Researcher Seeks TI Congregants' View on Jewish Ecology.........posted Jan 3, 2008

Sarah Franco, a senior at Middlebury College in Vermont, is studying environmental ethics in Judaism and would like to collect the views of Tikvat Israel members.

She is writing her thesis on this subject and will be in the Washington area Jan. 13-17 to do some additional interviews at several synagogues.

Here is the link to the survey, which is confidential and anonymous:

https://surveys.middlebury.edu/survey/132727/7d24/

This is a letter that Franco sent recently to Dan Black, chair of the TI Energy Committee, to share with TI members:

My name is Sarah Franco. I am a senior at Middlebury College. As a Religion major focusing on the Jewish tradition, I am writing my thesis on Jewish environmental ethics. The inspiration for this fascinating topic came last spring when I took a course called, "Religion, Ethics, and the Environment." My classmates and I learned about the complex ways in which religious practitioners can use their tradition to interact with the environment. Although the course could not devote a large amount of time to the Jewish tradition, it was apparent to me that there was a rich body of literature to explore and analyze.

For the past four months, I have been gathering and interpreting the existing scholarship on Judaism and ecology. I have read books by Arthur Waskow, Jeremy Benstein, and Ellen Bernstein, just to name a few. I have been writing extensively about the kind of thinking that has emerged in this body of scholarly work that reports that Jews may become inspired to engage themselves with the environment through discerning the ecological potential of a variety of Jewish texts, observances, and concepts.

While I have a bit more work to do in this regard, I am now moving on to the second part of my thesis, which asks, "How are everyday Jews using their tradition to be ecologically conscious and friendly? More importantly, are they using their tradition in this respect?"

This is where the congregation of Tikvat Israel comes in. I invite everyone to participate in my study by completing a questionnaire that should take 15-20 minutes to complete. All questions are optional and all responses will remain confidential and anonymous. Only my academic adviser and I will have access to these data. You may access this survey by following this link: https://surveys.middlebury.edu/survey/132727/7d24/
Please know that when I invite everyone to participate, I really do mean everyone. Whether you loved ?An Inconvenient Truth,? or not, whether you have already given deep thought to the connections between Judaism and the environment, or not, I am very interested in hearing from you. I greatly appreciate any and all who participate, even those who have read this far!

If you would like to participate further in my study by taking part in a one-on-one interview, please call me at 207-650-6475 or e-mail sfranco@middlebury.edu. I will be traveling to the Washington, D.C. area during the week of January 13. Moreover, if you have questions about my research or the survey, please feel free to use the same contact information.

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