Food For Thought

When parents and children made pizza as part of Hazon’s “Min Ha’Aretz” curriculum at the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester recently, they got to experience the joy of preparing a meal together.

When parents and children made pizza as part of Hazon’s “Min Ha’Aretz” curriculum at the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester recently, they got to experience the joy of preparing a meal together.

by Merri Rosenberg
Special To The Jewish Week

In a sixth-grade classroom at Solomon Schechter School of Westchester, Rabbi Miriam Weidberg is planting the seeds of future environmentalists.

“Two classes ago, we talked about ‘good land’ and learned about sustainability for now, and for the future,” said Rabbi Weidberg. “Today we’ll look at our role as growing things in ways that will benefit the future and our role as human beings.”

Against the backdrop of bulletin boards displaying photos of fruits and trees, from apples and apricots to pear trees and grapes, students intently focused on what it meant, in a Jewish, Torah-driven context, to be able to grow something.

These students were participating in a new curriculum, Min Ha’Aretz, developed by Hazon, the Jewish environmental group to combine Jewish

traditions and Torah teaching with science and environmental education.

“Food is hot,” said Judith Belasco, co-director of food programs for Hazon. “There’s a whole generation of kids who’ve grown up on the Food Network. There’s a growing conversation in the Jewish community about what we eat, and about our personal health and the health of the planet. We can use the wisdom of these Jewish texts for guidance as we confront contemporary food issues. Jewish food choices are not made in a vacuum. They’re made in a family.”

The curriculum, an 18-lesson program targeted towards fifth - eighth graders, took nearly three years of development and testing; Schechter is one of the initial seven schools in the metropolitan region to launch it. By fall, about 20 Jewish communities will use this program, through day schools, congregational schools, and camps.

In Rabbi Weidberg’s class, for example, she presented her students with texts from Genesis, about God placing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and asked them what it meant to work the land and guard it. The students also discussed verses from the Birkhat Hamazon to explore what it meant to grow food and sustain life.

“God said it’s my land, and yours to take care of,” said 11-year-old Sophia Richter “It’s our responsibility.”
Her classmate, 12-year-old Britney Lefkovits added, “It’s good for the earth, taking care of something. It takes work and time to do it right.”

The curriculum includes science education linked to specific Jewish and biblical themes and texts, such as the harvest holidays, ritual blessings, kashrut, sustainability and local food sources. A key component features family field trips to local farms and markets, as well as a cooking experience.

Incorporating the families is essential, explained Rabbi Weidberg, Middle School Judaic Studies Chair at Schechter. When parents and children prepared pizza together at an event earlier this month, “they got to experience the joy of preparing food together. This is the perfect dinner table curriculum. This is very real to them. They can relate it to their own lives,”

And Joan Forchheimer, sixth grade dean, added, “Parents love it. They’re happy to be part of the learning. Everyone can participate. Part of the Schechter philosophy is our determination to integrate students’ Jewish lives with their American lives. We want them to have a Jewish lens, and approach this as a Jewish American.”

A lesson on kashrut, for example, includes texts from Deuteronomy, while one on “reduce, reuse, recycle” features texts from Ecclesiastes. Students also have the opportunity to discuss ethical issues, considering, “can we use things in the wrong way, or the right way?” said Forchheimer.

In a science lab later that day, the sixth graders studied recipes for charoset from various Jewish communities around the world and analyzed what was similar and what was different in each recipe.
Their teacher, Debby Taylor, asked them to consider what were “Jewish” foods, with the students eagerly suggesting such dishes as bagels and lox, falafel, potato latkes, gefilte fish and hummus. “Some foods have biblical origins. Some of you have families from other countries. Some Jewish foods may not be considered Jewish in other parts of the world.”

Taylor appreciates that the Min Ha’Aretz program is “so relevant to them. With the science component, I’ve taken it as a framework. I can use current events.”

For 11-year-old Melanie Rotter-Laitman, the message came through loud and clear. “In Judaic studies, we talk about God’s commandments to take care of the earth. This is the modern science. God told us to do certain things with the earth, and this is what we’re doing now.”

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Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization