“The Eternal God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden, to keep it and to watch over it.”
Passages from Jewish sacred texts, such as this one from Genesis (2:15), teach us that environmental stewardship is a fundamental Jewish value.
A new program — Jewish Wisconsin Initiative for a Sustainable Environment (J-WISE) — aims to help Milwaukee’s Jewish organizations become “greener” through the study of these writings.
Jewish organizations from across the city have been invited to participate in the program. It will consist of studying Jewish perspectives on the environment and creating a plan for increasing sustainability.
The program will launch at a kick-off and planning event on Thursday, May 15, 6:30-9 p.m., at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center. It will feature a keynote address by Rabbi Shlomo Levin.
Three programs of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation: Israel Center, Partnership2Gether and the Coalition for Jewish Learning, which is leading the initiative.
The idea began germinating last year when a delegation of Israeli environmentalists traveled to Milwaukee from the MJF’s P2G partner region, Sovev Kinneret.
CJL engaged one of the environmentalists to teach a class as part of the curriculum for CJL’s Congregational Schools Initiative, which provides free training and educational resources to synagogue school teachers. The subject of the class was Israel’s green school certification program.
The class inspired members of CJL’s board to begin assessing the Milwaukee Jewish community’s interest in pursuing its own green school initiative.
“Everybody from pre-schools to the [Jewish Home and Care Center] wanted to do it,” said Steve Baruch, CJL director. “Then we had to figure out what ‘it’ was.”
Baruch formed a planning committee of diverse individuals who share two common interests: Judaism and the environment. Perhaps the biggest challenge for the committee was defining the scope of the initiative.
“Some people wanted a very structured system where organizations would earn a green rating, while others thought it should be more open, allowing each organization to do their own thing,” said Baruch. “We settled on something in between.”
The program is “not on a top-down model,” said committee member Daniel N. Weber, Ph.D. Rather, it provides “a framework to combine the study of relevant Jewish texts with action… allowing diverse approaches to common problems.”
Weber is a scientist who manages the Neurobehavioral Toxicology Facility at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Children’s Environmental Health Sciences Core Center.
Baruch said the concept of “study leading to action and action leading to study” is as old as the Jewish texts themselves.
J-WISE will provide participating organizations with recommended Jewish texts for study along with a planning guide and sustainability resources that will help each organization achieve its green goals.
In turn, each organization will commit to improving in one area of environmental sustainability — such as energy efficiency, recycling or green cleaning — each year for the next three years.
Committee co-chair Brent Arnold is a LEED-accredited professional with Hunzinger Construction Company in Brookfield. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an accreditation program of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Arnold sees J-WISE as a way “to help reduce the Milwaukee Jewish community’s impact on the environment and to teach our children and their parents how to save the environment.”
Arnold’s co-chair, Pamela Frydman-Roza, is an environmental activist who is a board member of the Milwaukee Food Council and food justice coordinator at Tikkun Ha-Ir of Milwaukee, Inc.
Baruch said the planning committee will address concerns that green initiatives can sometimes be costly. The J-WISE planning committee will include ideas that have a neutral or even beneficial financial effect, such as engaging in an energy audit and possibly cooperative purchasing of green products.
Naomi Cobb is an environmental educator and co-chair of Congregation Sinai’s Green Committee. She serves on the J-WISE planning committee to help with the education component of the initiative. Sinai’s Green Committee already works to establish more sustainable practices as a synagogue community.
“J-WISE holds the potential to invite many more people in our community to participate in stewardship and to coordinate our efforts for a much greater impact,” she said.
A former co-chair of CJL’s board of directors, Debbie Carter Berkson serves a member of the J-WISE planning committee. She believes J-WISE will “spark a greater interest in Jewish learning” and help “all of the Jewish organizations become more committed to sustainability.”
For more information about J-WISE, contact Baruch at steveb@milwaukeejewish.org or 414-390-2718.
Stephanie Wagner is the vice president of communications and strategy for the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
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