The environment receives attention from activists, musicians, and politicians, but in Israel, there’s a new religious-Zionist bent.
“Keeping Israel clean is a mitzvah,” says Carmi Wisemon, head of a new Jewish environmentalist organization "Sviva Israel." The veteran activist maintains, “It’s avodat kodesh” (holy work).
He was interviewed by Israel National Radio's Yishai Fleisher on August 11.
“Our vision is that the Jews in Israel will respect the land of Israel,” he said. “To respect the land is to treat it as a precious resource that you know you don’t have much of.”
But in Israel, what Wisemon calls the “environmental ABCs,” such as littering prevention, are still major problems.
“People have this mentality of, ‘I don’t want to be a sucker. Why should I be the one to pick up the people’s garbage? Why should I be the one to pick up my own garbage?’”
To promote environmental awareness and action in Israel, Sviva Israel runs the Eco-Connection program, in which students measure their consumption of natural resources through their normal lifestyles.
Their Adopt-a-Neighborhood program teaches children why it’s important to live in a clean area, and trains teenagers to become leaders, “from a regular 'common courtesy' perspective.”
To those who doubt these programs’ effectiveness, Wisemon said education is an important step. “If we talk about cleanliness, if we talk about litter prevention, then it will happen,” he said.
Sviva Israel also teaches government officials in Jerusalem about the environment and how to limit the impact of their government buildings on the surrounding ecosystem.
“The community actually feels the change happening. And it creates a ripple effect of change throughout the community,” Wisemon said. “I couldn’t tell you the number of blessings I get from the neighbors who come out and say, ‘Kol hakovod ("Good for you!"), what you’re doing is wonderful, how can we help, what can we do…’”
Pictures and more information about Sviva Israel programs and news can be found at www.svivaisrael.org . The website also features the group's downloadable journal, The Environment in Jewish Thought and Law.