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Written by Esther
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Our Environmental Track presentations continued with presentations from several new Jewish innovators. Our first presenter was Yishai Fuchs, who coordinates a program called Bike for Jerusalem “Ofanayim B’shvil Yerushalayim”. His work is supporting bike paths and biking movements in the city of Jerusalem, including safe bike trails for children.
Baruch Rock created an organization called Mitzor Dvash (honey from the rock), which is taking undergraduate and graduate students and helping them recognize the human and growth aspects of leadership. He provided a beautiful meditation on the making of bread, which helped us each think about the stages of our own leadership development.
Devorah Brous presented on Bustan (“Orchard” in Hebrew/Arabic), a 10-year old organization that focuses on educating about the wisdom of the land, working in partnership with local communities such as the Bedouins. For example, Bustan TV gives the Bedouins a chance to express their own issues, instead of just providing top-down capacity building. In addition, they are advocating for more sustainable development of the Negev.
Sasha Perry is involved with an organization called Root Force. This organization is uniting different aspects of the environmental movement to provide pressure on corporations that are causing harm to the environment, through demonstrations and campaigns.
Valeria Grimberg, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, explained that although the environmental topic is on the agenda in her country, it is not necessarily in the Jewish community. She is working with the friends of Haifa University to educate about the environment, providing information about environmental issues and their impact on the poor. At this early stage, she is looking to replicate some other projects presented at ROI in her Jewish community. Valeria and Renata discussed collaboration on Jewish-environmental education in South America, demonstrating the power of collaboration that ROI facilitates.
Each of our track participants is doing interesting and innovative work to protect and improve our global environment. We look forward to learning from each other and collaborating in the coming years!
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