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Newsletter Issue 10 February 2000 Adar 5760 In This Edition A Tu B' Shevat Experience The Orthodox Eco-Dilemma A WTO 'Dayenu' Limmud Gets Greener
Next Event: Omer for the Earth Family Fun Day URGENT ACTION NEEDED ON GM SEEDS We understand from Friends of the Earth that an application to include a GM maize seed on the UK seed register is being considered by the government, in contradiction to
their own moratorium. The Noah Project is making a formal objection to this and we are encouraging our supporters to do the same. Please write to the Agriculture Minister, Rt. Hon Nick Brown and to your local MP to
register your concern. Time is of the essence - if you would like us to send you a sample letter, please ask. Your action counts. Please help. Tu B'Shevat: What an Experience More than 50 people packed the Yakar Study Centre in London on
January 22nd for a joint Noah Project / Yakar 'Tu B'Shevat Experience'. A concert was followed by a discussion, and then a Tu B'Shevat Seder with story-teller Dave Bash. To end the evening, participants were invited
to make a green pledge for the year ahead (see the picture below). At the discussion, Vivienne Cato (Noah's Education Co-ordinator) asked participants to consider quotes from Jewish sources, and identify which of a
choice of current environmental issues best fitted that source. Below is a selection of quotes and issues. If you have a go yourself, let us have your answers and reasoning, and we'll print the best next time.
Quotes: Furnaces and other causes of smoke, odour and air pollution are not permitted inside a city. (Baba Kamma 82b) When people cut down the trunk of a tree that yields food, the sound goes out from one end of
the world to the other, yet this sound cannot be heard. (Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 34) It is forbidden to live in a town that does not have greenery. (Jerusalem Talmud, Kiddushin 12:12) Current Environmental Issues:
Global Warming; Road Building; Water Shortages; Traffic Pollution; Building on the Green Belt
The Orthodox Eco-Dilemma By Rabbi Michael J. Harris In November '99, the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, appointed Rabbi Michael Harris to
his rabbinical cabinet, as advisor on environmental issues. In his first article for our newsletter, Rabbi Harris poses a problem which we will be working closely with him to solve: The environment is an issue that
ought to be of concern to all Jews. There are many and varied sources in our tradition which require us to deal sensitively with the world in which G-d has placed us. Having spent my whole life in the Orthodox
community, from being raised in it as a child to currently serving in it as a congregational rabbi, a question that puzzles me is: if indeed Jews should care about ecology, why does the Orthodox community, by and large,
appear relatively slow in taking the environment on board as an issue of concern? I think that a number of interrelated factors play a part. Firstly and very simply, Orthodoxy gives its adherents an awful lot to do.
Careful study and observance of the detailed laws of Shabbat and Kashrut, family purity and festivals, prayer and charity - together with many other areas of study and practice - are fundamentals of the Orthodox way of
life and take up time, energy and a vast proportion of the Jewish educational curriculum from early childhood. Sometimes, therefore, other legitimate concerns - including the environment - are pushed, willy-nilly, into
the background. Secondly, and for no good religious reason, Orthodox Jews sometimes allow broad social and universal concerns - and with them the environment - to take something of a back seat in their lives. Too
often, Shabbat, Kashrut and prayer become almost the sum total of their religious life. Crucial though these areas are, there is no convincing justification from Orthodox Jews not to be involved, as well, in with wider
social and humanitarian issues. Thirdly, tradition is of course central to Orthodox consciousness, and the Orthodox community is fundamentally characterised by conservatism with a small 'c'. Unfortunately - in my
opinion at any rate - concern about the environment, which should form part of the agenda of every thinking citizen, has become too closely identified with the (politically) radical left. This has tended to alienate
some people who might otherwise have become involved with environmental matters. (According to an intriguing argument advanced by Michael Jacobs in an essay published by the Fabian Society, the same phenomenon has
discouraged New Labour from addressing environmental issues as seriously as it might). Whatever the reasons for its marginalisation hitherto, hopefully the environment will begin to play a more significant role in
Orthodox concerns. It deserves to. Inter-Faith Responses In the last edition, we printed a letter sent by Clive S M Cohen to the heads of 40 faiths, raising his concerns about their apparent lack of action on environmental issues.
The overall response seems to suggest that much is being done by some faiths on environmental concerns, but the public is not actively involved and aware of it, and there appears no co-ordination between the faiths.
Clive is now working with faith leaders on behalf of the Wildlife Trust, and feels he is starting to get the message across that religions should be actively environmentally involved.
There will be more news next time. Click to Save a Rainforest Why not use your computer to save the planet? Click on
www.saverainforest.net and the site's sponsors buy 15 square feet of rainforest, helping to save it from developers. Shavuot Event We are currently planning an event to celebrate the festival of
Shavuot (9th & 10th of June). If there is any activity you would like to see us get involved in, please let us know.
A Dayenu for Seattle! At the time of last year's World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Seattle, Gabe Cohen summarised the hopes of
many in a uniquely Jewish way; When the air, water, fellow creatures and our beautiful world are protected, and given priority over
development for the sake of profit... Dayenu (it would have sufficed) When WTO rules no longer facilitate global commerce that favour rich multinationals at the expense of efforts to promote local economies towards
greater self-reliance...Dayenu When all nations affirm that creation is sacred and that life cannot be owned by corporations, and when the WTO recognises that indigenous knowledge, seeds, medicinal plants are not
exploitable for profit over people...Dayenu When all the workers of the world receive just compensation and respect for their labour, enjoy safe, healthy, and secure working conditions...Dayenu
When the deliberations of the WTO are open and transparent... Dayenu When governments no longer use WTO rules as an excuse to give preference to corporate and multi-national greed over the interest of people and the
environment...Dayenu When the WTO takes active steps to cancel the debt of the world's poorest countries...Dayenu When the WTO no longer disallows bans on imports of goods based on how they are produced -
irrespective of whether they are made with child labour, with workers exposed to toxins or with no regard for species protection...Dayenu When the WTO reviews, reforms and repairs its structure and examines the
damage it has done to people, and the devastation it has wrought to the environment over the past five years - and begins to make Teshuva [repentance]… Dayenu When trade and commercial considerations no longer take
precedence over worker, consumer, environment, health, safety, human rights, and animal protection...Dayenu When the WTO begins to realise that without love and caring and working to create a world of Peace and
Justice in which every human being is treated as an embodiment of the spirit of G-d, this planet cannot long endure...Dayenu When WTO leaders hearken to the words of Isaiah: "Learn to do Justice by helping the
poor and downtrodden and protect the rights of all humanity..." then, the whole world will sing in unison...Dayenu
Letter from a supporter Dear Noah, I consider myself to be both a committed Jew and a committed environmentalist. I teach environmental
science at a major UK university. I am very concerned about the nature of the debate that is currently being carried out within the environmentally concerned community on the subject of GM crops. It feels like an
anti-intellectual anti-scientific crusade against GM crops where the actual issues are not being discussed at all. For what it is worth here is my contribution. Firstly all agricultural crops are genetically
modified. There is not a single food that we eat that has not been changed and modified drastically from the original wild plants from which it was derived. This process has been carried out for the last 10,000 years
and is the very reason why civilisation as we know it has developed. Without an agricultural food surplus we simply could not function today. The issue is that scientists have now developed the ability to carry out
genetic modifications much faster and more imaginatively than they have ever been able to before. Work is being carried out to develop plants that could produce proteins and compounds such as insulin, used in medical
treatment. Therefore what we should be talking about is what genetic modifications are appropriate rather than making it appear that all genetically modified foods contain some sort of poison while all other foods do
not. The issues in Israel are rather clearer. Israel is a country that relies to a great extent on the technical innovation of its agriculture. It is thus quite appropriately at the forefront of GM of plants. This
will be used to solve some of the very real problems that Israel faces in trying to maintain its economy and security within the region. [E.G.] Research is being carried out to develop plants that can grow using less
water. Do your readers also think that research on all these type of modifications should be banned? -Michael Krom [edited for space] Limmud - Learning to be Green The recent Limmud (Jewish education) conference in Nottingham
featured an unprecedented number of sessions on environmental issues. One of the more unusual sights was that of 40 Jews hugging trees in the city's Wollaton Park as part of the Noah Project's Adamah (nature) Walk.
Delegates were led, eyes closed, to a tree, and asked to 'know your tree' using touch and smell alone. When their eyes were open, could they recognise their tree ? The walk, led by Noah's Vivienne Cato and John
Schlackman, then moved on to sound. As anyone who joined us on a similar walk on Hampstead Heath in 1998 will recall, we stood in silence, noting the sounds around us, both natural and human. Other 'Green' sessions
included Aubrey Isaacs from Arad speaking on 'Torah & Environment'. He suggested that in order make a real difference, society had to develop a heightened sense of general morality and ethics; something which, he
said, was lacking at present. Overall the Limmud conference was a great success. However, we are still saddened that at the end of each conference, the local land-fills groan with the weight of polystyrene cups.
Perhaps the solution is to follow the example of Mark Soloway, who used his own cup throughout the throughout conference. We understand the concerns this might raise about Kashrut, but could this not be the basis of a
viable solution? Last year we unveiled, our 'Omer For The Earth', an exploration of links between the counting of the Omer (the 7 weeks from
Pesach to Shavuot) and steps we can all take to reduce our impact on the planet. This year we proudly present…
Omer for The Earth - Family Fun Day An afternoon of activities for all the family (Non-families also welcome)
on: Sunday 2nd April 2000, 2.30pm - 5.30pm at: The Yakar Study Centre, Hendon, London Donation: £3 (refreshments included) For More Information, and ESSENTIAL advanced booking: Yakar on 020 8202 5551
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