Category Archives: Social Justice/Tezedek

Energy – Renewable and Real – Thanks Israel

So, did you watch/listen to the prez tonight? I didn’t, but I heard that he planned to speak about the environment and conserving engergy. Somehow it is hard to imagine a prez whose family fortune is in the oil industry with a vp whose money is in the oil industry (along with rebuilding Iraq at very high bids) wanting to truely conserve.

One of the countries around the world doing something about energy invention and conservation is Israel.

A company called Genova has created a way to use organic waste for energy. Yep, you read it right, olive pits can create electricity and coke (the energy, not the drug)! Tania Hershman writes all about it in Israel 21c

Let’s hear it for invention and cleaner fuels!!!

Go Israeli inventors!

Feed the Starving Before and After Shabbat

Estimates suggest that some 36 million people are in danger of starving in Niger and other wide sections of Africa. Below are some ways to do something about it and help out, even if only a little bit.

What a way to frame shabbat, helping the hungry at home and abroad.

American Jewish World Service (www.ajws.org)

In response to a food crisis in Niger, AJWS, with whom we work very
closely, is working to identify local grassroots organizations that can
help feed people facing starvation, and to ensure that those most
vulnerable to life-threatening conditions will have access to medical
care.

Save the Children (www.savethechildren.org)

With more than 40 tons of essential supplies now on the ground, Save the
Children is working to provide nutritional assistance to children under
5 who are facing severe food shortages following the lethal combination
of poor rainfall in 2005 and a locust infestation in the sub-Saharan
African country. Current activities are focused on assisting children in
the Maradi region of Niger, which is facing acute food shortages.
Critical supplies that Save the Children is providing include tents and
other essentials to set up therapeutic feeding centers for starving
children as well as emergency health kits, supplementary feeding kits,
20 tons of ready-to-eat food such as biscuits or porridge and 16 tons of
a new product called plumpy’nut
, a
read-to-eat food that tastes like peanut butter but is fortified with
all the nutrients a moderately malnourished child needs to avoid severe
malnutrition.

Catholic Relief Service (www.catholicrelief.org)

In collaboration with the World Food Programme, CRS is distributing
emergency food and seeds, and running food-for-work programs. CRS is
focusing its initial efforts in Niger on 150,000 critically food
insecure people, though the organization has planned a longer term
response that targets 320,000 extremely vulnerable individuals in
drought- and locust-affected regions. With its local partner, Caritas
Niger, CRS began responding to signs of a food shortage in late 2004
with seed fairs , which
have proven enormously valuable. Farmers who planted seeds from these
programs have been less affected by the crisis than others now
confronting starvation.

Meals for the Hungry & Homeless with Dignity

Today I learned of an amazing restaurant soup kitchen in Jeruslame called Carmei Ha’ir. All who enter sit, dine and relax. When leaving those who can pay, pay. Payment is made to a box by the door. Some put notes of thanks and others put sheckels. Only those touching the box at that moment know who is paying with thanks and who with cash. Amazing, isn’t it?

Located on 72 Agrippas in the neighoborhood of Machaneh Yehudah it was begun by Yehuda Azrad, Itzik Levitan, Momi Ben Zruel, Harel Horowitz and David Germiza. Aish reporter Sara Yocheved Rigler writes that they dreamed of creating a soup kitchen “where everyone who enters would receive honor, not just food.” She continues, “Even the name embodies their commitment to preserving the dignity of their indigent patrons. They wanted a name which would not smack of charity. Ze’ev Yekutiel, a restaurant consultant and caterer who volunteered the know-how for establishing the restaurant, came up with “Carmei Ha’Ir.” In Hebrew, it means simply, “the vineyards of the city,” but the inner circle of supporters knows that the word “Carmei” is also an acronym for a line in the prayer of hospitality: “All the hungry will eat from Him.” Read the entire Aish article here.

Other sources on this amazing place include:
A Jerusalem Post article, Love at First Bite.
A Christian Science Monitor article, Chef Cooks Up a Grand Social Experiment
Rabbi Mark Kaiserman quotes the owner in a D’var Torah for Parashat Behar, By Your Side

I learned of Carmit Ha’ir from Jerusalem Gypsy who blogs about a recent meal there.

I hope to eat/donate/volunteer there when I’m in Jerusalem later this summer.

Do you want to help support Carmei Ha’ir? According to Aish, send donations to P.O.B. 6084, Jerusalem 91060, Israel. You can also go to their website (in Hebrew) for more information and donations.

Israeli Company Donates Tsunami Warning Systems

This morning’s news from Israel includes a great statement about generosity, hope and help above profit. Meir Gitelis of Avtipus Patents and Inventions Ltd. is giving away – for free – tsunami alert systems to countries in South East Asia affected by the devastating earthquake and tsunamis. What a moment of pride. I learned of this from an article in Ha’aretz. Here is an excerpt,

An Israeli company said on Monday it planned to distribute free to Asian countries hit by last week’s tsunami a device it says could save lives by warning holiday-makers directly that a tidal wave is coming.
The system developed by Israeli inventor Meir Gitelis uses land and water sensors, smaller than a shoe box and each costing $170, to measure seismic activity and wave motion.

Like other systems already in operation, the sensors can send alerts in seconds by satellite to governments anywhere in the world. Unlike others, this system can also relay warnings directly to private subscribers over cell phones, pagers or dedicated receivers, spreading the message more widely.

Seaside hotels could install a satellite receiver to pick up warnings broadcast over the system seconds after an earthquake that could cause giant waves. Local cell phone or pager networks could do the same and send SMS messages to their subscribers…..”We’re not doing this to make money,” Gitelis said. “He want to help people. We plan to give our product to poor countries for free and we will not charge the countries that were affected by the disaster in Asia.”

Read the rest of the article here.

May this act of generosity inspire others.

Thinking about those in South East Asia

As we prepare for Shabbat, let our hearts, minds and tzedakah be turned to the peoples of South East Asia whose lives, families, homes and entire communities have been ripped apart. It has long been part of our tradition to give tzedakah just before Shabbat begins.

Where to give? There are many places where you can do it online and with ease:

Tsunami Help Blog lists specific requests and agencies who will recieve a package. (It is also a wonderful site for information.)

Union for Reform Judaism Asia Disaster Relief Fund

The Reform movement also has a beautiful prayer for the victims of the tsunami. The prayer includes,

…As we gather this Shabbat, we remember the loss of tens of thousands of God’s children killed this week in the Asian Tsunamis. We pray that the survivors find strength and comfort. We pray that those who search for missing loved ones be sustained with courage and hope. We pray that those who have lost so much have the fortitude to rebuild their lives. Loving and gracious God, who created the earth in all its fullness, grant them comfort, healing and peace. Be their help, in this, their time of need….May we be the voice that brings comfort and hope in the midst of the storm.

The Reform movement also has some resources on handling natural disaster.

The Conservative movement recommends giving through the American Joint Distribution Committee

May our prayers, hearts and resources send comfort, hope and help.