Boulder Jewish News Arts, Culture, Events, Lifestyles, Holidays, Synagogues, Education
On Sunday, January 16, Beth Ami Colorado Congregation for Humanistic Judaism will celebrate Tu B’Shvat, the Jewish holiday popularly known as “The New Year of the Trees”. In contemporary Israel, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees are planted in celebration.
The day will be observed with an afternoon program featuring Peter and Beth Ornstein. Their presentation will look at traditional Jewish, Native American, and other texts to learn what they have to say about appreciating the environment and our obligation to preserve the health of our planet — in other words, our stewardship. You will see that Jewish texts place great importance on our relationship to the environment, which makes them of ongoing value to us today, even from a secular perspective.
The congregation will translate these values into actions that can be taken today, both locally through Tuv Ha’Aretz (Boulder’s Jewish CSA – community-supported agriculture) and in Israel and Palestine through Sustainable Israeli-Palestinian Projects (SIPP).
This program will be on Zoom from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. There is no charge, but you must REGISTER HERE.
Peter Ornstein is President of SIPP, serves on the board of the Boulder-Ramat HaNegev Sister City Initiative, the University of Colorado’s Program in Jewish Studies Advisory Committee, and Congregation Bonai Shalom’s adult education committee. He previously worked in the EPA’s Denver Regional Office and taught environmental law at the University of Denver. Peter has degrees in geology, hydrogeology, and law.
Beth Ornstein is the founder and manager of Colorado Mediation Center, LLC, and provides mediation and other dispute resolution services to help individuals and organizations resolve conflict. Beth is a SIPP board member and serves on the core committee for Tuv Ha’Aretz, Boulder’s Jewish CSA.
