; she has modeled new ways for children to think about women’s participation in religion. In 2002 she became both the rabbi for NOAM and the Israeli rabbinic fellow for Temple B’nai Jeshurun in New York, bringing the lively, experimental approach of the New York synagogue to Israeli teens.

In a new COVID-19 world Nigel Savage, President and CEO of Hazon speaks with Jewish leaders from around the world on what this changing landscape means for Jewish communities near and far. Originally recorded on May 24th, we tune into this episode featuring Shaul Bassi and Andi Arnovitz in conversation with Nigel Savage. Shaul is the director of the Venice Center for Humanities and Social Change. He has written extensively about the present environmental and social issues of Venice, as well as the city's history. Andi is an American-Israeli printmaker and multimedia artist. Her work is in the permanent collections of the United States Library of Congress, the Israel National library, Yale University Library, The Magnes Collection and Yeshiva University Museum The Smithsonian Museum.

In a new COVID-19 world Nigel Savage, President and CEO of Hazon speaks with Jewish leaders from around the world on what this changing landscape means for Jewish communities near and far. Originally recorded on May 17th, we tune into this episode featuring Andy Stern; as both a labor leader and an activist, Stern is a leading voice and a prominent advocate for people who work. He is the author of A Country That Works, which outlines a practical, cooperative approach to promote economic growth in America. In early 2010, Stern was appointed by President Obama to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

In a new COVID-19 world Nigel Savage, President and CEO of Hazon speaks with Jewish leaders from around the world on what this changing landscape means for Jewish communities near and far. Originally recorded on May 10th, we tune into this episode featuring Rabbis Arthur Waskow and Phyllis Berman in conversation with Nigel Savage. Rabbis Waskow and Berman are most well known for their political activism, writings and their support and leadership in the Jewish renewal movement. Rabbi Waskow co-founded ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal and Rabbi Berman has lead retreats at Hazon’s own Isabella Freedman retreat center.

In a new COVID-19 world Nigel Savage, CEO of Hazon speaks with Jewish leaders from around the world on what this changing landscape means for Jewish communities near and far. Originally recorded on May 3rd, in this episode tune in to hear Nati Passow, Rabbi Dani Passow and their sister Shuli Passow in conversation with Nigel Savage. Nati Passow has been a leader in the field of Jewish environmental education, was selected to the Jewish Week's "36 Under 36," and was a recipient of the Joshua Venture Group Fellowship for Jewish Social Entrepreneurs. Nati co-founded and ran the Jewish Farm School from 2005 to 2019. During that time he provided unsurpassed learning and inspiration to the Philadelphia and Jewish environmental community. He continues his leadership at Dayenu today supporting community organizing efforts for Jewish environmental action.  Rabbi Dani Passow is a rabbi and educator at Harvard Hillel who serves as the Minyan's Rabbinic Advisor. He lectures and writes frequently about Judaism and social justice and was awarded the 2010 Whizin Prize for Jewish ethics. Shuli Passow is a Jewish educator and communal professional who most recently served as the Director of Community Initiatives at the Jewish Funds for Justice, where she worked with synagogues across the country to support their involvement in congregation-based community organizing. She has taught widely in youth and adult education settings, and is particularly passionate about exploring issues of justice, compassion, environmentalism and economics through Jewish text. Shuli is currently pursuing rabbinic ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

In a new COVID-19 world Nigel Savage, CEO of Hazon speaks with Jewish leaders from around the world on what this changing landscape means for Jewish communities near and far. Originally recorded on April 26th, in this episode tune in to hear Alon Tal in conversation with Nigel Savage. Alon Tal is a leading Israeli environmental activist and academic. He is the founder of the Israel Union for Environmental Defense and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. In 2017, Tal was appointed chair of the department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University. In 2006, Tal won the Charles Bronfman Prize for young humanitarian leadership, and used the prize money to establish the Tal Fund, which supports grassroots Israeli environmental activism.

In a new COVID-19 world Nigel Savage, CEO of Hazon speaks with Jewish leaders from around the world on what this changing landscape means for Jewish communities near and far. Originally recorded on April 19th, in this episode tune in to hear Ruth Messinger in conversation with Nigel Savage. Ruth has led a life dedicated to political and humanitarian activism. Ruth served as Manhattan Borough president from 1990-1998 and ran for mayor of New York City in 1997. Ruth also served as the President and CEO of the American Jewish World Service from 1998-2016. Additionally Ruth serves as a board member here at Hazon as well as trustee emerita of the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women. 

For this series, we’d like to offer some framing - Sukkot ends, each year, with a prayer for rain. Talmud tractate Ta’anit begins by asking what happens – and what we should do – if the rains don’t come.

The acute crisis of COVID-19, against the backdrop of the creeping challenge of a warming climate,  are shaking our sense of invulnerability to the natural world. And they are challenging our societies’ capacities to effectively respond. We need deeper sources of wisdom to orient ourselves to these challenges.

Jewish wisdom about coping with a climactic crisis – and plague – is distilled in tractate Ta’anit, which addresses how we should respond when a change in the weather threatens our lives and livelihoods. As different  as our reality is from the Talmud’s, both the rabbis and contemporary environmentalists converge on the view that dangerous disruption to the weather requires a response that touches our lifestyles, behavior and spiritual consciousness.

In these four consecutive lectures, Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair argues that people respond to existential danger from the weather through shifts in behavior and consciousness that reverberate across the divide separating pre-modern and post-modern awareness. Through exploring these places of mutual resonance between the Talmud’s world and our own, we will frame a new-old theology of climate change that offers hope to overcome this critical challenge.

For this series, we’d like to offer some framing - Sukkot ends, each year, with a prayer for rain. Talmud tractate Ta’anit begins by asking what happens – and what we should do – if the rains don’t come.

The acute crisis of COVID-19, against the backdrop of the creeping challenge of a warming climate,  are shaking our sense of invulnerability to the natural world. And they are challenging our societies’ capacities to effectively respond. We need deeper sources of wisdom to orient ourselves to these challenges.

Jewish wisdom about coping with a climactic crisis – and plague – is distilled in tractate Ta’anit, which addresses how we should respond when a change in the weather threatens our lives and livelihoods. As different  as our reality is from the Talmud’s, both the rabbis and contemporary environmentalists converge on the view that dangerous disruption to the weather requires a response that touches our lifestyles, behavior and spiritual consciousness.

In these four consecutive lectures, Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair argues that people respond to existential danger from the weather through shifts in behavior and consciousness that reverberate across the divide separating pre-modern and post-modern awareness. Through exploring these places of mutual resonance between the Talmud’s world and our own, we will frame a new-old theology of climate change that offers hope to overcome this critical challenge.

For this series, we’d like to offer some framing - Sukkot ends, each year, with a prayer for rain. Talmud tractate Ta’anit begins by asking what happens – and what we should do – if the rains don’t come.

The acute crisis of COVID-19, against the backdrop of the creeping challenge of a warming climate,  are shaking our sense of invulnerability to the natural world. And they are challenging our societies’ capacities to effectively respond. We need deeper sources of wisdom to orient ourselves to these challenges.

Jewish wisdom about coping with a climactic crisis – and plague – is distilled in tractate Ta’anit, which addresses how we should respond when a change in the weather threatens our lives and livelihoods. As different  as our reality is from the Talmud’s, both the rabbis and contemporary environmentalists converge on the view that dangerous disruption to the weather requires a response that touches our lifestyles, behavior and spiritual consciousness.

In these four consecutive lectures, Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair argues that people respond to existential danger from the weather through shifts in behavior and consciousness that reverberate across the divide separating pre-modern and post-modern awareness. Through exploring these places of mutual resonance between the Talmud’s world and our own, we will frame a new-old theology of climate change that offers hope to overcome this critical challenge.

For this series, we’d like to offer some framing - Sukkot ends, each year, with a prayer for rain. Talmud tractate Ta’anit begins by asking what happens – and what we should do – if the rains don’t come.

The acute crisis of COVID-19, against the backdrop of the creeping challenge of a warming climate,  are shaking our sense of invulnerability to the natural world. And they are challenging our societies’ capacities to effectively respond. We need deeper sources of wisdom to orient ourselves to these challenges.

Jewish wisdom about coping with a climactic crisis – and plague – is distilled in tractate Ta’anit, which addresses how we should respond when a change in the weather threatens our lives and livelihoods. As different  as our reality is from the Talmud’s, both the rabbis and contemporary environmentalists converge on the view that dangerous disruption to the weather requires a response that touches our lifestyles, behavior and spiritual consciousness.

In these four consecutive lectures, Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair argues that people respond to existential danger from the weather through shifts in behavior and consciousness that reverberate across the divide separating pre-modern and post-modern awareness. Through exploring these places of mutual resonance between the Talmud’s world and our own, we will frame a new-old theology of climate change that offers hope to overcome this critical challenge.

In a new COVID-19 world Nigel Savage, CEO of Hazon speaks with Jewish leaders from around the world on what this changing landscape means for Jewish communities near and far. Originally recorded on April 12, in this episode tune in to hear Rabbi Susan Silverman and her husband Yossi Abramowitz in conversation. Susan is a Rabbi, mother, activist, and author of two books, Casting Lots, and Jewish Family and Life: Traditions, Holidays, and Values for Today’s Parents and Children. Yossi is a father, activist, and President and CEO of Energiya Global Capital as well as the founder of Arava Power Company.