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Moment Magazine

English Focus Group

Our upcoming English Focus Group meeting via Zoom will take place TOMMORROW Tuesday November 23rd at 20:30. All members are welcome and encouraged to bring new friends. Our guest speaker will be Hila Leo Shapira from Ayana: Strategy, Society & Environment, and we will be discussing:

Why should leftover food from the shuk be thrown away in the garbage?

Why should industrial-size plastic bags from raw food materials be chucked out?

Why does each of us have our own washing machine when it’s not in use most of the day? (or any other machine)

We will address these questions and other aspects of urban sustainability from the point of view of the Circular Economy.

Our practical example will be COMPOST, with Batel Spivack.

Here is the link to the meeting.

Kiriyat Menachem

Soon we will send out an invitation for an opening ceremony of the Kiryat Menachem Godjo!

Thanks to more than 200 volunteers, the Godjo (Ethiopian mud hut) is almost finished! The outside walls are oiled and ready for winter rain, and we are working with the Ethiopian community on the final internal layer and the interior design. Neighborhood school children have already come to the Godjo in order to learn about Ethiopian culture and tradition.

Akko Convention on Urbanism

The Jerusalem Green Fund was well represented at the 3rd Akko Convention on Urbanism, held on October 18th. Our Founder and Chair, Naomi Tsur serves as Chair of the Israel Urban Forum, and intern Jason Ludwig also attended. This conference brought together professionals from academic fields such as urban planning, energy, and biodiversity, NGO’s, representatives from the Ministries of Health and Housing, and many mayors (including the Mayors of Akko, Dimona, Kfar Saba, and Haifa). The setting of the conference was the Knights’ Hall in Akko’s Old City, giving the conference a special feel. The rich history of Akko was palpable. The conference kicked off with an award ceremony for cities that excelled in helping their residents during Covid, and in addressing Climate Change. Jerusalem won 1st prize in one category, and 2nd prize in another!  Later in the day there were parallel sessions of choice. Naomi led a panel on regional planning and management, which was sponsored by the Ministry of Housing and the JGF.

The unique angle brought forward by the Akko Convention on Urbanism was the mix of both professionals of diverse disciplines and officials from different municipalities and government agencies. They each laid out their own goals and shared success stories such as; Kfar Seba aspiring to plant one tree per resident, the success of the bike lanes in Dimona, and Haifa’s aspiration to become more biker-friendly.There were many reasons for conference attendees to feel hopeful and optimistic about the future of cities in Israel.

Jerusalem Marathon

The Jerusalem Green Fund partnered with The Michael Levin Base to run the Jerusalem Marathon at the end of October. Both organizations are located in the city, both do important work, and they share several board members. They therefore joined forces to raise funds. The JGF gathered a team of 10 runners of all ages and raised some 7,660 NIS! Thank you to our runners, volunteers and sponsors! Thank you to The Base staff and volunteers for making it happen! We hope to run with you again next time...

Romema 

Our Green Visitors’ Center is keeping the Sabbatical year (shmita), so any fruit and vegetables that are still growing are intrinsically holy, and especially tasty, like these strawberries! We have recently installed a new composter, and plan to collect the organic waste from the day-care center and other groups that serve meals in the building. Thank you to Mahapach Yarok for providing the unit!

Reishit School

 This year, we decided it is time for Reshit students to give back to their community knowledge they amassed as students in the JGF’s environmental education program. We have initiated a new program called "Green Entrepreneurs". Two 6th grade classes will go through a course, in which they will develop and carry out an environmental project for the benefit of the neighborhood. Our staff member, Esther, will be leading this program which will start in a few weeks.  

Park Bustania 

Many great things have been developing in the  beautiful garden of Bustainia recently. First, in accordance with the Shmita (Sabbatical) year, an area was designated for gardening according to the Halacha (Jewish law) whereby several raised beds are disconnected from both the ground and the sky. What is incredibly special about it is not the actual beds, but rather how many different groups of volunteers & organizational donations have come together to make it happen.

• The Jerusalem municipality’s Community Garden department donated the wood

• The wood frames were built by activist residents

• Putting together the rest of the materials were students from Reut High School, Kiryat HaYovel

• The plants were donated by the KKL

• The roof was built by Yas”a High School  students as a part of their weekly volunteering

• Seminary girls from Midreshet Harova painted/ decorated the wood of the beds

Thank you to everyone!

Secondly, the newly established Sustainability Forum of Kiriyat HaYovel, as was inspired by the JGF’s round table in Kiriyat Menachem has coalesced local activists, professional staff of the Community Center from departments such as education/ urban planning/ community/ young families and more have met twice to improve their neighborhood and have planned and run communal events. The first of which, the owners of the land of Bustainia, KKL, came and ran games for children and planted plants together. The second event is still in the works. The education department of the KKL are integral partners in this Forum.

Thirdly, the residents and Community Center have been pushing the municipality to close the road that cuts the garden/park into two as not to make it into a large busy thoroughfare and create an unsafe atmosphere for visitors. The Forum met with municipal departments such as sanitation, gardening, open-spaces and others in persuading them that this park needs to stay in the hands of the residents in the safest way possible inorder to preserve its unique nature. See this Hebrew news article for a deeper explanation.

The next meeting will be on 28/12!

Ethan Lapp

My name is Ethan Lapp. I’m from Yonkers, New York and am currently here on a gap year program called Hevruta through the Shalom Hartman Institute. I attended an orthodox day school called SAR from K-12. Hartman’s internship program connected me with the Jerusalem Green Fund due to my interest in the environment. My biggest environmental inspiration is my older sister, who consistently makes an active effort to reduce plastic consumption and better the environment in any way possible, including her becoming a Vegan. This internship will be my first professional experience in the environmental field, as I spent my high school years educating myself and my peers on the effects of climate change and the benefits of switching to reusable materials. My greatest drive in educating myself about global warming comes from knowing that there are still people in my community who deny it’s impact. I learned so far that being educated and being able to explain pollution’s impact on the environment can make a real difference in the actions of those around me. My goals with the JGF are to help not only my gap year program but others reduce their production of waste and lessen their environmental damage. Additionally, I’d love to learn about the Israeli community and work in a more hands-on approach to make a tangible impact on Israel’s pollution reduction. I can’t wait to make a difference throughout this year!

Avital Adest

My name is Avital Adest, I live in Modiin. I attended the Pelech high school in Kiryat Ekron and am currently a participant in the Shalom Hartman Institute’s gap year program called Hevruta. It is a mixed program of Israeli and North American youth, from varying backgrounds and affiliations from orthodox to secular, and everyone in between. The first time I took interest in the environment was through an English project I researched about the environmental costs of the fast fashion industry and how it is the third most polluting industry. I was connected with the Jerusalem Green Fund through my program and I'm happy to take part in an organization that is actively working on fixing environmental problems.

Eileen Steinberg

In October, I joyously joined JGF’s team. In July, I had finished my MA degree and had been volunteering/ helping Naomi with JGF’s outreach efforts. I became a Jerusalem Stakeholder some months before, after working with the JGF for several years through my former job at Hebrew U., pairing student interns with the JGF team. 

I have worked in organizational development for the past 25 years. In 2015, I established an internship program, then advised and guided some 125 international students completing their MA at Hebrew University through 2021. Simultaneously I completed my MA in Nonprofit Management and Leadership. As I mentioned, this was how I came to know the JGF and to identify as a Jerusalemite with its goals.

I bring to JGF my organizational, developmental and academic skill set.  I intend to help sustain, build and grow JGF’s economic viability in order to promote environmental social and economic stability through the support of grassroots initiatives (locally, nationwide and internationally)

Immediately after my first visit to our Godjo in Kiryat Menachem, I said “I feel like I’ve come home", returning to the world of NPO’s and my unceasing passion for environmental matters. In 1972, I set up recycling centers on the University of South Florida’s Tampa Campus…... 

And having been given the opportunity to further impact the world we now live in and what we will hand on to our future generations brings me full circle. 

Philanthropy enables the world to pivot. Looking forward...