Archive for the 'Events' Category
Tikkun Leil Shabbat in DC takes on Jewish food issues!
This Friday, DC’s rockin’ progressive havurah is taking on Jewish food issues!
Tikkun Leil Shabbat is a songful, soulful, Friday evening services featuring a teaching about a social justice issue and followed by a potluck vegetarian dinner. This Friday July 13, the “dvar tikkun” will be introduced by Hazon’s very own Laura Bellows and feature:
Aliza Wasserman (also one of our fabulous “The Jew & the Carrot” bloggers!), from Community Food Security Coalition, will talk about a progressive Jewish take on national food policy and the pending Farm Bill.
Melissa Byrne will talk about the benefits of eating locally grown food, and provide information about the DC-area farmers’ markets (and maybe a sweet taste-test of local berries!)
Services begin at 6:45 at the Religious Action Center at 2027 Massachusetts Ave NW (21st & P) near the Dupont Circle metro, North exit. Services will be accompanied by instruments; please bring a vegetarian entree or salad to share, and a percussion instrument if you’d like.
More information about how they’ve “greened” their potlucks, and other details about this metro-fabulous havurah, at www.tikkunleilshabbat.org.
(Thanks to Jo for this tip.)
No Comments »Bye to Bens
Along with 2nd Avenue Deli in New York and Rascal House in Miami Beach, Ben’s Deli of Montreal has sadly been added to the list of dying delis in North America. Ben’s opened nearly 100 years ago on the famous Montreal stretch, “the Main,” (aka Blvd. St. Laurent/St. Lawrence), and was one of the first restaurants to offer the city’s now famous smoked meat sandwiches. Most agree quality declined in the past decade, but Ben’s was a favorite among locals, tourists, and celebrities alike. Famous politicians were known to frequent the deli, including our charismatic Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and current Quebec Premier, Jean Charest, who, I am told, enjoyed Ben’s matzoh ball soup on at least one occasion. Although I’ve always preferred Schwartz’s or Snowdon Deli (and Lester’s might soon be added to my list), it is sad to see Ben’s go.
The best possible thing you could do this summer
If you’re in the NY area, Join Hazon for Bike to the Beach
Ride your road bike, hybrid, mountain bike, penny farthing, recumbent, tandem bike, or unicycle to Coney Island from 10 starting points around NYC:
Westchester * Fort Lee Park, NJ * Riverdale * Queens * Upper East Side * Upper West Side * Lower East Side * Brooklyn
Or join us at the beach for music, fresh watermelon and other snacks, learning and a dip in the ocean.
June 24, 2007 - details at www.hazon.org
Last Chance on Domestic Jewish Agenda
There are only a few days remaining to vote in the JFSJ poll to shape the upcoming Domestic Jewish Agenda. I’m very excited about this campaign for which Hazon, Isabella Freedman Retreat Center, Jdub Records, Jewcy.com, Jewish Student Press Service, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Jews United for Justice, Jewschool.com, Moishe/Kavod House Boston, Progressive Jewish Alliance, The Shalom Center, The Tribe, VelveteenRabbi.com , and Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring are sponsors.
I’m only dissapointed that reforming our food system did not make it to the 10 issues that voters can choose from to help shape the new domestic social agenda for Jews/Jewish organizations. Does this mean that food systems will not be included in the agenda? Some might argue that food is encompassed by the “Environment” choice, but there is much that needs reform in our food system beyond its environmental implications. Perhaps someone from Hazon can clue me in to whether this was discused and why it was left out.
(cross-posted on Jewschool)
Creative Bridal Shower Themes
I have been very fortunate to attend and organize several bridal showers for friends throughout the past few years. But to honest, they are all the same and somewhat… boring. Whether the bride is surprised or not, similar things happen. The same types of food are served - salads (while they are always quite delicious), pasta dishes, fruit, and cake - and we all watch as the bride opens all her gifts while she tries to look surprised (even though she’s the one that picked it out for her bridal registry and we bought her gifts from the registry!).
Read more »
Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge
There are many food-related things one can count while counting the omer– food miles, money spent on food each day/week….what else can folks think of?
Next week, Eat Local Challenge and the Locavores are sponsoring a Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge, from April 23 to 29. Many people are under the impression that eating local (like organic), requires a large food budget. The point of the Penny-Wise challenge is to eat local, as defined by a 100-mile radius, on what some consider a small budget.
The Penny-Wise challenge uses numbers from the Department of Labor’s Consumer Expenditures, which allots $68/week for a one-person household or $144/week for a household of 2+ with 2 wage earners.
Meet your Farmer
Two of the Tuv Ha’Aretz communities are hosting Meet the Farmer events this week. Meet the farmer supplying Tuv Ha’Aretz, ask your burning questions about sustainable, organic agriculture, shmooze with other members of your local Tuv Ha’Aretz community, and find out how to join the CSA. Check out these events if you live in or are visiting:
- Berkeley, CA - or -
- West Orange, NJ (or anywhere in the MetroWest area)
For more info about the Berkeley event at Chochmat HaLev on Tuesday, April 17, contact Adam Edell adumkov@aol.com, and for info about the New Jersey event at JCC MetroWest on Wednesday, April 18, contact Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu (rsirbu@jccmetrowest.org).
Earth Week begins
There’s a big party this week in celebration of Earth Day. To find events in your area, look here. New York City has a plethora of planetary parties to choose from.
National Day of Climate Action, April 14
This Saturday, join a grassroots event to stop the onward march of global climate change. Find the action in your area here.
“Two thousand seven is the year that global warming will become a marching issue; 2008 is the year it will become a voting issue,” said one organizer.
Interesting Conference
I just got a notice in the mail about this upcoming conference that looks really interesting. It’s called “Women, Men, and Food: Putting Gender on the Table” (April 12-13, 2007, Cambridge MA). It’s free, but you have to register. You can read about it by clicking this link.
The Pollan-Mackey debate
Was it just me, or did the “debate” between Michael Pollan and John Mackey last night hardly seem like a debate? My friends and I all agreed afterwards that it was more like a mutual admiration society between “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” author and the CEO of Whole Foods.
Even the Berkeley audience, which swelled to 2,000 people to fill the largest auditorium on campus, was uncharacteristically polite, hissing only once when Mackey suggested that most Americans were doing better economically than in previous years.
Don’t forget! Michael Pollan and John Mackey face off tomorrow night
The Past, Present, and Future of Food
This event, even after having been moved to a larger auditorium, is compltely sold out (tho folks are looking for tickets on Craigslist). If you live in San Francisco, you can watch the discussion broadcast in the North Gate Hall Library at UC Berkeley. If you live anywhere else, you can watch the webcast here.
I, personally, shall be holed up in Brooklyn with buddies and a bowl of homeade popcorn, and hoping that our internet connection doesn’t die on us, and pondering the bizareness of cross-country real-time, which will have me listening to the discussion at 10pm EST. Oh well.
But why is this conversation so exciting?
I think it’s partly because we don’t often get to see change actually happen, and we’re dealing with two contestants in the sustainable foods debate who are eminently well placed to make that change happen–quickly. And they already have.
How green is your wedding?
“You don’t want this event that is supposed to start your life together to come at the expense of the environment or workers in another country,” says Ms. Harrison, 28, who’s wedding in October will use organic food at their celebration, and shuttle their guests in bio-fuelled busses.
This was a very sweet article in the NY Times today; apparently, green is the new white!
And that’s good news for the large-scale catered event coming to a synagogue near you, too. OK so you have to use disposable because they don’t have meat dishes. Make them out of corn! Or potato! And reduce your guilt as well as the crap going into landfills, when you take all your garbage to a compost afterwards.
Tu B’Shevat: this year, we talked about food.
“All the Jewish holidays come to remind us of something that we should be doing year round. We should always strive to be our best selves – but if we forget, Rosh Hashana comes to remind us. And we should always strive to get rid of the fluff and superfluity in our lives—but if we forget, the period between Purim and Pesach is a reminder. And Tu B’Shevat…the new year of the trees…what does it come to remind us of?”
“Tu B’Shevat, comes to remind us of our connection to the natural world. To the earth. To seasons. To the cycle of growing things. And also to our responsibility to care for those things.”
This was Leah Koenig, sharing words of wisdom via Shlomo Carlbach and Nigel Savage, at the 7th Annual Park Slope Tu B’Shevat Seder this past Monday. Read more »
