Beth Shalom Congregation’s Past Greening Activities

Congregation Beth Shalom has had an environmental group called Ahavat v’Avodat HaAdamah (AAA) for several years. We have accomplished the following environmental changes to our congregation:

Facilities

• We subscribe to Ridwell to recycle plastic and other materials from our synagogue that cannot go into the city’s recycling stream.
• We have installed a rain garden and cisterns.
• We have switched to compostable only serving plates and utensils for Kiddush lunch and only put out compost bins after the meal.
• We have recycling receptacles widely available throughout the building, including in the entryway, to encourage recycling of the weekly newsletter and programs.
• We use only Fair Trade coffee and tea in our Kiddush lunches & staff areas.
• We have a garden in the backyard of our property which is full of raised bed vegetable beds as well as fruit trees. We use this space to teach our religious school children about connections between Jewish holidays and practices and the plants which grow there. We also donate significant amounts of produce to the local food bank run by Jewish Family Services (but feeding the wider community). 
• We swapped out incandescent lighting for energy efficient lighting.

Education

• A congregant has organized tours of the local recycling facility and the Ridwell recycling facility.
• We have made a “tree of life” wall hanging to showcase actions members and the synagogue are doing to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.
• Many congregants have given Divrei Torah (sermons) connecting Jewish texts with Earth care.
• Our member Deirdre Gabbay has taught an adult-ed course called Spiritual Ecology and held Shabbat learning relating to Jewish texts and Earth Care.
• We have a fourth grade religious school curriculum that is focused on the garden and Earth care.
• We have taught Prozdor students (middle school) about the Mitzvah to Sustain the World, a recent teshuvah (ruling) in the Conservative movement having to do with the Jewish person’s obligation towards sustainability

Spiritual Practice

• We developed a beautiful Shavuot (Festival of Weeks) program to connect that holiday with Earth awareness & care.
• We have held Tu B'Shvat seders, connecting the Earth and trees with Jewish ideas for Earth care as well as mysticism.
• We hold tree plantings for Tu B’Shvat (New Year for the Trees) annually to celebrate the Jewish New Year of Trees and educate our community about the connections between trees and climate, and trees and Jewish thought.  We include the wider Jewish and multi-faith community. 
• For the Shmita year 5782 (2021-22) we celebrated with monthly Jewish environmentalist learning using a congregant’s “Shmita Basket” ritual to discuss Shmita and encourage congregants to donate seasonal produce to a local food bank.

Other Actions

• We have engaged in postcarding, lobbying and canvassing campaigns to support pro-environment legislation.
• We are moving our endowment funds to ESG.
• We are a partner organization supporting the Shmita Project Northwest, along with Earth Ministry/WAIPL.