GREENING SYNAGOGUES RESOURCES

5. YOUTH EDUCATION

“V’shinantam l’vanecha, and you shall teach / rehearse these [words] to your children” – Deuteronomy 6:6, also appearing in the V’Ahavta paragraph of the Sh’ma.

Tradition teaches that immediately after establishing a cemetery and a mikvah – necessary for life cycle events on any given day – Jews moving into a new area would establish a school right away. School before shul – since a future generation of shul-goers has to be trained, that education must begin right away.

Kids, much more than adults, tend to have an innate bond with other creatures, and with the environment. We can tap into their sense of wonder, their steep learning curves and insatiable curiosity, and their love of nature. In doing so we not only further these noble attributes (and help them continue into adulthood!) – we also deepen their Jewish identities by linking ‘Judaics’ with what they already know and love about the world around them.

While we encourage you to build whole curricula around Judaism and ecology, we also know the value of integrating ecological concerns into other topics. Hebrew classes can go outdoors, and spend extra time learning teva / nature vocabulary. When teaching Bible or Talmud, illustrate your points by looking at key environmental texts from our sacred literature (e.g. Lev. 25, Deut. 19, etc.) – so that even as students are focused on classic texts, they also learn about the environment. In Israel education, be sure to dwell on the concept and reality of Eretz Yisrael, the land itself, and the challenges that the land (and air and water and people and animals and plants) face. If you do a “Jewish views on current events” program or course, contrast environmental news with Jewish ecological texts and teachings. And so on…

In addition to the areas listed below, many other educational resources are scattered throughout the COEJL website -- some are cross-listed here, but you’ll find even more by searching the whole site. Meanwhile, think about how you can integrate visuals, snippets from radio interviews, texts, questions, exercises, art projects, and more into your lessons, making them interesting as well as relevant. And here, you should find plenty of starting-points:

Without a doubt, begin with the t, which contains over a hundred programs or curricular elements for children of all grades. Search using keywords from “6th grade” to “water” to “Talmud”, and you’ll find plenty of ready-to-go programs as well as ideas, texts, and activities which you can incorporate into your own lesson plan.

Numerous Jewish-environmental curricula are floating around out there, though far too few are easily findable or searchable on the web. The first organization’s site to check out is the Teva Learning Center, where you’ll find a whole host of useful resources. Register for Teva’s Teachers’ Resource Center and find dozens of ready-to-print-and-use activities. Teva also inherited Shomrei Adamah’s excellent publications, including the full-length curriculum book, Let the Earth Teach You Torah (which you can order here).

Some of Teva’s suggested resources are secular in nature, and are found on environmental organizations’ websites. In fact, many Jewish environmental educational programs draw heavily from the works of Joseph Cornell and other nature educators, and from the models pioneered in Nature’s Classroom and other such secular initiatives. Some secular resources can be easily spiced up with a few Jewish texts; most experienced Judaics teachers can find the authentic Jewish language with which to express common ecological-Judaic values.

Another helpful resource is the Jewish Nature Center, where you can find a whole host of hands-on activities, perfect for informal education or to jazz up learning in a classroom setting.

Resources specific to Jewish Youth Groups are harder to come by. Obviously materials for grades 7-12 found in the formal education resources above can be used in youth groups, especially the interactive activities they contain. One program from our Christian brethren (literally – it started with the Church of the Brethren, and then extended to all Protestant groups, with other faiths encouraged to join as well) is both a fundraiser, a consciousness-raiser, and a difference-maker: selling compact fluorescent bulbs. And of course, each youth movement (Young Judea, Habonim, BBYO, NFTY, USY, NCSY, Noar Hadash, etc) has its own programmatic resources; look in archives for ‘tikkun olam,’ ‘ecology,’ and so on.