Dear friend, I am pleased to share with you updates from the past two and a half months of activities of The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Develo

         
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Dear friend,

I am pleased to share with you updates from the past two and a half months of activities of The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD). To start with, four members of our organization attended the Knesset (Israeli parliament) Environmental Day on June 17th, in which the Minister of Environmental Protection spoke about investing $52 million for waste management in Arab, Druze, and Bedouin communities. Read here about other new environmental initiatives like the Green Knesset project.

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Rev. Dr. Martin Otto Zimmann, a member of the ICSD Board of Advisers, wrote a guest blog post about his perspectives on the link between faith and ecology. After participating in a Jordan river tour co-sponsored by ICSD, he wrote, "the restoration of this river not only restores an eco-habitat, but helps in our search for understanding and healing in the Middle East and the world over". Read more

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On one of our recent Eco Israel Tours, participants walked through the Hinnom Valley, located near the Old City of Jerusalem. A beautiful urban nature area with many trees and animals; the larger Kidron Basin of which the Hinnom Valley is a part suffers from 35,000 cubic meters of raw sewage flowing through it due to the lack of a sewage treatment plant. Read more about a participant's experience on this tour here.

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A group from our Women's Interfaith Ecology Project met on April 30th at a school in Abu Tor, Jerusalem. A group of Jews, Muslims, and Christians came together to garden and discuss future projects together. Click here to read our blog post on the event. We have had two more events with the same group of people since. Check our pictures on Facebook!

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In the beginning of May, we learned that the drinking water of nine neighborhoods in Jerusalem -- five Jewish, three Arab, and two mixed -- were contaminated by treated waste water. This showed us how vulnerable everyone is when it comes to environmental problems, and that we will need to plan how we can prevent these problems in the future.

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At a luncheon put on by American Jewish Committee, I was able to meet His Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Orthodox Church, also known as the "Green Patriarch". He spoke of the primacy of spiritual values in determining environmental ethics and action. Read more about his words.

Our organization engages in unique, innovative, and impactful work that promotes human coexistence and environmental sustainability. Much of our financial support comes in the form of donations from readers like you. Please consider donating by clicking here.

Sincerely,

Yonatan

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