One Chicago synagogue has made environmental issues its top priority-and is making history in the process.
The impressive-looking building quickly going up at 303 Dodge Ave. in Evanston is the new home of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation. When it’s finished, it will become what may be the first LEED-certified synagogue in the United States.
This state of affairs came about when it became clear that the congregation had outgrown its old building, which was on the same site as the new one, according to Julie Dorfman, head of the synagogue’s environmental committee. The congregation discussed renovating the old building, then decided to tear it down and build a new one, she says.
Around the same time, Dorfman became head of the committee and, along with other members, “decided to move away from a they-should-do-it model to a we-should-do-it model,” she says. Members of the committee along with members of another local group, the Evanston Interreligious Sustainability Circle, got together to brainstorm various ways of making the building more sustainable.
After the synagogue held a Tu B’Shevat seder with an environmental focus, “a lot of people got interested in the whole topic,” Dorfman says. “We decided if we were going to build a new building, it needed to be designed green from the beginning. One member introduced us to the concept of LEED certification, and other people joined and taught us about green buildings, and the decision was made” to seek certification. Rabbi Brant Rosen, the synagogue’s spiritual leader, got behind the project and board members supported it unanimously.
It was a momentous decision and a mammoth effort. In the case of the new JRC building, items that had to be taken into account included not causing erosion during construction; building a roof that would not function as a “heat island”; offering bicycle racks and a shower bike riders could use; energy and water use efficiency; use of recycled or reclaimed construction materials (the exterior siding, for instance, was previously used in barns in upstate New York, and some of the interior materials are made from sunflower kernels); and a heating and cooling system that works by zone, “so we don’t heat or air condition areas when they aren’t in use,” Dorfman explains.
For instance, religious school rooms, which are used only a few hours each week, don’t need to be heated or cooled the rest of the time; consequently each room must have individual temperature controls.
In addition, 50 percent of all new wood used comes from sustainable forests; no paint or carpeting will use volatile organic chemicals; and the landscaping will include drought-resistant native plants that provide a habitat for birds and butterflies.
The Ner Tamid or eternal light will be solar powered and the sanctuary is designed to use “displacement ventilation.” That means that “the air conditioning comes in low and gently wafts up to about seven feet” so energy is not wasted cooling all the way up to the 18-foot ceiling, Dorfman explains. In the rest of the building, cold air will blow in from the top down.
The building will use 42 percent less energy and more than 40 percent less water than a conventional building, she says.
The cost for the entire project, Dorfman says, will come in at about $10 million (which includes the cost to the congregation of having to rent a new site while construction is going on). The figure, she says, is “a little more costly than a conventional building, but not much.” A grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation will help with the costs of the design and engineering. Dorfman estimates that the congregation will make back the approximately $250,000 extra in cost savings in about 10 years. The congregation is targeting January 2008 as the estimated completion date. Congregants are very happy about the project, Dorfman says. “So many people say to us that they’ve become part of the community in a way they weren’t before because of this,” she says. “We wanted a process to reflect our values-doing something in a way that would inspire us and inspire other congregations.”
Rabbi Rosen agrees. “From the beginning, I felt very strongly about educating the congregation that this effort is grounded in our spiritual values as Jews,” he says. “Environmentalism is not just a political issue, not just a bandwagon to jump on. It goes back to the Torah, a value we’ve inherited in our own spiritual tradition – energy efficiency, not destroying natural resources. The world does not belong to us – we’re reminded repeatedly of that in the Torah.”
His role in the effort, he says, is “helping the congregation understand that how we build the building is as important, if not more so, than the building itself. The spiritual values reflect on who we are. It’s not easy to build a green building. There is a learning curve that is very daunting and a financial commitment on top of the financial commitment of building a new building.”
Rosen has been gratified by the response of congregants, he says. “By helping people understand the values behind the building process, it has created more of an investment in the process,” he says. “Their spiritual investment in it is much deeper. We’re proud of doing it and our biggest hope is to be a role model for other communities to follow suit. That would be the greatest honor.”
In a move that is sure to further endear the UN to the State of Israel, the recently created UN Human Rights Council voted last Monday to establish 
The latest issue of the 
In this week’s Torah portion, Hukkkat, we read of the death of Aaron:
Another anniversary I can’t let slip by unnoticed: on this day 
As this week’s Torah portion opens, a prominent Israelite named Korach ben Yizhar, together with two hundred and fifty chieftains, publicly revolts against the leadership of Moses and Aaron. Korach’s grievance is articulated as a populist call to arms:
Woo hoo!!! I had the very good fortune to catch the 
Bilaam’s Folly and the Evangelical Right
What ensues is brilliant Biblical satire. Bilaam sets out on his mission and is toyed with by God at every turn. Bilaam, the great seer cannot even see what his own ass (pardon the expression) sees:
When Bilaam finally arrives at the Israelite camp, his humiliation deepens: try as he might to curse the Israelites, God makes sure that he can only bless them. Ironically, his blessings over Israel are among the most powerful Biblical poems of praise (including the famous verses “Mah tovu ohalecha ya’akov” – “How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob!” which have since become a permanent part of the Jewish morning liturgy.)
Though some commentators view Bilaam in positive terms, the conventional understanding of this story is as a monotheistic polemic against pseudo-prophets. Indeed, although Bilaam blesses Israel in the end, his blessings are the product of divine manipulation, not authentic piety. It is difficult to read this story and not, on some level, view Bilaam as something of a fraud.
The story of Bilaam raises many issues, not least of which is the role of flatterers and sycophants in society. Are blessings truly blessings if they come to us through circumstance or with ulterior motive? Who are the Bilaams in our midst today, whose words of support only serve to mask a deeper and possibly darker motive?
For the Bilaam of the 21st century, I cast my vote for Christian evangelical pastor John Hagee, founder of the Christians United For Israel – a religious leader who has been embraced by many quarters of the Jewish community for his staunchly pro-Zionist views. Though Hagee and his followers are amassing impressive political clout and raising increasing amounts of dollars that fill the coffers of Jewish Federations around the country, there is certainly ample reason to question whether his “blessing” to the Jewish community is one we should be so eager to accept.
Hagee’s preaches a Biblically-based version of Zionism that views Israel as God’s gift to the Jewish People and is an avowed opponent of the peace process. Even more troubling, however, is his apocalyptic prescription for Mideast “peace.” In his bestselling book, “Jerusalem Countdown,” he advocates a preemptive strike against Iran and posits that the West will soon become engaged in nuclear war with “Islamo-fascists” which will eventually initiate Armageddon, the final earthly battle described in the Book of Revelation. Hagee further claims that this battle will conclude with the death of countless Israeli citizens and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
Some Jews argue that we have cannot afford be choosy, that in desperate times we must find our friends where we can – even if they are among the Bilaams of the world. But are such alliances truly in our best interest? Indeed, as we learn in this week’s Torah portion: motives matter. We would do well to avoid “crisis mode thinking” that could lead us to ill-advised relationships with pseudo-prophets such as Hagee – and unwittingly help create circumstances that will eventually make Armageddon a self-fulfilling prophecy.
(For more about Hagee and the growing Jewish relationship with the Evangelical Right, check out this article from The Jewish Week.)
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