Local synagogues join effort to ‘green’ houses of worship

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

The newly renovated bathrooms at Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel, a Reform congregation in South Orange, feature devices that restrict the flow of water — similar to those sent home with religious school children recently.

It’s part of that synagogue’s plan to become environment-friendly, itself a slow-drip process.

“You can’t just throw a switch and become ‘green.’ It’s a slow process,” said Maplewood resident Elliot Sommer. Sommer has been coordinating an environmental committee at the synagogue since the fall of 2003, just after Rabbi Dan Cohen jumpstarted the effort with a Yom Kippur sermon urging people to reconsider how they use natural resources.

Sommer said the rabbi “ruffled a few feathers” when he commented that people should stop relying on their gas-guzzling SUVs. “But I think he reached certain people who maybe thought about it. It’s an uphill battle. Most people don’t care one way or another” about environmental issues, added Sommer, “but there’s a core group here who really do care.”

Since the committee was set up, Sharey Tefilo-Israel has hosted a seminar on Toyota’s Prius, a gas-electric hybrid car, led a hike in the South Mountain Reservation, and distributed and installed the water flow restrictors. And now, the temple has signed on to Greening Synagogues, a pilot project cosponsored by the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life and Greenfaith, an interfaith environmental coalition in New Jersey formerly known as Partners for Environmental Quality.

Sharey Tefilo-Israel is just one of three local synagogues that together comprise the first cohort of the pilot program. The other synagogues are Bnai Keshet, a Reconstructionist congregation in Montclair, and the Conservative Agudath Israel of West Essex in Caldwell. Originally hoping to include synagogues from each denomination, COEJL and Greenfaith are still trying to attract an Orthodox congregation to join the project.

The project’s goal is to create a model that can be replicated at other congregations. So far, it has been received very well. “We had a whole plan to reach out to the congregations. But in the end, they came to us,” said Deborah Shapiro Katz, director of outreach for COEJL.

This effort however, is not only for Jewish congregations. There is a parallel program for Christian churches, with partnerships between Greenfaith and the New Jersey Council of Churches and the New Jersey Catholic Coalition for Environmental Justice. Greenfaith executive director Rev. Fletcher Harper, an Episcopal priest, also has plans to expand the program to include Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim congregations, for a total of between 13 and 15 participating houses of worship.

The entire project, spearheaded by Greenfaith, is known as Sustainable Sanctuaries and was launched in the summer of 2004. The Johanette Wallerstein Institute is the lead funder for the synagogue portion. While synagogues do not receive cash, a substantial portion of the grant pays for or heavily subsidizes professionals providing services. So, for example, energy audits will cost synagogues a couple hundred dollars instead of the actual $1500, installing solar panels costs nothing upfront, and Jewish environmental educators might provide a workshop at no cost to the synagogue.

While parts of the project are tailored differently for different religions, all congregations participate in three main areas of activity: facilities management, education and worship, and environmental justice and advocacy. Congregations commit to selecting at least five projects.

Facilities management can include conducting an energy audit, installing solar panels, adopting a windmill, or reducing use of toxic products for cleaning and maintenance. Environmental justice advocacy includes participating in a health and justice tour of environmentally blighted areas (these are led by Greenfaith on an ongoing basis), writing to politicians, and inviting a representative of Greenfaith or its partner organizations to speak to the congregation.

COEJL and Greenfaith have divided their responsibilities, with COEJL handling the Jewish education and worship portion of the program and Greenfaith handling facilities and environmental justice.

The social action committee at Bnai Keshet chose the environment as its theme for the past year. They agreed to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conducted an energy audit, hosted speakers, and held a Hanukka program on energy-efficient lighting. Rabbi Elliott Tepperman, who regularly rides his bicycle to the synagogue “as an expression of my concern for the environment,” invited all the members of the congregation to join him on their own two-wheelers one Shabbat last year.

Tepperman views participation in Greening Synagogues as an opportunity to focus on finishing what the social action committee had started. “We haven’t gotten far in implementing changes to reduce energy use. This project will let us take the next step.”

Since signing on in early fall, Bnai Keshet has begun exploring such steps as buying recycled paper goods to be used at its kiddush luncheons and installing solar panels. Tepperman would also like to see more advocacy on issues affecting the broader community. “I don’t want congregants to leave their interest in the environment at the doors of the synagogue. We have a responsibility as Jews to look at the impact our cities, towns, and state are having on the environment.”

Agudath Israel launched its participation on Friday, Jan. 14, with a program that included a talk by Rabbi Lawrence Troster, rabbinic fellow at both COEJL and Greenfaith, and workshops for both children and teens by representatives of the Teva Learning Center, a Jewish environmental education organization headquartered in Manhattan. Dinner was served on recycled plates and cups. To encourage people to fill out a questionnaire detailing their environmental attitudes, which will be filled out again at the end of the two-year pilot, the congregation also held a drawing for an organic fruit basket. The first committee meeting was held on January 30, led by Gerald Buchoff, 51 of West Caldwell. A holistic veterinarian, he has been helping the synagogue go green since he joined six years ago. “This has been my passion since childhood. When I first joined the shul, I was appalled they did not have a paper recycling program.” So he set one up. It is the only one of the three synagogues with such a program in place. The committee set as its goal not only the greening of the synagogue, but also to “have an impact on the attitudes and behaviors of each congregant,” he told NJJN. A teen committee, led by 15-year-old congregant Aviv Brokman, also has been formed.

Sommer of Sharey Tefilo-Israel believes one of the best ways to change behaviors is to educate children. “Kids really care. If we teach kids, we can change how people look at resources. If we send kids home [from religious school] with material explaining how certain devices can save water and how that translates into monetary savings, it has an impact.” Creating a recycling program and investigating the possibility of solar panels are both on the agenda for the synagogue, according to Sommer.

Harper of Greenfaith pointed out that except for the Unitarians, congregations of every denomination are just at the beginning phases of religious environmentalism. Unlike some conservative Christian churches, whose approach is “other-worldly” or who suspect a streak of “paganism” in the environmental movement, rabbis “are more comfortable speaking about the human centeredness of creation,” said Harper. “They offer a very reality-based interpretation of stewardship of the environment.”

Johanna Ginsberg can be reached at jginsberg@njjewishnews.com.