Exploring environmental responsibility through Jewish teaching
“Upon creating the first human beings, God guided them around the Garden of Eden saying, ‘Look at my creations. See how beautiful and perfect they are. Do not desecrate or corrupt my word. For if you corrupt it, there will be no-one to set it right after you.” Talmud
One of only 13 projects worldwide to win a ‘Sacred Gift’ award from the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, Partners in Creation promotes environmental awareness and action amongst the UK Jewish community.
Neville Sassienie is a member of the UK Board of Deputies Community Issues Division and explains how the project came about. “The Board of Deputies leads on issues affecting the Jewish community, such as education, health, anti-Semitism, and preserving the memory of the Holocaust. Although these are vital, they are not terribly happy subjects, and I wanted something that was inspiring and forward-looking that would also engage our young people. Although it isn’t a uniquely Jewish issue, the environment fitted the bill perfectly, and we called the project Partners in Creation because the way God works in creation is through human hands.”
In establishing Partners in Creation, the Board of Deputies teamed up with the Noah Project. Each partner brought complementary assets - the Noah Project had a good track record of linking environmental issues with Jewish festivals, and the Board had the contacts to distribute ideas throughout the Jewish community and to start to raise funds.
To date the project has developed environmental action programmes for the home, the synagogue and the workplace, and is looking for a publisher for a teaching resource for use in chedarim (religious classes) and Jewish primary schools. With a website due to go live by the end of 2005, these programmes will be delivered through interactive quizzes, factsheets and discussion pages.
And to get young people away from their computers and experiencing the natural world for themselves, they are importing a successful initiative from the US charity, Chazon. Tikun Trek (meaning ‘Heal the world’) is a 24 hour hike or bike ride through leafy Suffolk, exploring environmental issues and Jewish teaching, and raising sponsorship money for community projects. And Tikun Trek is the perfect prelude for August’s Limmudfest, billed as four days in the countryside to find inspiration for participants’ personal and Jewish journeys, in the run up to the Jewish New Year.
Getting this far hasn’t been easy. Funding remains an ever-present worry, and as Sassienie admits, the intangible nature of the environmental crisis doesn’t help. “The Jewish community has always led the way on looking after the elderly and the sick. And internationally, people concentrate on famine and debt relief because it seems more immediate. But whilst climate change may be our greatest global challenge in the long term, graffiti on the local synagogue wall is a far more real threat for our community.” But Sassienie is optimistic. “I’m an old guy, but my children are far more switched on to environmental issues and they are teaching us. And they must, because their future is bleak unless sustainable development catches on.”
http://www.limmud.org
