The JNF Bronfman Green Fellowship is a ten-week Jewish and environmental learning and action fellowship.  The fellowship aims to explore the intersection of basic human needs, the environment and the Jewish tradition.

Students will meet weekly at the Bronfman Center and at site visits throughout New York City and New York State for hands-on learning and volunteering.  Students will commit to one day of volunteering and learning per week for the fall semester and will receive $150 each for their participation and the opportunity to work with professional environmental specialists to help implement a local improvement project with a budget of up to $10,000!

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Jewish Food Movement?

Over the past few years, a growing number of Jewish foodies, farmers, rabbis, chefs, teachers, students, families and many others have brought meaning to those words, asking why and how one can eat in a way that is both deeply Jewish and deeply sustainable.

It is time to ask a new question: where will this movement be in 7 years? Last Rosh Hashanah ended the last shmita (sabbatical year) cycle, and we’ve begun the countdown to the end of the next shmita cycle in September 2015.  Using the shmita cycle, with its wisdom about our relationship to the land as a guide, what should be the goals of the Jewish food movement? How do you envision that the Jewish community (in the United States, Israel, the entire world) will look and act differently in its relationship to food by September, 2015?

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Check out the great new press in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on a new breed of Jewish farmers.  “Farming the land, Torah in Hand“  explains how our friends at Adamah, Jewish Farm School, Kayam and others are more than just farmers who happen to be Jewish, but are actually farming Jewishly. Click here to check it out.

One correction to the article: Kilayim is incorrectly translated as ‘holding back’ – a better translation would be ‘mixtures’ or ‘mixed species.’

Wow,
The conference was something incredible. I feel so blessed to be a part of this growing community and movement, and I thank those of you who joined us at Asilomar and contributed in a myriad ways to the 3rd annual Food conference. I truly look forward to witness how we all take the next steps forward, through personal choices, communal activity, public policy outreach, the development of new educational opportunities, and ….

At the conference, I was given the honor of sharing my vision for the New Jewish Food Movement, and I thought I would also share it here. So, I have shared those words below. I hope you might get some inspiration from my vision, but more importantly, I hope you will be inspired to think of how your vision fits into Hazon’s work, and even share your vision here on JCarrot.

Happy New Year
zelig

——– (more below the jump) ——–

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“Six years you shall sow your land, and you shall gather in its produce.  And the seventh year you shall release it from work and abandon it, and the poor among your people will eat.” (Exodus 23:10-11)

What would you do if you had seven years to prepare for a major event? Would you plan out each year carefully, with set goals for each step along the way leading up to the big day? Would you ignore the future despite your impending sense of doom, and hope for the best? Can you even think that far ahead? Seven years are the blink of an eye and an eternity, depending on your perspective.

This year, we began another cycle of the Shmita, a biblical agricultural cycle that mandate that the land lie fallow every seven years. No crops could be planted, and that which did grow was open to everyone. One had to plan for the Shmita for years in advance, so that you didn’t starve. The Shmita today is an odd commandment: since it only applies to Israel, it has a very significant impact on the lives of everyone who lives there. Every seven years, it creates agricultural chaos. But those of us in the Diaspora are free to ignore it. Why should we plan for the next seven years?

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(Written last night as the election results poured in…)

As I sit here watching the returns with guarded optimism, I consider the role food plays in politics. In 2004 John Kerry came to south Philly and ordered a cheese steak with provolone. You don’t do that, and Kerry was mocked on the local news. While he still won Pennsylvania, he lost the election, and I think the cheese steak gaffe was a turning point for many voters. It showed that his food choices that day were a gesture, an attempt to make a connection with a certain type of voter, and he failed miserably.

That we feel such a cultural connection to what we eat allows food to play a part in our political sphere. Food is an entry point for politicians. When they eat your sandwich, drink your beer, slurp your soup, they convey their humanness, and their ability to relate to you, your needs and concerns in the world.

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The notion of a Jewish Farmer still raises eyebrows across much of the tribe. (Let’s face it, “My son the farmer” does not currently have the same nachas potential as “My son the doctor”).  But the idea of Jewish farming in America, which is currently being embraced by organizations like The Jewish Farm School and Adamah, has deep roots.

The Federation of Jewish Farmers, founded in 1909, brought together 13 existing associations of Jewish farmers under one umbrella.  According to the American Jewish Archives:

In its first year, the organization held an agricultural fair during the week-long fall harvest holiday of Sukkot. In later years, the annual conventions offered farmers an opportunity to exhibit their products, and they continued to take place during Sukkot. The federation also gave Jewish farmers more purchasing power, starting a bureau to give liberal credit to farmers who needed more help, and offering good prices on seeds and farming implements to those who needed them.

American Jews celebrating the agricultural connections to Sukkot back in the days of the Model T?  That’s something to celebrate, even after the holiday.

(hat tip to Eric Schulmiller)

Hazon’s Associate Director of Food Programs, Judith Belasco was featured on the Heeb 100 – the illustrious list of up-and-coming Jewish musicians, foodies, artists, comedians, entrepreneurs, etc. put out every year by Heeb Magazine.  We are incredibly proud of our “100-nik” and excited to share her *mostly* accurate profile with you.  See all of the Heeb 100 here.

Text by Sabrina Jaszi
Photo by Jesse Winter

As a disciple of the “new food” movement with degrees in nutrition, public health and urban studies, it’s all coming together for Judith Belasco. She’s currently associate director of food programs at Hazon, a Jewish community-based NGO that gets its members engaged in the challenge of sustainable living, with its name taken from the Hebrew word for “vision.” Among the activities coordinated by Belasco are “Challah for Hunger” bake-offs, “Jewish Farm School” and an annual food conference, to be held this December in Monterey, California.

Related Posts
Chow Time: Interview with Jane Goldman of Chow
Jewish Farming From the Field

Thanks to Moshe Cohen for this guest post. Moshe is participating in Hillel’s Sustainable Agriculture Alternative Break at Kayam Farm in Maryland and sending in “reports from the field.” The alternative break is being led by the Jewish Farm School.

“I had a convo with my chi,” said Alison Fields, recently of Indiana University, leaning on her shovel during a work break in the shade.  After our first full day at Hillel and The Jewish Farm School’s Alternative Break at Kayam Farm, we have already taken a complete tour of the grounds, dined on white mulberries right off the tree, sampled new vegetables out of the garden like garlic scapes and kohlrabi and participated in a morning Chi Gong session (hence Alison’s “chi conversation”).

Every day we have three work blocks where we split into teams to tackle a variety of assignments, working and learning together with farm staff and trip organizers. The first major project we undertook was constructing a fence to keep the deer out of the lettuce, reminding us that our food cycle intersects with other living things, as well. Some of us picked leafy greens from the garden and snuck away from the hot sun to “kasher the harvest” in the kitchen.

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Here are two amazing opportunities for farming and Jewish learning this summer – with The Jewish Farm School:

Hillel Organic Farm Alternative Breaks
The Jewish Farm School, in partnership with Hillel, will provide a total of 60 college students the opportunity to participate in a weeklong farm-immersion experience. During the two programs, students will be volunteering on sustainable farms located on the East and West coasts. No previous experience is necessary. June 11-18 (Kayam Farm, MD) and June 24-July 1 (Oz Farm, CA). Cost $200 – details here.

Program Highlights:
Learn basic skills in sustainable agriculture, food preservation, natural building and herbal remedies.
Discuss issues of food justice, sustainability and Jewish tradition.
Work alongside other college students and enjoy delicious homegrown food.

JFS Seminar on Organic Agriculture and Eductional Gardening
June 2-5
Surprise Lake Camp, Cold Spring, NY

Join us for our 3rd annual seminar in Organic Agriculture and Educational Gardening. Run in partnership with the Teva Learning Center, this program is designed for educators seeking to incorporate gardening or farming into their work. Register here.

Seminar Highlights:
Experience an early morning harvest at an organic farm and learn how small-scale, sustainable agriculture operates – first hand.
Learn the skills to build your own Jewish garden.
Study traditional Jewish texts and contemporary scholarship.
Discuss garden-based curriculum and activities.

The Jewish Farm School is supported by Hazon.

Thanks to Yigal Deutscher for this guest post.

We have just begun the Sefirat HaOmer, counting off the direct correlation between Pesach & Shavuot, two celebrations separated by a string 50 days long. These are two moments in time, interwoven, yet at polar opposites. On Day 1, we have left bread behind, as Chametz. On Day 50, we are elevating bread as an offering in the Holy Temple, a sacrifice unique to the day of Shavuot. A serious transformation has just taken place.

The link between our starting point and our destination goal is food, bread in particular. This corridor of time marks the counting of grain ripening…from the start of the barley harvest to the start of the wheat harvest.

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Below is the full text of Friday night’s keynote at The Hazon Food Conference.  The keynote was given by Nati Passow, co-founder of The Jewish Farm School.  It’s a long post, but definitely worth the read – even if you have to print it out (on recycled paper of course!) and take it home.

(Nati’s on the right, next to Simcha Schwartz.  Photo by Sabrina Malach.)

Hazon Food Conference
December 6-9, 2007
Keynote Address: Nati Passow 

Thank you Nigel. Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach. It is a great honor to be here with you all tonight. Nigel suggested that I begin by sharing my story with you, my connection and relationship to food, which I think is a great way to begin this talk, because one of the things I like most about food is that sitting down to a meal is a great excuse to spend time with friends and listen to each other’s stories. So here is a little bit of mine.

Seven years ago I took a Sabbatical. I left university for the year and traveled in Israel. I studied in yeshiva, toured the country and then settled into an apartment in Jerusalem. After having little success finding a job, I decided to enjoy my sabbatical for what it was time to just be present. This was when I discovered good coffee, which for any honorable coffee drinker is a moment you never forget. An older friend of mine sat me down and said that if I was going to drink coffee everyday, I should make it good. Buy whole beans, grind them myself and brew something delicious.

The coffee was my gateway drug to the world of slow food.

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Walking down the streets of Brooklyn, you will inevitably run into some cobwebs – not the kind actually made by spiders (that’s asking a little much for our concrete jungle).  Instead, you’ll find manufactured, cotton candy-like cobwebs that people drape on their bushes and pile on their stoops (along with winking pumpkins and smirking cardboard witches) for Halloween.  Before too long, those pumpkins will be replaced by plastic Santas and reindeer dotted with little, white lights.

What does all this have to do with The Jew & The Carrot?  It means the holidays (the “high” version) are over and the holiday (Chanukah) is not that far away.  Don’t stress – Chanukah isn’t about gifts anyway -  it’s about the lights and miracles and delicious fried foods.  But, if you’re looking for 1. a great gift 2. that will benefit a great cause 3. and help you stay on track with all the Jewish holidays, look no further.

The Jewish Farm School has created an absolutely gorgeous 5768-5769 Jewish Farms Calendar that pairs food and farm photography with a 16-month (Sept 07-Dec 08)  calendar.

The Jewish Farms Calendar features:
• All Jewish holidays
• Intimate photographs of freshly harvested produce and livestock that Jewish hands helped to cultivate (see attached preview)
• Dates for special Jewish food events (e.g. The Hazon Food Conference)
• Jewish/agricultural quotations
• 100% post-consumer recycled paper

How to purchase the calendar
The calendar is $18 dollars ($14 if you purchase 10 or more) and proceeds benefit the educational programs of the Jewish Farm School and Hazon.  Each purchased calendar makes a huge difference!  To purchase a calendar, email Robert Friedman or visit The Jewish Farm School’s website.