Repairing the World

 Mobilizing Jews to Protect the Environment

This Hanukkah, in a season of rededication, let us dedicate ourselves to repairing the world through protecting our environment.

What’s Jewish about caring for the environment? This is a core question that we, as leaders of Jewish organizations, ask ourselves all the time. The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) was formed at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) in 1993 to face humanity’s looming environmental crisis and to mobilize the Jewish community to protect God’s creation. Inspired by the Jewish traditions of stewardship, respect for God’s creatures, injunctions not to be wasteful and traditions of social justice, our shared mission is to unite the Jewish community in environmental efforts.

For the past 10 years, we have focused more and more on climate change and energy security as part of our commitment to the notion of tikkun olam, repairing that which is broken in the world, a central value in modern Jewish life. As it says in a Jewish commentary on the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes:

“When God created the first human beings, God led them around the Garden of Eden and said: ‘Look at my works! See how beautiful they are – how excellent! For your sake, I created them all. See to it that you do not spoil and destroy My world; for if you do, there will be no one else to repair it.’” (Midrash Kohelet Rabbah, 1 on Ecclesiastes 7:13)

This inspires the urgent need to transform the world’s energy sources and to reduce fossil fuel consumption. As Jews, along with all Americans who care about these issues, we are constantly reminded of our responsibility to care for the most vulnerable and to be aware that those who have contributed the least to causing climate change often suffer the most from its impacts. We are also particularly aware that reducing dependence on oil from unfriendly and repressive regimes is an important national security goal.

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How do hipsters celebrate Hanukkah? Ironically

These are a few of Chicky Winkleman's favorite Hanukkah things: ironic, ugly sweaters adorned with Stars of David, his roommate's Christmas tree and making latkes, alone in the afternoon.

The vegetarian living in Burlington, Vt., knows of what he speaks when it comes to marking the eight-day holiday, hipster style. He's co-founder with older brother Duckie of hipsterjew.com, which ran a make-your-own menorah contest last year and enjoys about 50,000 page views a month, presumably among like-minded young Jews.

The problem with hipster Hanukkah, said Winkleman, whose given name is Charles, is once you identify out loud as a hipster, you've likely lost the descriptor for life. But the preschool teacher who dabbles in standup comedy sees a variety of differences between regular Hanukkah and a hipster's touch.

On food: "There are latkes but it's usually never with people. I'm usually alone making latkes one day. It's a little depressing, but it has to be to get the true hipster Jew Hanukkah experience. It's gotta be a little bit lonely."

On the emerging tradition of ugly Hanukkah sweaters (see Geltfiend.com): "The sweaters are a way for us to get involved with the whole Christmas celebration but still separate ourselves from it." They come with Stars of David and menorahs inside brown circles that look like chocolate gelt.

On an idea his brother (real name Ari) is working on: "You know those big saint candles? He's working on a Jewish version with Woody Allen and, I don't know, maybe Barbra Streisand."

Fedoras for yarmulkes, Fair Trade olive oil or candles via the wax of locally sourced bees — there are lots of ways to pull off a hipster's Hanukkah, even if you're not an active member of the tribe's subset. Or a tribesman of any kind.

Sage Saturn, 22, puts the "ish" in Jewish. He's fresh out of college, not a Jew but hangs out with many and works as a graphic designer for Moderntribe.com, a site loaded with ways to dive into hipster Hanukkah.


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Why I Keep a Separate Bank Account from My Husband

As part of our Women, Work & Money series, Carla Naumburg enlightens us on the joys of a separate bank account.

Soon after my husband and I got married almost 9 years ago, we set up a joint bank account. My husband closed the personal account he had maintained since college. I did not. I kept my own account, under my own name. Nearly a decade later, I still have it.

We each have a checkbook and ATM card for our joint account. I also have a checkbook and debit card for my own account. My husband’s credit card is linked to our shared account; my credit card (which is also under my name alone) is linked to mine. My husband is the primary earner in our family, and his income is deposited into our joint account each month. My inconsistent income from writing, teaching, and advising, goes into my account.

The monthly bills and major expenses get paid out of the joint account, while daily expenses such as trips to the grocery store or medical co-pays come out of mine. To be honest, there’s no rhyme or reason to it. If I’m low on funds, I’ll pay for something out of the joint account, and vice versa. All of our assets are shared; both of our names are on the mortgage and the car titles. My decision to have a separate account is not about division of funds or hiding anything from my husband. (We both have online access to both accounts; my husband can see my bank statement or credit card bill any time he wants.)

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What I Learned About Life and Judaism from the 1965 Watts Riots

Learning for Life is the Jewish Way of Life

I came to Los Angeles in 1965. It was shortly before the Watts riots that took place for six long days in August of that year. I had taken a job working for a service company at that time. When the riots broke out we sat in the office of the dispatcher who was frantically radioing to the mobile service units that he knew and suspected of being in the Watts area to warn them to get out. I can still recall the tension in the office as one of the drivers spoke with such fear of his life; fortunately he got out unharmed.

For the duration of the riots, I, like so many people, followed on the television the senseless destruction and pillage that continued. At that time I remember the chant that the blacks would say, over and over again: ‘Burn, baby, burn’. To me, it was a senseless, insane manner to resolve perceived inequalities.

I grew up in a traditional but liberal Jewish home. I never heard any negative words about blacks or anyone else. My parents worked hard to pay for a modest home, food and clothing for their children; they were certainly not rich. But my parents encouraged us kids to get ahead in life via hard work and education. For me to hear the blacks chant, ‘burn, baby, burn’ seemed exactly the opposite of what they needed to get ahead (or just to maintain a decent life style). To me, it seemed the phrase should have been, as my Jewish friends at that time were wont to say, ‘learn, baby, learn’. It was not just me, but many of my friends that used that phrase, ‘learn, baby, learn’.

From that time onwards, I noticed that myself and most of my Jewish friends continued in furthering their job skills: some took advanced college courses, others took what were called ‘extension’ courses and in general I, together with my Jewish friends, slowly climbed up the ladder of success. Success here does not mean being the top of the field in one’s profession. By success, I mean living and enjoying a good, clean, healthy and happy life, which includes marrying and settling down and raising a family with out major disasters, divorces or catastrophes that bring sorrow.

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