Tell the candidates: help poor people adapt to climate change

In the next few months between now and Earth Day, April 22, you will be asked to join in a few of our activities.

1. We will ask you to donate to an environmental fund to raise money for three new solar powered Ner Tamids and to fund our efforts to recycle and reduce waste by at least 50%. For your donation, we will give you a compact fluorescent light bulb to use at home and launch your own home-based greening programs.
2. We will ask you to purchase at least some of your electricity from a windmill powered generating company. If we get enough families to buy windmill generated electricity, they will build a windmill to supply electricity just for our synagogue's use. (Don't worry; it won't be on our property!)
3. We will invite you to participate in an three-part Interfaith course in May (Thursdays, May 4th, 11th and 18th) on environmentalism, along with two churches in town. The course will be caught by Rabbi Lawrence Troster from COEJL, who used to teach at our shul, as well as Reverend Fletcher Harper, a pastor from GreenFaith
4. We will ask you and your family to join us on an ecology trip to the meadowlands, a pre-Shabbat barbecue, and a Spirit in Nature Jewish Hike.
5. Your children in Hebrew school will spend an afternoon at an environmental outing in the park.
6. Your children in USY will participate in a Greening/environmental program.

The real mission of the Agudath Environmental Committee is not just to green our synagogue, but to help each and every one of our congregants aware of our responsibilities to help reduce pollution and to save our precious resources. We would like in any way possible to a help you in your own homes to set up a better recycling system and to teach you how to clean your house and care for your yard with less toxic products. There are handouts by our bulletin board just outside of the social hall to teach you recycling, composting, where to get environmentally friendly products, and general ways that you can help save the earth. For additional information, you can contact any of our committee members or Randi Brokman or Gerry Buchoff

Contact Ben Alter or Gerry Buchoff of the CAI Environmental Committee for more information.

Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL): The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) engages Jewish institutions and individuals in bringing the moral passion of Jewish tradition and social action to environmental stewardship in order to preserve the integrity of creation, advance social justice, protect future generations, and strengthen the Jewish community. COEJL is the umbrella for Jewish environmental advocacy in the USA.

Green Zionist Alliance: The Green Zionist Alliance is a group of Jewish environmentalists who are committed to Israel's ecological future.

Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership: Based in Israel, the mission of the Heschel Center is to put forth a holistic vision of sustainability for Israel in a global context; and to seek to catalyze initiatives within Israeli society to take the next steps toward achieving that goal.

Kibbutz Lotan: Kibbutz Lotan, in the Arava desert in Israel, is one of the first kibbutzim explicitly to define itself in ecological terms, and to commit itself as a community to living in ways rooted in Jewish tradition and consistent with environmental best practice. The grant went towards the development of a Recycling Art and Education project within Lotan's Center for Creative Ecology, aimed at introducing students and teachers to new ways of thinking about the use and reuse of materials.

Noah Project: The Noah Project is the umbrella organization for Jewish environmental teaching and programming in the United Kingdom. Their work has led to the establishment of an Environmental Task Force by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, a key step in rallying the British Jewish community toward greater environmental awareness.

Shalom Center: The Shalom Center, based in Philadelphia, has been at the forefront of the integration of Jewish and ecological awareness since the mid-1980s. The Shalom Center coordinated research for the recently published Trees, Earth, & Torah: A Tu B'Shvat Anthology. This grant is to support the Shalom Center's work on Judaism and the environment.

Sustainable Jerusalem Assembly: (a project of the Society for the Preservation of Nature in Israel). The Sustainable Jerusalem Assembly is a grass-roots project established in 1998 to improve the quality of life and the environment of Jerusalem. The project is working on grass-roots initiatives around the city aimed ultimately towards developing a long-term model of sustainable development for the city.

Tel Aviv Bishvil Ofanayim: "Bishvil ofanayim" is a play on words, and means both "Tel Aviv / Jerusalem Bike Path" and "Tel Aviv / Jerusalem in favor of bikes." The organizations sponsor and encourage bike use in Israel.

Teva Learning Center: Teva, based at Surprise Lake Camp in New York, is the nation's premier Jewish environmental education program, teaching about Judaism and the environment to day school students throughout the Northeast in a unique residential environment and through a series of wilderness trips.

Adventure Cycling: Adventure Cycling is a member-supported, not-for-profit organization dedicated to bicycle travel. Resources include a national network of bicycle touring routes and other resources for cyclists.

Transportation Alternatives: Transportation Alternatives is a NYC-area non-profit citizens group working for better bicycling, walking and public transit, and fewer cars. TA works for safer, calmer neighborhood streets and car-free parks.

Hudson Valley Sustainable Communities Network: HVSCN is a network of individuals and organizations, from the New York City border to the headwaters of the Hudson, working creatively to build more sustainable cities, towns, neighborhoods and rural communities.

Sierra Club NYC Group: The Sierra Club is a non-profit, member-supported, public interest organization that promotes conservation of the natural environment by influencing public policy decisions - legislative, administrative, legal, and electoral.