Jerusalem of Green: A new project of Atid Yarok

 

As Atid Yarok expands its work, a new project was implemented this year- JOG (Jerusalem of Green).

JOG is a 6-month project inspiring community activism on environmental issues in Jerusalem. This project is based on a format where The Merkaz provides activists who are interested in creating and leading their own environmental project with a small budget and use of the resources and knowledge of the Activism Center. These projects are aimed to empower young activist to deal with different environmental issues from different perspectives and through use of various forms of action.

 

.1. The Jerusalem Recycling Initiative is a competition to increase awareness of environmental causes and develop leadership through encouraging more active recycling. The Initiative identifies students with a passion for the Environment who possess leadership potential and are studying in Israel for a year or longer. The Initiative opened with a three part meeting of all the participants. First, there was an educational discussion focused on responsibility and the Jewish perspective on the environment. The second session regarded information on leadership and project management, and the final meeting required each participant to work on a practical plan of action. Participants then have a month to collect as many bottles as possible. After a month, the group will meet together again to discuss the experience. One of the main topics addressed is the value of incremental worth. Often overlooked, little things add up and over time, with committed consistency, a small change can have a big impact. This concept is put into practical use with the recycling of bottles. Each participant has a chart and records the bottles collected. In addition, the bottle caps are also collected to create a tangible representation of the effort. The project is being organized by Batel Meshel, who made Aliyah from Maryland on August 2004 and worked as staff of YJ in the past Batel@Nikayonzion.com, and Jay Schreiber who made Aliyah from the U.S in October of 2007, Jay@nikayonzion.com.

 

.2. Reusable bags- Yael Brygel arrived in Israel in 2007 from Australia. From day one she noticed the number of plastic bags being used by shops in the Moshava. Each time she bought something, not only was it wrapped, it was also then placed in a paper bag which was then placed inside a larger plastic bag. As a customer, Yael was not asked whether she needed all the bags, it was just assumed that she wanted them.
This waste led her to the decision of doing a project which would somehow reduce the number of plastic bags being used in the area. Yael decided that one approach would be to encourage people to use reusable cotton bags by selling them through local businesses and at stands on Emek Refaim. The bags will be bought from an Israeli producer and partially subsidized by local businesses in exchange for advertising. Each business that participates in the project will pay a certain price to have their logo printed on the bag and receive a set amount of bags to sell in their shop at a discount of the original price. This project’s main objective is to encourage the community to reduce the use of plastic bags while also potentially changing behavior patterns in a way which will encourage the bags’ new owners to refuse plastic, bringing their own bag option: saving the environment, one consumer at a time. (yaelbrygel@hotmail.com)

 

.3. Environmental Talmud Online- The thinking behind this project is that inspection, awareness, and a grounding within the world of Judaism eventually help lead to action. The goal is to create a holistic online discussion format for modern environmental and societal issues: opening up topics of concern to environmentalist and examining them from a Jewish perspective, with all of this occurring in the interactive online sphere.This project will be centered upon an online ‘blog’-type discussion. Each issue or primary text will be presented at the center of the page, the ‘mishnah’ in effect, and following that will be the ‘gemara’—a concise explanation of the issue and the various sides or perspectives. In surrounding columns will be ‘rashi’—primary commentary—and various other commentaries, ‘tosefot,’ hyperlinks to corroborating or relevant background, and even ‘onkelos’-type translations where necessary (from other languages, or when technical issues need to be ‘translated’ into more generally comprehensible forms). Various environmental activists and religious thinkers have been and will be invited to contribute to the rashi/tosefot elements of the discussions. Ideally, in the future a more open blog format will enable the general public to also contribute to the discussions. Matthew Mausner, theinitiator of this project,made Aliyah from the U.S (matthewmausner@yahoo.com).

 

 

.4. A Green Audit: Worried about your family’s carbon output? Aware of the link between carbon/energy and climate change, but don't know what you can do about it? A Green Audit of your home and lifestyle can help - with  a survey of your home and appliances, our experts can then produce a tailor-made energy audit of your house, and if you wish, of your lifestyle, assessing the problem areas and suggesting areas of improvement. With the help of our experts and our resources, you can change your carbon output and do your bit to reduce climate change worldwide. Leaders of this project- James Murray-White who came to Israel from Scotland ( james@sky-larking.com ) and Fabio Kahn who made Aliyah from Brazil (fabiokahn@msn.com).

 

 

 

 

 

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