The annual holiday of Tu B’Shvat offers us the opportunity to reflect on our relationship to the earth—both local and global—through song, storytelling, food, and discussion.

Where does our food come from?

This year’s seder (ritual gathering) will focus on food, place, and the agricultural cycles in New England, Israel, and other parts of the world.

In addition to exploring the traditional symbols of the seder (including fruits, nuts, and juices), we will hear from local farmers, activists, and business people involved in producing and distributing sustainable foods.

Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Time: 7:30-9:00pm
Location: Temple Beth Zion, Social Hall (lower level)
1566 Beacon Street Brookline, MA 02446
RSVP here.

Co-sponsored by:

It is fitting to hold this conference during the time of the Omer. The counting of the Omer that begins at Passover carries our biblical agricultural year through to Sukkot. So too our New England agricultural season follows this flow. Come explore the parallels, learn new skills and make new friends.

Kicking Off the Omer will be on Earth Day, Sunday April 22^nd at Hebrew College in Newton Centre, MA. It will feature 12-16 program sessions, a community meal and keynote speaker. Woven throughout the day will be themes of Agriculture, Food Systems & Policy, Jewish Text & Thought, Food Traditions: History & Culture, Health & Nutrition and Business.

We are currently forming a planning team.  The planning team will be headed by 2 Co-chairs and assisted by liaisons from Ganei Beantown and Hebrew College.  Planning team members will help set the groundwork for what the conference will become.  Organizational partnerships are also welcomed.  This is a wonderful opportunity to become a leader, join a new community, and be a part of a new regional initiative. Our first planning team meeting will be on Tuesday Dec. 6^th at 8:00pm. If you’re interested in joining the planning team, please email: Leora@beantownjewishgardens.org

Planning team time commitments will vary throughout the year, depending on their area of responsibility. All planning team members are asked to focus in one committee areas. Please expect to work as an ambassador or on tasks for about an hour a week, with committee meeting phone calls every few weeks.

Planning Team roles include:

• Programming – Create innovative program components & network with presenters. Discuss keynote possibilities.
• Kids/Teens- Capacity for babysitting and/or age- appropriate educational programming.
• Donations – Donation solicitation
• Logistics – Creating a smooth conference experience
• Marketing & Outreach- Identify marketing avenues and reaching out. Creating a buzz. Website updates.
• Volunteers- We’ll need lots of volunteers on April 22^nd, as well as somebody to coordinate their efforts.
• Food- making dinner happen

Thanks!
Hannah Levine
2011 Co-Chair

It was great to see so many people at the first annual Sukkot Family Harvest Festival!

Sukkot is a holiday of multiple names and meanings. Chag Ha’asif, the Festival of the Ingathering, is a celebration of the harvest. Since most of us are not currently farmers, we’re not building structures to camp out in our fields. We’re not exhausted from days of dawn to dusk physical labor with no time to head back to our permanent homes, while simultaneously guarding the remaining bounty in our fields from thieves. In our lives today, how do we make this component of the holiday relevant?

During autumn in New England, we celebrate and enjoy the local harvest season; we appreciate we have much to be grateful for. We acknowledge the divine elements to the bounty around us.

We have so much to be grateful for:

• All 150 people who attended the first annual Beantown Sukkot Family Harvest Festival.
• The 250 pounds of carrots we harvested at the festival!
• Our tremendous educators: Rabbi Daniel Klein & Rabbi Ebn Leader, Amy May, Laura Evonne Steinman, Helen Bennett
• Our musical performers: Rakia Shemaya, Bethel Steele and the Klezwoods
• The JCC staff for providing decorations to decorate our Sukkah.
• Lands Sake Farm for hosting.
• Rabbi and Farmer Joseph Berman for all his work coordinating, and for co-sponsorship with his congregation Temple B’nai Israel of Revere.
• Hebrew College for their co-sponsorship.
• For the sun that shined upon us at the Festival.

It’s not too late to make a donation, we accept those year round!

Here’s our schedule of events
(rain or sunshine- we have sturdy tents):

12:00pm – 2:00 pm
*  Bicycle powered recycled paper making– Amy May
We’ll be making paper from old paper but instead of coming from a big factory, we’re going to power the process ourselves with a bicycle. Create a piece of paper you can take home with you.
*  Truck Farm– Erin Taylor
The Truck Farm is a mobile community farm that grows produce in the bed of a pickup truck.
*  Face Painting– Fiesta Face, Gaby Fiato
Come get into the festive holiday spirit by getting your face painted!
*  Sukkah decorations -The JCC staff
Get creative and make decorations for our Sukkah and for yours.

12:30-1:15 pm
*  Shelter from the Storm?! Exploring the Purpose of the Sukkah- Rabbi Daniel Klein
In our tradition, meaning so often follows form. Our rituals are designed to take us on a psychological and spiritual journey. What is the meaning of this strange and wonderful hut we call a home for the holiday of Sukkot? Come explore classic and modern wisdom on the purpose of the Sukkah.
*  Animal tour of Lands Sake farm– Doug Cook
Come see the cows, sheep and goats that are being grazed on public land for the common good. Then, we’ll visit the bees and chickens, who are also working hard for the farm.
*  Harvest Fest in Context: Where we are in Today’s Food System- Helen Bennett
Interactive and hands-on games and activities will bring together families and friends on the topic of our place in today’s food system.  Working together, we’ll play and discuss how we interact with the foods of this season, and how connected (or not) we are to the time when the Israelites dwelt in Sukkot.
*  Rakia Shemaya Chandler hip hop performance
Rakia Shemaya takes her name from the Biblical Hebrew, meaning the firmament, which separates duality, while knowing all is One. Her persona combines a deep spirituality with a drive to make a difference in the world and she is committed to using performance to educate and empower struggling people everywhere through music, dance and lyrics.

1:15-1:45pm
*  Bethel Steele musical performance
A regionally-touring singer-songwriter whose solo performance has been described as being reminiscent of Joan Armatrading, Ani DiFranco and Neil Young.  Singing in a smoky alto, she writes simple and direct poetry, and sets it to beautiful music.

2:00-3:00 pm
*  Klezwoods concert
A Boston-based amalgam of strings, horns, and percussion that melds the spirit of traditional klezmer and balkan music with modern grooves, improvisation and east coast attitude. Every player comes from a different background, which creates the band’s unique sound and style. They originally got their start some years back when local Cambridge, MA haunt, Atwood’s Tavern, asked soon-to-be-bandleader Joseph Kessler to put together a group of klezmer musicians during Christmas time for a “klezmer Christmas” event. Thus, Klezwoods was born, and continues to captivate audiences all over the world.

3:00-3:45 pm
*  Working the land– Joseph Berman
Get ready to get dirty weeding the strawberry field.
*  Praying for Rain: What are we really asking for?– Rabbi Ebn Leader
Join us as we examine several early rabbinic texts exploring the tradition of praying for rain during the Sukkot season.  How do we, as New Englanders, understand this ancient tradition of praying for rain in the land of Israel?
*  Harvest Prayer Ornaments– Laura Evonne Steinman
Come create using a variety of natural fibers, including felt made from recycled bottles and found objects a prayer ornaments to decorate your home or sukkah at this harvest time. All ages welcome!
*  Holiday Songs, Stories, & More– Ariel Rosenberg
Songs of joy, stories of adventure, and other surprises for children and adults alike…  Bring your voice, your energy, and your curiosity!
*  Animal tour of Lands Sake farm- Doug Cook
Come see the cows, sheep and goats that are being grazed on public land for the common good. Then, we’ll visit the bees and chickens, who are also working hard for the farm.

May we all be blessed with shelters of peace,

Leora Mallach & Or Rose
Leora@beantownjewishgardens.org
(617) 877-2036
]]> http://beantownjewishgardenprojects.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/sukkot-festival-schedule/feed/ 0 beantownjewishgardenprojects http://beantownjewishgardenprojects.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/sukkot-family-harvest-festival/ http://beantownjewishgardenprojects.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/sukkot-family-harvest-festival/#comments Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:25:01 +0000 Leora http://beantownjewishgardenprojects.wordpress.com/?p=345 Continue reading →]]> Registration is now open for the first annual Ganei Beantown and Hebrew College Sukkot Family Harvest Festival. We look forward to seeing you at Lands Sake Farm in Weston, MA for an afternoon of live music, study and family friendly fun.

Register here.
Help us build our Sukkah on Sunday morning October 16th by signing up here.
Stay tuned for more information.

Thanks to everybody who came out in the rain to harvest, cook, plant seeds, study and shmooze!

Shechting: The New Jewish Food Fad

By Nadia Schreiber

We’ve gotten our hands dirty making pickles. We’ve pounded sauerkraut like bubbes from the Lower East Side. We’ve planted herbs in havdallah gardens and we’ve learned amazing new braids for our challah, which we’ve leavened with natural sourdough. The DIY food movement has taken hold of the Jewish community — and it’s logical that after the vegetable growing and the bread baking that our thoughts turn to meat.
Ironically, though the DIY movement may be fueling interest in kosher slaughter, though, it’s not something you can read about on an urban homesteader blog and try in your backyard. The laws of shechita (kosher slaughter) are carefully guarded, and one must undergo rigorous training to become a shochet (a ritual slaughterer), at least according to orthodox standards. That said, there is still an opportunity for hands-on learning, and communities across the country have been gathering at farms and community centers to watch kosher shechita and in some cases, pluck a feather or two. The experiences are profound, and participants often have the opportunity to wrestle with important issues of meat eating, kashrut and Jewish tradition as a whole.

Back at the Hazon Food Conference in 2006, Nigel Savage, Executive Director of Hazon, said in his opening speech, “Put your hands up if you eat meat — but would not do so if you had to kill it yourself.” A number of hands went up. He then said, “Put your hands up if you’re a vegetarian — but would eat meat if you killed it yourself,” and a different group of hands went up. After this exercise, he announced that at the next Food Conference, there would be a shechitah demonstration Friday afternoon. So, in 2007, they shechteda goat; in 2008, it was turkeys; in 2009, chickens. And at this year’s Food Conference, we again offer an educational shechitah, with the goal of “lifting the cellophane veil” that keeps meat production, for the most part, a hidden mystery.

This June in Denver, CO, about twenty members of Congregation HEA along with their rabbi, went to a nearby farm to slaughter and dress fifty chickens. In his sermon about the experience, Rabbi Dollin talked about seeing an animal slaughtered for the first time: “We all experienced what it felt like to have the life flow out of an animal. We witnessed a shochet who did his work with piety, humility and exacting care. We all experienced how difficult and slow the process is in taking animal life and preparing it for our own consumption. It was a deliberate process, a process limited and specific and intentional. It was hard to do.”

In Boston, the Beantown Jewish Gardens’ Young Adult Learning Series recently featured a kosher slaughter as well (at other sessions in the series, participants learned to brew their own beer, compost, preserve their own fruits, and make bread). The organizers hoped the shechtingwould “unmask the mysteries of kosher meat production and explore how the conscious practice of kashrut changes and deepens our relationships with G-d, animals, and the earth.” One of the program organizers, Leora Mallach, said in an email interview that the aim of the program was to “increase conversation about relevant issues and teach tangible pieces or skills that people can walk away with.” And it seemed that the experience was indeed tangible. One of the participants in the Beantown shechtingsaid afterwards that “There is something very inspiring and grounding in seeing the physicality and the spirituality of how our food gets to us in a kosher manner. It is one thing to see a symbol on a package. It is quite another to see a trained shochet say a bracha and follow a strictly prescribed process to actually shecht an animal.”