As  the  Chanukkah lights fade and 2007 turns into 2008, the Heschel Center is entering its tenth anniversary year. This newsletter gives some of the highlights of our activity this year, and in 2008 we will reflect on our achievements since 1998 and how we can foster those successes to meet the challenges ahead - with a landmark event planned for this time next year.

For you to join us in these efforts, we are launching a Decade of Success fundraising campaign. I urge you to contribute what you can to help us create a sustainable future for Israel. (Donations can be made online here. Click here for the full appeal letter.)
 

Join us on the Hike Bishvil Yisrael - March 23-27, 2008

Israel's outdoor scenery is breathtaking, and there is no better way to see it than with the people working to preserve it. This is an opportunity for a unique, challenging and rewarding Israel experience and a chance to literally "walk the walk" for a sustainable Israel. Registration is still open, and discounts are available for multiple family members and for students studying in Israel. For more information, go to www.hikeisrael.org.

 
Upcoming event:

Social Responsibility and Educational Audacity:

[Jewish] Education, Cultural Criticism and Social Activism
A Conference in Honor of Abraham Joshua Heschel's Centennial

To mark Abraham Joshua Heschel's centennial, the Heschel Center and the Melton Centre for Jewish Education at Hebrew University are cosponsoring the Social Responsibility and Environmental Audacity conference this Sunday and Monday, December 23 and 24. The conference, to be held in English, will discuss Heschel's impact on education and the links between religious-cultural thought and environmental, social and economic justice.
 
We are pleased to offer you a chance to see the conference remotely, through photographs and videos that will be uploaded to the Internet at http://melton.huji.ac.il/heschel.  Don't miss it!

What's New at the Heschel Center?

MAOF 2007 – Creating an environmental groundshift in local politics

While November 2008 means elections for the U.S. president, at Heschel it is an opportunity to instill environmentalism into the agendas of candidates for local office in Israel.
 

With the aid of the Green Environment Fund the Israeli environmental movement has joined forces to create a combined campaign in the lead-up to the 2008 municipal elections. The Heschel Center's central and formative role in the movement allowed us to facilitate the creation of the coalition and the setting of its goals and plan.
 
At the Heschel-led Maof conference last week (December 12-13), 45 environmental leaders from throughout Israel, including representatives of Arab and Ultra-Orthodox green organizations, discussed how to make the environment a central issue in candidates' platforms and voters' decisions.
 
Over the two-day conference, the environmentalists chose three areas to focus on: Transportation and Accessibility; Health and Pollution Reduction; and Strengthening the Urban Fabric and Green Spaces of the City. A common thread through all three initiatives will be Environmental Justice, aiming for a fair distribution of benefits and resources.

 
The campaign will focus on six Israeli cities, where working groups will help educate the public and candidates for office on environmental issues. More pictures are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/heschel.center/2007MaofBhirot.
 

Greening the Public Eye - Israeli Artists for Environmental Justice making a difference

Israelis driving down the Ayalon Highway will notice an improved view this January, when all the billboards will be taken down thanks to the lobbying of local celebrities, as part of a campaign against rampant misappropriation of public spaces.

The Heschel Center has initiate an exciting project to help Israeli celebrities use their star power to create a greener country. The group, Israeli Artists for Environmental Justice, had a parlor meeting last Thursday (Dec. 14). MK Dov Khenin spoke about his bill to impose massive fines for polluting factories and a mega-hotel complex being planned in the undisturbed desert in Timna, while MK Yossi Beilin discussed the the urgent need to clean up the toxic waste industrial area in Ramat Hovav, just outside Beer Sheva. The group decided to support these efforts of both MKs.

The Ayalon billboards campaign is one of the group's most recent successes.
 
For the Heschel Center, the group of celebrities is a critical tool for making Israelis think green. Comic actress and Artists' group member Riki Blich was interviewed in the Fall 2007 edition of "Achbar Ha'ir," (City Mouse), a glossy Tel Aviv magazine. She noted how she tries to eliminate plastic bags from her life and cut down on buying new clothes. We are using the group to bring together like-minded Israeli celebrities and to maximize their impact on the public.
 
 
 

Heschel Environmental Fellows becoming a strong network of change

 The secret to reducing litter in public space may lie in removing garbage cans. At the recent Heschel Environmental Fellows Alumni Meeting, fellow Gidi Bashan described how, as the regional coordinator for the Jewish National Fund, he significantly reduced litter in the JNF forests outside of Jerusalem, simply by removing the trash cans. Paired with a public information campaign, Bashan convinced park visitors to "pack it in, pack it out," also creating less total waste as a result. And it pays: removing the garbage cans saved JNF the cost of trash pickup.
 
This was only one of a wide swath of environmental initiatives tabled Fellows at the conference, held in Yafo on October 15. Other topics included sustainable procurement for local municipalities, the relationship of Jews and Palestinians in Yafo, and advice on how to achieve green goals in public office. Over 50 Fellows graduates attended.
 
The Environmental Fellows program at Heschel is now in its ninth year. With more than 120 graduates, the Fellows program has helped build a network of Heschel-trained environmentalists who occupy varied and prestigious posts in Israeli society. This translates into the Heschel Center having a huge impact in Israel and strong connections to key people in the non-profit, business and government spheres.
 
To see what last year's graduates are doing, you can see their list of projects in our last newsletter here.
 

FEATURED FELLOW – Dr. Itamar Grotto Appointed National Director of Public Health

On December 2, Itamar Grotto, M.D. MPH, began working as the Director of Public Health Services in the Ministry of Health. Grotto, who participated in the 2005-6 Fellows program, said he comes to his post with a focus on environmental health and environment-related diseases. He hopes to make connections between the Health Ministry, the Environment Ministry and Israeli NGOs working on the effects of the environment on health and disease.

 
The Fellows program affected his outlook on public health, Grotto said. "In terms of having a wide view of the environment, and the topic of strengthening the need for cooperation," he said, the program was crucial. "Within the environmental health personnel who work in the Ministry of Health, there may be other potential Fellows," he added.
 
During his Fellowship, Grotto pushed to develop an interdisciplinary environmental health curriculum within Ben Gurion University, where he taught in the epidemiology department, as well as in the public health departments of Hebrew, Haifa and Tel Aviv Universities. Grotto lives in Hod Hasharon. We wish him the best of luck in his new post.
 
 

The Ever-Expanding Green Schools Network

Last newsletter, we mentioned that the Green Schools Network was growing exponentially, with an especially large addition from Arab schools in northern Israel. Since September, teachers in those schools have been undergoing training to learn how to bring the environment into their classrooms and class trips. The GSN has added six new staff members this year to help train the teachers.
 
Whereas many school programs operating in Israel bring outside counselors to teach children about the environment, the Green Schools Network is different.

"We don't bring additional hours into the system," said Michal Shamai, the director of the Green Schools Network. "We train teachers who are already in the schools. We try to create local environmental networks of schools in the same areas, creating ripples of change – the lead students to the whole school, the school to the community, the local network to the city or region and the national network to the entire country."
 
In November, the alumni of the inaugural Educational Fellows program, aimed at principals and regional education coordinators, met and began work on a national syllabus for environmental education.
 
 

Creating Sustainable Local Economies in the Israeli Periphery

This year, the Heschel Center launched the Sustainable Local Economies project to strengthen the periphery in Israel. Rural communities in Israel suffer because local money goes to national and international companies, draining the municipal economies without any improvement in the quality of life.

In October, project coordinators Shahar Dolev and Lia Ettinger went to the London-based New Economics Foundation (nef) to study tools and coaching approaches that can help in cultivating local economies.

"What the nef is doing is truly fantastic," Dolev said. "We hope to achieve similar successes in Israel."

Dolev and Ettinger have already started spreading what they learned in London to the Israeli non-profit sector. On November 18, they conducted a workshop in Jerusalem for a large group of social and environmental activists on how to stop the flow of local money out of weak communities. The next step, Dolev said, is creating a course for environmental leaders and choosing pilot communities in Israel to try out the new tools.

In February, a team from the project will go on a follow-up study tour in England to learn more about reviving struggling peripheral economies. The Sustainable Local Economies project has offered advice to the Environmental Social Lobby in the Knesset on how to craft policies that will foster the regeneration of deprived regions in Israel.

 

GOOD ENERGY INITIATIVE – Using Carbon Credits to Create Clean Electricity

 The Good Energy Initiative, a Heschel-supported project, has sold 600 tons of carbon offsets, most recently to Toyota in Israel, Hazon USA, and to the Dutch Embassy in Israel.

 
"The carbon market in Israel is beginning to create results that translate into real projects in the field of climate change," said GEI director Eyal Biger, a Heschel Fellows graduate.
 
The carbon offsets support clean energy projects across the country, Biger said. "Power to the Children," for example, provides solar panels to the families of Bedouin children suffering from cancer. The solar energy powers the machines needed to heal the patients, and lets the children heal at home rather than in hospitals. Through the "Kol Dodi" project, the GEI is advising residents of large apartment buildings on how to replace their diesel-powered water heaters with solar ones. The project name comes from dude, the Hebrew word for water heater.
 
The GEI has also sold 1,500 compact fluorescent lightbulbs at a steep discount to encourage Israelis to stop using incandescent lighting.
 
Beginning in January, the GEI will open new frontiers in greening the Aroma coffee company, advising Eilat residents on energy saving, and making Radio Tel Aviv more environmentally friendly.
 

Environmental Insights from Judaic Sources - Chanukkah

 
Please join our world wide network of supporters by donating towards the realization of our vision of a sustainable Israel.

Tax-free donations to the Heschel Center can be made here.

This newsletter was prepared by Daniella Cheslow, who is interning at the Heschel Center through the New Israel Fund Social Justice Fellowship.