4 NEWS JULY 29, 2011 THE JEWISH ADVOCATE

By Elise KignerAdvocate Staff

Taking in the smell of freshgreens, the gardeners kneeled atthe edge of the vegetable beds be-hind Temple Israel of Boston topick out their bounty: tomatoes,lettuce, fennel and squash. To re-place what they had harvested,they drew lines in the soil anddropped in tiny seeds of carrots,beets and the Middle Eastern herbza’atar.

The idea for the garden, the firstthat has bloomed at Temple Israelin two decades, came from LeoraMallach, 37, and Becca Weaver, 26,co-founders of the new nonprofit,Ganei Beantown: Beantown Jew-ish Gardens.

Mallach said similar programsare popping up in cities around

the country, where people tend toknow little about where their foodcomes from. At Temple Israel, thegarden is being used, among otherthings, as an educational tool forHebrew school students.

“When you start working withurban or even suburban kids, theydon’t recognize a tomato plant, ora cucumber plant, and you can’tfault them for that,” she said.

By growing food and herbs inthe city, “you can have a very largeimpact by doing something verysmall.”

The garden is a congregation-wide effort. High school studentsconstructed the raised beds andbegan the planting. On the tem-ple’s Mitzvah Day, second-gradersplanted cucumber seeds in yogurtcontainers, which they later trans-

planted to the garden. On August15, Ganei Beantown and TempleIsrael’s Riverway Project are host-ing Harvest ’N’ Tonics, whereyoung adults will gather in the gar-den for drinks and Tu B’Av learn-ing. The group will then harvestvegetables for a vegetarian dinner.

Last week, Weaver led a smallgroup in composting browningvegetables, harvesting the ripefoods and planting new seeds.Hanna Guimaraes, 27, said she hadnever gardened before, but nowcomes to the garden every week.She said the work is relaxing, andshe likes bringing home the fen-nels, squash and kale she picksherself. “It feels like you’re an actu-al farmer,” she said.

Some of the harvest is being do-nated to Food for Free in Cam-

bridge, which serves people inneed, and the rest of the produceis going to garden volunteers andto people who have made a finan-cial donation.

In addition to overseeing theTemple Israel garden, Ganei Bean-town runs a series for young adultson food, sustainability and Jewishlaw. At a recent session, partici-pants learned how to brew beerand talked about the counting ofthe Omer, the period betweenPassover and Shavuot when Jewseach day brought barley to thetemple as a sacrifice. “It is encour-aging Jews to realize the agricultur-al traditions inherent in Judaism,”Mallach said.

The Temple Israel garden wasplanted in the space once used fora Biblical garden. It was aban-doned about 20 years ago whenthe synagogue’s garden club – agroup of women who tended tothe plants and made flowerarrangements for Shabbat services– disbanded.

Anita Bender, who was a mem-ber of the garden club, said fellowcongregant Alice Sherman cameup with the idea for the garden,which was made up of plants men-tioned in the Bible, like bitterherbs, grapes, figs, ferns andprawns.

Bender said the Biblical gardenserved as a model for others allaround the country. During theHigh Holidays congregants wouldsit in the garden to meditate, andcongregants held wedding recep-tions there. Garden club membersbecame fast friends.

“This was a way people whohad something in common couldget together and work together,and it built a community within acommunity,” Bender said.

“It is nice that it is being reju-venated in a different way,” shesaid. “I think gardening is making agood comeback.”

For more information, visitbeantownjewishgardenprojects.wordpress.com.

Salad meets Scripture as Temple Israel tills its soil

Second graders plant vegetables at Beantown Jewish Garden.

nection, as well as CJP’s programsfor families with young childrenand its Israel advocacy work.

CJP will be funding Birthrightsupport staff on 11 campuses towork on recruitment and post-tripengagement. This fall, Amherst,Wellesley, Williams, Brown andMIT are being added to the roster.

A major new CJP initiative is aprogram to put young adults withdisabilities in jobs, which receiveda $2.5 million donation from theRuderman Family Foundation.

Preuss said improvements inthe economy might have played arole in the campaign’s success, buthe also noted that the Boston cam-paign outpaced those in other Jew-ish communities.

Joe Berkofsky, a representativeof the Jewish Federations of NorthAmerica, said the Boston campaignis among the top five in the coun-try. The 157 federations in NorthAmerica raised a total of $925 mil-lion in 2010, the latest campaignyear it tracked, down 2 percentfrom the year before. Berkofskysaid the campaigns are stabilizing,as the 2009 campaign was down13 percent from the year before.

CJP is not the only local Jewishorganization raising more moneythis year. The Anti-DefamationLeague’s New England region hasraised 11 percent more than whatwas raised at this time last year,said director Derrek Shulman. Itaims to raise $3,030,000 in unre-stricted funds this calendar year.

The group is still recoveringfrom a drop in fundraising duringthe recession: In 2007, the region-al ADL raised more than $5 mil-lion.

Shulman said donations havebeen bolstered by efforts to reachbeyond Greater Boston. The ADLadded board members from Ver-mont, New Hampshire, Maine andCentral Massachusetts, and is in-creasing its programming inNorthern New England and Cen-tral and Western Massachusetts. Inaddition, board members are do-nating more, increasing their totalgiving by about 11 percent. Hon-orary dinners are also generatingmore contributions.

The New England region of theJewish National Fund also expectsto raise more money this campaigncycle, which ends Sept. 30. Thelocal office has already raised $3.3million and expects to finish outwith $3.5 million, said SharonFreedman, national campaign di-rector. Last year, the New Englandregion raised $2.6 million.

Why the spike in donations?Freedman said many of the dona-tions came in response to theCarmel Forest Fire in December.Also, the number of people on theboard of directors is now at 46, anincrease from last year. There isnow a waiting list to get on theboard.

Nationally, JNF, which raised$46 million last year, aims to raise$60-$62 million. So far it has raisedclose to $55 million.

Continued from Page 1 Jewish fundraisers report upswing in giving

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