Or Hadash has been working towards creating a sustainable, environmentally friendly congregation in Haifa. Read how their efforts to repair the world are making them a leader in sustainability on forefront of Israeli society.

 

Like many at TBE, members of Or Hadash here in Haifa worry deeply about the environment, ecology, and sustainability. We have for many years. As Jews and members of a reform synagogue, we feel it is our obligation to practice tikkun olam, to repair the world, to make things better than they are now – for the future and for our children.

 

In the midrash Kohelet Rabbah, we are told:

 

״אם קלקלת, אין מי שיתקן אחריך״.

 

“If you have spoiled it, there is no one after you to fix it.”

 

We believe we do not have the right to deny our children the same beauty and natural resources we have enjoyed. But it takes a communal effort to change day-to-day behaviors. To that end, in 2022 the Or Hadash board adopted a Green Action Plan designed to implement initiatives, both large and small. We recently:

 

• Installed solar panels on the roof of our Temple building, thanks to generous donations. We can now produce up to 50kw of electricity per hour on sunny days (most days here in Israel!), producing more power than our building consumes. We are able to essentially sell the additional power back to the local energy grid. And while our solar cells alone will not dramatically lower the emission of green house gases from Israeli power plants, every bit helps.
• Banned single use plastic cups and cutlery throughout our building – during community dinners and even in our Kiddush service. We installed a new dishwasher in our community kitchen, and have transitioned to compostable cutlery. 
• For Tu Beshvat, celebrated here recently as a kind of ecological holiday, we built a community composter large enough to share with our Haifa neighborbood.

 

Our hope, going forward, is to push environmental and sustainability issues to the forefront of Israeli society. Our goal is to become not only an inspiring example, but also to create a training center for sustainability. It can be hard in urban Haifa, for example, to practice sustainable gardening, as most people live in apartments without their own outdoor space. But sustainable cooking workshops can help teach people how to become more efficient and responsible in the kitchen, limiting waste.

 

As our Green Team continues to push new ideas and initiatives, we are proud to be part of a community living Jewish values to help sustain our world. We truly believe that if more of us would do the same, we have a much better chance to passing a healthy world onto our children.

 

One in a series of updates from our sister congregation in Israel. For more information, please contact Jeff Turk, TBE Vice President of K’lal Israel, at JTurk@turkmilonelaw.com