Spinning the Dreidel for Chocolate Gelt

Every Hanukkah, Jewish children of all ages receive chocolate gelt as a treat to enjoy during the holiday. Our consumption of chocolate gelt offers us an opportunity to learn more about chocolate, where it comes from, who helps produce it, and how choosing the type of chocolate gelt you eat during Hanukkah can connect with your Jewish values.

As your students grapple with learning that most chocolate production includes forced child labor, they will also learn that Fair Trade designation provides a means to keep children out of chocolate production, helping to support the children, their families, and their communities to rise out of poverty.
(more…)

Living the Legacy – Jewish Women’s Archive

Workers tending the vegetable garden at Camp Kinder Ring, in New York. Courtesy of Camp Kinder Ring.

When you think about Jews and labor, what do you picture? A garment worker in a crowded sweatshop? Workers on a picket line? Or a farmer in a field?

The history of Jews and agricultural labor is a little-known part of American and American Jewish history, despite the fact that there has been a continuous, if small, Jewish farming presence in the U.S. for more than 100 years. Those of us who are interested and involved in the contemporary Jewish environmental movement might wonder what precedents exist for this form of Jewish activism, and what role agricultural labor has played in the American Jewish community. (more…)

Fair Food Book Club

Fair Food is an enlightening and inspiring guide to changing not only what we eat, but how food is grown, packaged, delivered, and sold.

A host of books and films in recent years have documented in great detail the dangers of our current food system, but advice on what to do about it largely begins and ends with the admonition to “eat local” or “eat organic.” This advice is not helpful if, as Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush once pointed out, you can buy ketchup where you live, but no fresh tomatoes. Just as you can’t impact the course of climate change by simply switching to CFL bulbs, you can’t fix the broken food system by simply growing a backyard garden. It requires redesigning our food system. Enter Fair Food, an inspiring guide to changing not only what we eat, but how our food is grown, packaged, delivered, marketed and sold.

(more…)

Soil to Challah

An Activity for Your Classroom

In today’s world, we are often ignorant of the many steps and people involved in bringing food to our table. In the consciousness of many children (and adults too), flour is something that comes from the grocery store in a bag with a knight on it, and challah magically appears on the Shabbat table each week. This short activity helps to bridge that gap in our mind and illustrate the process to make challah, from the soil to your mouth.

Download this set of 16 cards, and ask your students to put them in order, whether by taping them on the wall, or standing in a line and moving around (it is even more fun if you challenge them to do it silently!). (more…)

Brachot Cards

Add some blessing to your everyday life

Slip this handy card into your wallet or purse, and use it for your everyday mindfulness, gratitude, and extraordinary moments.

Download your own Hazon Brachot Card.

Food Conference Session Archive

Since 2006 the Hazon Food Conference has been the central gathering place for the Jewish Food Movement. The rich and varied sessions are both engaging for people who are already knowledgeable about the intersection of contemporary food issues and Jewish life as well as accessible to those with no prior knowledge of the subject. The program includes multiple learning formats from lectures, panels and presentations to do-it-yourself workshops and chevruta (small group) learning using Jewish texts.

We have gathered here a list of every session ever run at the Food Conference, organized by track. These session descriptions can be used to jumpstart your thinking as you are planning Jewish food programming in your community, whether it is a single evening session or a full-day extravaganza. For more information about any of these sessions or to get contact information for any of the presenters, please email foodeducation@hazon.org

(more…)