Kiriyat Menachem

We can finally announce the dedication of the Godjo (traditional Ethiopian mud hut), a project we led in Kiriyat Menachem, together with the community center! On Tuesday the 5th of April at 16:30 the entire community and friends of the Jerusalem Green Fund are invited for activities for the entire family and at 17:30 the opening ceremony. Send us an email for more details.

Romema 

The Sustainability Center and Welfare Department of Romena recently invited Atar Schimmel from “Jerusalem Food Rescuers” to give a six week course on prevention of food waste in our own kitchens. The participants were senior citizen Haredi women from the neighborhood who were just looking for a new idea on how to spruce up their cooking, and were aiming to enjoy a morning out as Corona dies down. From pickling lemons to give new flavor to old dishes, to making apple cinnamon jam from apples that were going soft to rethinking Shabbat leftovers, this group of grandmas/great-grandmas are well on their way to preventing food from being wasted and thrown out with the trash. They also discovered composting as an ecological solution to food that really can no longer be eaten, when they entered the garden of the Green Visitors’ Center and saw it with their own eyes!

#Ashpeula

A new subcommittee of the Sustainable Jerusalem Lobby was recently formed, called #Ashpeula (a combination of Hebrew words ashpa and peula, meaning garbage and action). This group of concerned lobby members is focusing on anything waste-related in the city. A first celebration is in order as the Jerusalem municipality has signed an agreement with the national recycling company, Tamir, to provide orange recycling bins for packaging around the city. We know that many of you members and readers have been very upset due to the removal of other recycling bins recently, and we hope these new bins will fill in the gaps in our recycling efforts. Please note, it is still far more important to REDUCE our consumption than it is to recycle.

Park Bustania 

Despite the cold weather, the garden in Bustania has been fully active all month. After cleaning up the damage caused by the heavy snowfall, teens from various programs took on projects for further development of the space. IASA high school students rebuilt the kitchen and the surrounding terraces, pre-army volunteers worked on the outdoor classroom, and additional groups have been coming in to take part. Sometimes two groups show up at once!

In the picture you can see International Bnei Akiva teens working on the patio, while the students from Lev Habustan high school for special education decorate the carob trees with bird houses that they assembled themselves on site - just in time for the nesting season!

Ulpan Etzion

On February 22nd Naomi Tsur and new Jerusalem Stakeholder Alisa Mannis ran a table at the volunteer fair held at the Beit Canada Absorption Center (home of Ulpan Etzion) in Armon Hanatziv. The idea came from one of the guides who works in the Ulpan, Matan Rudner, himself a stakeholder. About twenty Olim signed up to receive our newsletter, and wanting to volunteer. We will discuss with the management ways of making the absorption center greener, and perhaps initiate an ulpan class focussing on the language of the environment. 

New Life for Old Things

On March 3rd and 4th, two of our stakeholders, Dr. Anna Godneva and Dr. Lydia Belotzky (former city council member) held a fascinating exhibition of items of art and furniture, all remakes from much-loved family artifacts and furniture. This is truly a case of sustainable dressing up for Purim, by refurbishing and reusing old and worn objects. Anna and Lydia worked with a support team of Russian-speaking senior citizens.

The world family needs to reimagine and reshape the future for generations to come. In 2015, The UN General Assembly agreed on  17 Sustainable Development Goals, approved by 193 member nations. These goals will be revised in 2030. The JGF champions these goals in a Jerusalem context so that our residents and visitors may contribute to making Jerusalem a more sustainable place for all.

SDG #12, “Responsible Consumption & Production” is most relevant on the eve of our upcoming Purim holiday: 

CONSUMPTION

We live in a society where sustainable living is on our minds, and yet prior to the Purim holiday, we are barraged with a plethora of junk food, wrapped beautifully in cellophane sitting in disposable containers of different materials, all contributing to unhealthy food consumption and mountains of non-biodegradable products all to be thrown out minutes after opening!

PRODUCTION

Purim is a perfect time to reduce, or even eliminate the appalling amount of this potentially generated waste; it begins with each of us individually and what we choose to buy/make.  The good feeling and satisfaction of intentionally giving a Purim basket of yummy healthy food in a reusable container, or making a rattle from reused materials are the way to go when we rethink the logistics and sustainability of this fun holiday.

Here is an expanded version of the original 3 R’s: 1.Refuse 2. Recover 3. Repurpose 4. Reduce 5. Reuse 6. Recycle

Ideas for a more sustainable Purim: 

1. Decorate and repurpose glass jars, egg cartons, plastic bottles (if you have, do not buy), shoe boxes, flowerpots, and fill - for Purim packages (mishloach manot).
2. Fill & decorate empty coffee cans, plastic bottles with small pebbles or dry rice/beans to create the rattle used during the Megilla reading.
3. Buy and/or use sustainable packaging such as mugs, wicker baskets, reusable bowls, hats and reusable cloth bags. 
4. Make healthy food for mishloach manot of fresh or dried fruits, salads, nuts, homemade granola or baked goods.

We’d love to hear what you did this Purim for a greener, cleaner and healthier holiday! Write to us here.

Joseph Gross

From NYC living in Jerusalem, Joseph is a marketing specialist with an MA in Environmental Studies from the Porter School at Tel Aviv University. He also has a BA in Media studies from Queens College in NYC and is pursuing an additional  postgraduate degree at The Hebrew University Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot, specializing in Medical Cannabis. He loves to write and has a passion for the Environment and Agronomy. 

Joseph owns a small farm in Tekoa, Gush Etzion and is focused on several innovative projects in Jerusalem such as the Jerusalem Green Business Forum and more. He is currently consulting for several companies in the environmental field and is looking forward to boosting the JGF's overall marketing efforts.

Efrat Cohen Flam

Efrat Cohen Flam works in community and sustainability initiatives, loves to partner with other people to connect them with their physical and human environment. She established a Center for Sustainability in Beit Shemesh over a decade ago, to expand the knowledge and experience of sustainability in the community in the framework of both formal and informal education. Today Efrat manages educational projects in Eliav and is Timna’s replacement during maternity leave for the Jerusalem Green Fund.

Shoshana Braier

Shoshana Braier is a Jerusalem Green Fund intern. Originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, she is spending her gap year in Jerusalem as part of the Hartman Institute’s Hevruta program. Shoshana graduated from the Montgomery Blair High School STEM Magnet program. She is a National Merit Scholar and University of Maryland Banneker-Key scholarship recipient. Shoshana plans to study physics and will be a part of the Honors Humanities program. Shoshana believes that the environment has a direct impact on every form of life around the world and thus for Jewsspecifically, conservation of nature and the environment  preservation should be at the forefront of our Tikkun Olam efforts.

Anna Godneva

Anna Godneva met Naomi in 1998 when she was gathering support to save the Mir Forest (located between Pisgat Ze’ev and Neve Yaakov)  with more than 600 signatures of people who cared for its preservation, as a memorial to Belarussian Jewry. Naomi was then the head of the Jerusalem Branch of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). Anna was hired to coordinate events for the Russian speaking community. During that time they also began to save the area above the Mir Forest, which was filled with wildflowers and relocated bulbs from nearby construction sites. Today that space is called The Wildflower Sanctuary, and yet it is still under threat from 5 current building projects all around. Anna became a Jerusalem Stakeholder to continue to save this sanctuary from imminent destruction on all sides, amongst other reasons. Her most recent initiative with her artist friends was the “New Life for Old Things” exhibition (see article above)!

Anna is a biologist, botanist, artist, teaches classes on healthy eating and cooking, an avid member of her community garden in Neve Yaakov and goes wild-mushroom hunting for fun! When she’s not in Israel, Anna can be found at her father’s country home on the Lake of Naroch, Belarus, refurbishing old tables into beautiful mosaic pieces of art.