Tel Shemesh Recommended Weblinks

Adamah Fellowship
www.isabellafreedman.org/adamah/adamah_intro.shtml

Adamah: the Jewish Environmental Fellowship, is a three or six month leadership training program for Jewish young adults — ages 20–29 — that integrates organic farming, sustainable living, Jewish learning, leadership development, and contemplative spiritual practice. The program takes place at Camp Isabella Freedman in Connecticut. The Adamah Fellowship integrates living on the earth with Jewish spiritual teachings.

Bayit Chadash
www.bayitchadash.org

Bayit Chadash is a spiritual retreat center in Israel committed to Jewish renaissance. The approach of Bayit Chadash to spirituality includes the balance of masculine and feminine, the celebration of Eros, and the integration of earth-based theology with Judaism.

COEJL
www.coejl.org

The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life promotes environmental education, scholarship, advocacy, and action in the American Jewish community. COEJL is sponsored by a broad coalition of national Jewish organizations and has organized regional affiliates in communities across North America.

Elat Chayyim
www.elatchayyim.org

Elat Chayyim is a Jewish renewal retreat center located in Accord, New York, in the Catskill mountains. Founded by Rabbi Jeff Roth and Joanna Katz, Elat Chayyim offers weekly retreats year-round, including classes, vegetarian food, spiritual community, yoga and meditation offerings, and a unique prayer experience. Class topics range from Jewish-Hindu encounter to Jewish spirituality to yoga. Elat Chayyim is deeply committed to egalitarianism and ecological responsibility, and to viewing the Divine in feminine and masculine ways.

Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael
www.shechinah.com

Rabbi Raphael lectures on topics such as angels, Women of the Wall, Jewish magic, Jewish music, women in the bible, Rosh Hodesh (the new moon), and Shechinah. She is also a ritual consultant for life transitions and a musician who creates songs celebrating trees, the earth, and the Divine feminine. See her music group with Juliet Spitzer and Margot Stein, MiRaJ: www.shechinah.com/miraj/miraj.html

Goddess Spirituality
Goddess.JudithLaura.com

This site, created by a Jewish woman, provides an introduction to the Divine feminine that includes some analyses of Jewish holidays and archetypes. Also see www.asphodel-long.com, another site created by a Jewish woman that offers analyses of the Jewish Divine feminine from a Goddess-centered perspective.

Hamakom
www.hamakom.org.il

Hamakom is an intentional community and retreat center for the study and experience of Hebraic wisdom, located near the Dead Sea. Its facilitator, Ohad Ezrachi, is committed to exploring the earth-based roots of Jewish tradition.

Nahalat Shalom: The Southwest Center for Jewish Renewal
www.nahalatshalom.org

Congregation Nahalat Shalom is a spiritual and cultural center for Jewish Renewal in the Southwest. It affirms and supports discovery and exploration of Jewish identity, heritage, and the arts. Woven throughout this exploration is the rediscovery and renewal of women’s voices in Judaism. Nahalat Shalom is also committed to reviving an earth-centered religious practice that emphasizes the natural elements inherent in Jewish holidays. Nahalat Shalom is guided by Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, a pioneer in reclaiming Jewish earth-based and women’s spirituality.

Rabbi Leah Novick
www.ohalah.org/novick.html
Rabbi Novick teaches spirituality rooted in the Shechinah and the sacredness of the earth. This article posted on www.ohalah.org describes her vision of Judaism. She is also an author of a number of books on spirituality.

Ritualwell.org
www.ritualwell.org

This treasury of creative Jewish ritual, sponsored by Ma’yan: The Jewish Women’s project of the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, and Kolot: The center for Women’s and Gender Studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, provides many building blocks for creative life cycle and holiday ritual.

The Shalom Center
www.shalomctr.org

The Shalom Center, founded by Arthur Waskow and others, promotes the renewal of Judaism. Their section on healing the earth contains many valuable articles on Jewish environmentalism, and their sections on holidays and life-cycle events contain essays and rituals sympathetic to earth-based Jewish practice.

Sixthirteen.org
www.sixthirteen.org

The website of Shir-Yaakov Feinstein-Feit, web designer of Tel Shemesh and maker of Jewish interpretive music that turns sacred text into mantra and mystery. Many of these songs deal with seasons and sacred occasions and are appropriate for Jewish earth-based ritual.

Teva Learning Center
www.tevacenter.org

The Teva Learning Center, North America's foremost Jewish Environmental Education Institute, is a non-denominational educational service for participants from throughout the Jewish community, working with Jewish day schools, Hebrew schools, synagogues, camps and youth groups.

Walking Stick Foundation
www.walkingstick.org

Walking Stick Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt educational organization dedicated to the restoration and preservation of aboriginal Jewish spirituality, occasionally sharing events with teachers indigenous to Native American and other earth-honoring traditions. Their wilderness retreat center, near Cuba, New mexico, hosts programs throughout the year. This center is associated with Rabbi Gershon Winkler, a Jewish shaman.

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