Eco-Israel Newsletter Vol 2, May 2011

North Trip - This past month Eco6 had their tiyul to the north of Israel. It rained a little bit which is always a welcome and pleasant occurrence here. The group visited the Hula Valley, Nimrod Fortress and the Banias, Yehudiya & the Hexagonal Pools and continued to Nahalal and Harduf. They finished their trip in Acco where they meet up with another MASA program, Saving the Stones who showed them around some of the archaeological sites of the Old City.

Information Session – Sunday June 12 at 12 pm Eastern, Eco-Israel's monthly information session. Want to learn more about Eco-Israel? Our sessions are hosted by Gili our Marketing and Recruitment Coordinator and usually include one or more of our alumni. The sessions cover a typical day on the Hava & Adam Eco-Educational farm, an explanation on what is permaculture and what we mean by sustainable living, what our alumni are doing after their five months with Eco-Israel and more. You'll also have an opportunity to ask questions. To register click here.

Yahel visits the farm - Yahel Israel Service Learning, another MASA program came to the Hava & Adam Farm to connect with Eco-Israel participants about the social aspects of permaulture and sustainable living. Yahel is an organization that offers service learning and social action programs in Israel. Permaculture, because of its ethic of care for the Earth, care for people and share of surplus, is naturally akin to Yahel and it's commitment to Tikkun Olam. Eco participants and Yahel participants had an in-depth, honest and insightful conversation applying the social and community implications of living the principles of permaculture. Together we explored how permaculture is more than just about food and the environment, it's a way of living and of behaving.

Pesach – the day before the start of Pesach and their week-long break the Eco6 participants returned from their trip to the North back to the farm for one day. It was just enough time to perform all the necessary systems maintenance: compost piles, compost toilets, food facilitating, gardening, recycling, etc.. before they went off to celebrate the holiday and explore a bit of the country on their own. Luckily, we still had time to have an early Seder before the real deal the following evening thanks to the help of our friends, Mat & Julie. Highlights included building and destroying bricks to signify our freedom from oppression, decorating the zula in beautiful flowers and artifacts from the Hava, sharing our favorite Passover family traditions, and singing Passover inspired songs including one entitled "There's no Seder like Our Seder", courtesy of Jimmy's mom. [more pictures]

Eco-Israel Bike Team - a few Eco-Israel alumni have started a team for the New York Hazon Bike Ride. Click here to visit the team page and support their valiant efforts.