Farmer and environmentalist Elan Margulies invites you to learn the rich history of Judaism’s connection to the earth. He leads an interactive session that explores Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic sources through theater and hevrutah (group study). You’ll hear him unpack ancestral tradition to gain insights into Judaism’s relationship with land, trees, and animals, and discuss the current Jewish environmental landscape.

Elan Margulies is the farm manager and educator at Pushing the Envelope, his family’s Jewish community farm in Geneva, Illinois. He has taught ecology in New York at the Teva Learning Center, the Student Conservation Association, and the Cornell University Naturalist Outreach Program, and he developed the science of nature curriculum for Eden Village Camp, America’s first Jewish environmental camp. He studied ecology at Cornell University and The Hebrew University and has led hikes in Israel, volunteered in South Africa’s Kalahari Desert, and worked for the U.S. National Park Service.

Recorded Sunday, July 10, 2011 at Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies.