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Greening Congregations Annual Plan for 2022

 

Mission Statement

Judaism and other religions help people process existential concerns, as well as motivate individuals to make changes on a personal and societal level. Climate change and ecological degradation are the greatest existential risks of our time, along with all the human and natural tragedies that accompany them. Beth Shalom will be evolving our priorities and behaviors and connect more deeply with our care for the Earth.


Green Fields

Worship
•    We will have (approximately) quarterly  Divrei Torah (sermons) addressing environmental concerns.

•    We will have a Psalm hike to recite psalms in the context of the forest and mountains in order to fully appreciate the spiritual awe of nature.

•    We will organize a greenery decoration for our bimah (podium) for Shavuot (Feast of Weeks). The display will be artfully arranged from donations from congregants’ gardens.

•    We will have a regenerative agriculture kiddush luncheon to celebrate Rosh Hashanah L’Behemot (New Year for Tithing Animals), to highlight the possibility of buying animal products (dairy and eggs) from farms that restore the earth rather than erode it.  

•    We will have a Reverse Tashlich (going down to the water and picking up trash) during the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah (Ten Days of Awe between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur).

•    In February 2022 we hosted a Tu Bishvat (New Year for the Trees) kiddush luncheon celebrating the agricultural products of Israel and Washington State, as well as a program around Tu’ Bishvat for our religious school -including teaching about composting-, and a tree pruning event in coordination with City Fruit.

Education
•    We will continue to offer our adult education Shmita series, teaching about Jewish ethics related to our responsibility toward the land.

•    Our religious school will incorporate Shmita teachings into the Sunday school curriculum.

•    We will organize park and garden-based activities for young families, which will include retelling of midrash and other stories from our traditions about our connection to nature.

•    We will schedule an educational session for our board about Yishuvoh Shel Olam, the Mitzvah to Sustain the World. 

Building and Grounds
•    We will conduct a materials stream review to see where we will be able to economically switch to more environmentally friendly materials, such as using more recycled and responsibly sourced materials.

•    We will continue to utilize our garden, rain garden, and Ridwell subscription, as well as making sure all plates and utensils used for our weekly Kiddush Lunch are compostable unless we have catering that is unable to provide that.   

•    We will investigate sustainable building updates such as longer-lasting roofing, solar panels, and heat pumps, toilets, etc., though they may not be installed in 2022.

•    In 2022 we built a Little Free Pantry on our grounds. 

•    We will offer our congregants more environmentally friendly burial options.

Community Engagement
•    We will hold a Parshat Noach (accompanying our annual reading of the story of Noah) Sustainability Fair with an invitation to community partners to attend, that will showcase lifestyle changes, such as electric vehicles, induction stoves, heat pumps and rain gardens, that members of the community can adopt.

•    We will put out a podcast looking at Jewish concepts in the context of climate change.

•    We will continuously publicize the activities and efforts of the Greening Congregation team on our Facebook page and monthly newsletter.

•    We will upload our tree of life wall-hanging to our website and attach links to give community members resources for how they can change their lifestyles to be more environmentally friendly.

•    We will switch our endowment fund into ESG investments & make ourselves available to teach other communities what we have done.

Faithful Advocacy
•    Taking the lead from Washington Interfaith Power & Light, we will share advocacy opportunities, to our environmental group mailing list, as well as occasionally to our greater membership newsletter.

•    We will take part in Lobbying Days and make the effort to teach faithful advocacy to our congregants through WAIPL/EM. We will encourage two other lobbying groups that we are a part of, JCRC (Jewish Community Relations Council) and FAN (Faith Action Network), to rank environmental issues high on their list of priorities.

•    Involving youth in Faithful Advocacy and leadership. We will bring in a speaker to teach our congregation about faithful advocacy.

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784