Blog Archives

This video explores food ethics and spiritual eating from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim perspectives. In this video, The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development brings together ecologically-focused clergy and theologians to augment the faith voice in hastening the transition to cleaner, healthier and more sustainable communities. The video features four panelists: Rabbi Yonatan Neril, founder and executive director of The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development; Shaykh Mustafa Umar, the president of California Islamic University and the Director of Education and Outreach at the Islamic Institute of Orange County; Rev. Dr. Jill Crainshaw, Vice Dean for Faculty Development and Academic Initiatives at Wake Forest University School of Divinity, where she also serves as the Blackburn Professor of Worship and Liturgical Theology; and Rabbi Bill Kaplan, Executive Director of the Shalom Institute in Malibu, a year-round experiential Jewish and environmental education center and the home of Shemesh Farms, a social enterprise that employs…

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This Leadership and the Environment conversation with Rabbi Yonatan Neril and Joshua Spodek focuses on the joy of environmental living, and the significance of going into nature. The podcast version is available at https://joshuaspodek.com/

If you grew up in a religious or even a traditional Jewish home, this might sound familiar to you: It’s dinner time on Tuesday night and you served yourself way more food than you could eat. Seeing that you didn’t finish the food on your plate your mother reprimands you with those two words: “Bal Tashchit!” “Bal Tashchit” is one of the 613 commandments in the old testament and it literally translates to “you shall not destroy” or “you shall not waste”. These two words are at the center of the Jewish debate on environmentalism. Today we’re joined by Rabbi Yonatan Neril, co-author of Eco Bible, a publication on what the Bible says about ecology and creation care. We are happy to be joined by Rabbi Neril to talk about the environment, about climate change and about what nice Jewish Boys (and girls) should do to care for our planet.…

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For more informative environmental videos, please check out our recent wind energy video! www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9NBZls-0Tk&t=2s Native American groups have long valued the presence of flowing rivers in the United States. This video takes a look at the future of these rivers and what role Native American groups have played in river conservation, with an emphasis on the American Southwest.

For more about faith and ecology and seminary education, please see this video on how seminaries can encourage students to be eco change agents. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UCnCzxKotU This video of Rabbi Yonatan Neril’s message to seminaries was part of a longer video recorded for use in a presentation for an environmental conference in Rome in 2016.

For more from this event, please see this general highlight reel of the event: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PphCAWLrRwY At the Interfaith Eco Poetry Slam, Eitan Press explains exactly how prayer and coming together as a community will help us actively save the environment. He expresses his hope for a future where humans acknowledge the sanctity of every living flora and fauna on planet earth.

For more environmental speech from Yonatan Neril, please see this video on Wind Energy in Red States: www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9NBZls-0Tk At Tmol Shilshom, Rabbi Yonatan Neril, founder and executive director of the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, performs a poem on the importance of many faiths coming together on behalf of humanity, all species, and our common home. He quotes from Dr. Seuss’ book The Lorax, and from Michael Kagan’s book God’s Prayer.