GREENING SYNAGOGUES RESOURCES

4. PROGRAMS

“Lishmor v’la’asot u’lkayem, to guard and to do and to uphold…” – Ahavah Rabbah prayer in the Shacharit / morning liturgy

The Talmud argues as to which is more important, study or action. The final answer incorporates both halves of the equation: “study, because it leads to action.” This can also be translated as conditional: “study, when [and only when!] it leads to action.” The section of the COEJL website you are now looking at is all about action.

At or near the top of most synagogues’ agendas is Israel. Just as COEJL’s national program has recently expanded to include a more direct focus on Israel (through our establishment and sponsorship of the Jewish Global Environment Network), so can your congregation’s Israel program or committee incorporate environmental themes into its education about and support of our ancestral land, people, and nation. See also background on the history of Zionism and ecology.

Programs of all sorts, naturally, can be found at the COEJL Program Bank, which contains hundreds of programs within it. Many of these are purely educational (addressed in the next sections of this website), but some touch upon every aspect of synagogue life. Search using keywords like “social action” or “fundraising” or “Sukkot”, and you’ll find plenty of ready-to-go programs as well as ideas, texts, and activities which you can incorporate into your own programming.

In most synagogues, the group with direct responsibility for environmental programming would be the Social Action Committee. We strongly encourage that ecological concern should not be limited to one committee alone! Eco-Judaism should pervade every aspect of congregational life. Still, the social action committee is a logical locus of certain environmental programs, examples of which are given here.

HOLIDAYS! So much of congregational life centers around the cycle of the year and the seasons. While some festivals have obvious ecological significance (Sukkot, Tu B’Shvat), others might at first seem to have no environmental meaning whatsoever (Purim, Tisha B’Av). But in fact, every special day on the Jewish calendar is somehow connected to Earth and Earth-keeping. Look up sermons and text studies of the holidays in COEJL's Celebrate section, or look for holiday related programs in the COEJL Program Bank.

Finally, around various environmental issues you can find a whole series of special programs which integrate adult and child activities, education for all levels, sermonic or liturgical elements, social action initiatives, and more. These bundles of programs-and-more are available around Global Climate Change, Water Issues, and Biodiversity.