Insight
Torah And Nature
Former Detroiter, co-founder of Tel Aviv environmental center,
discusses the relationship of Jews and their environment.
D
SHARON LUCKERMAN
Staff Writer
'TN
4/12
2002
36
id you hear about the Jewish mountain
climber?
Already it sounds like a joke, which empha-
sizes the mixed relationship Jews have to their
environment.
So began Jeremy Benstein, 41, former Detroiter and co-
founder of the Abraham Joshua Heschel Center for
Environmental Learning and Leadership in Tel Aviv. He
discussed "Jewish Perspectives on the Environment and
Environmental Perspectives on Judaism" April
1 at Hillel of Metro Detroit on the Wayne
State University campus in Detroit. That
evening, he spoke at Temple Israel in West
Bloomfield about Israel's environmental
movement.
During the 2,000-year diaspora, Benstein
said, Jews basically carried their homeland on
their backs — the Torah. But in biblical
times, and for 1,000 years before that, Jews
had an intimate connection to nature and to
the land, as evidenced by the holidays' plant-
ing and harvest rituals.
Yet, only a few years ago, people began to
make a connection between Judaism's effect
on the environment and the environment's
effect on Judaism, he said. And none too
soon, Benstein believes.
"We're talking about this because we're in a
crisis in Israel and in the world," he said,
adding that 300 people died in Tel Aviv last
year because of pollution. Among Israel's problems are
toxic waste, water quality and quantity, and urban sprawl.
He's not spreading the word alone. One of the fastest-
growing social moments in Israel is the environmental move-
ment, he said. Yet, these issues still take a backseat to securi-
ty, though he acknowledges how grave things are today.
His doctoral research focuses on joint Jewish/Arab envi-
ronmental initiatives that demonstrate how justice and the
environment can bring people together.
Until recently, he said, the Israeli government did not
invest the funds necessary to maintain and improve the
infrastructure of poorer Arab neighborhoods in Israel.
"When raw sewage from an Arab section slides down
into the wadi (river bed) where I hike, it affects me, too,"
said Benstein, who moved to Israel with friends to work on
a kibbutz after graduating from Harvard University in
Cambridge, Mass. After 11 years, he moved to Jerusalem to
work on his doctorate and then, with his wife and twin
sons, moved to a small town near Haifa.
He now sees Jewish and Arab Israelis coming together on
environmental issues. Groups once devoted to dialogue with
Palestinians outside the country have redirected their energy
inside Israel, he said, making alliances with Arab Israelis to
improve this situation.
Grandfather's Influence
Though Benstein moved with his family from Detroit to
Toledo at age 10, he has a special connection to Southfield.
His grandfather was the late Rabbi Morris Adler of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
"The things my grandfather wrote affected me most
after living on a kibbutz when I was deciding what to do
next," said Benstein, who also is
editor of One Earth, Many
Worlds, an anthology of environ-
mental thought.
Benstein studied at the
Conservative movement's
Solomon Schechter Institute in
Israel and earned a master's
degree in Talmud and midrash.
Next, he taught and co-founded
the Heschel Center with Eilon
Schwartz. "The center is devoted
to a more social, spiritual envi-
ronmentalism in Israel," he said.
Heschel, a good friend of Rabbi
Adler, was a deeply spiritual per-
son from a Chasidic dynasty, a
poet in four languages and deeply
— Jeremy Benstein committed to social action; he
marched with Martin Luther
King, Benstein said.
Benstein's WSU presentation — co-sponsored by the
Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies, Hillel of Metro
Detroit and the Michigan Coalition on the Environment
and Jewish Life (MI-COEJL) — ended with a discussion of
a mishnah that warns Jews not to allow nature to distract
them from their studies.
"It expanded my horizons in context and content about
issues I wasn't aware of," said Bob Mattler, 44, of
Bloomfield Hills, after the Temple Israel talk, co-sponsored
by MI-COEJL, Greater Detroit Hadassah, the Jewish
National Fund and Temple Israel's Social Action
Committee.
"It's cool that he [Benstein] ties environmental issues to
Judaism ....I hadn't thought about it before," said Joanna
Feldman, 15, of Huntington Woods, who attended the talk
at WSU.
"We're talking
about this [the
environment
and Judaism]
because we're
in a crisis in
Israel and in
the world."
For more information on Judaism and the environ-
ment, call MI-COEJL, (248) 642-5393, or visit the
Heschel Center Web site: -www.heschelcenter.org
Remember
When
From the Jewish News pages this week
10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago.
199
Diane Paul, director of the
American Red Cross' Holocaust
and War Victims Tracing and
Information Center, addresses the
Economic Forum sponsored by the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit.
Michigan Jewish women partici-
pate in the March for Women's
Lives, a pro-choice rally in
Washington, D.C., the largest
demonstration in the nation's capi-
tal in 20 years.
Gov. William Milliken signs a
proclamation for Holocaust
remembrance days in Michigan.
Detroit's Wayne State University
will honor Prof. Jason Tickton,
organist and music director at
Temple Beth El, for 45 years of
service to WSU.
Birmingham Temple sponsors a fair
featuring 100 years of Appalacian Art.
Charles Upfal of Southfield, a
native of Poland who immigrated
to Detroit with the assistance of the
Jewish Resettlement Service in
1953, was honored by the city of
Southfield for saving a father and
son from drowning.
‘MRIMN.7,‘WW;.:ZWegr
kkat'A' Akta*mv%,
The Jewish Braille Institute of
America sends 1,000 Haggadot in
Hebrew and English Braille to
blind men, women and children in
the United States.
Former Detroiter Robert Newman
writes Grace Kelly's biography.
Odessa Aid Society celebrates 40
years as a charitable and cultural
organization in Detroit.
The Ladies Auxilary of Kvutavah
Ivrith, Hebrew Cultural Group of
Detroit, makes a significant contri-
bution in support of United
Hebrew Schools Library.
— Compiled by Holly Teasdle,
archivist, the Rabbi Leo M Franklin
Archives at Temple Beth El