An email recently sent to me by a dear friend... thought you all might be interested
Subject: Help Me Support Israel (Notice language)
"Friends!!
At the end of this month I will be participating in a 300 mile week long bike ride in Israel to support an INCREDIBLE organization, The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. The Arava Institute is a training center for environmental leadership, with students from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and the rest of the world. By encouraging environmental cooperation between peoples, the Arava Institute is working towards peace and sustainable development on a regional and global scale.
This organization has become especially meaningful to me due to my older sister, Abra's, involvement in it. She attended and graduated from the Institute last year and is now dedicating herself to environmental awareness and cooperative efforts among peoples and countries in the Middle East.
My fund raising goal for the bike ride is $3600.00. I would SOOO appreciate ANY contribution you could make, no matter the amount!
Here is the link to my quick-and-easy personal fund raising page:
https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=250598&lis=1&supId=200770043
I don't want to go into too much detail in this letter (long emails are the worst) - but please call me or email me if you have ANY questions, or would like more information about the Arava Institute or the bike ride.
I cannot tell you what your support means to me - THANK YOU!!"
-----------------------------------------------------------
Has anyone heard of this?
Visit the Arava Institute's webpage at www.arava.org to see for yourself what the project is doing.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Final Project
with Jaime Gusching
I. Presentation
a. Multimedia Video Presentation
b. Utilizing Technology expertise of Rebecca Bias
1. Digital Video Recording Equipment Rental from OIT in Central Classrooms’ basement
a. Firewire for digitizing video
b. Mini DV cartridge
2. Editing with Window Movie Maker available in 159 Hagerty Hall
a. Thursday’s tutorial on from 1:30-2:30pm
b. Music: Eric Whitacre's Five Hebrew Love Songs, Muslim and Christian folk music.
II. Topic
a. Comparative Religions: Parallels and Differences Three Monotheistic Faiths
b. Comparing meal preparation between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity
1. Foods prepared especially for feast days
a. Interviewing interfaith dinner project participants
b. Recording the processes of dinner preparation
c. Dr. Jalil and Dr. Hosansky, Muslim and Jewish coordinators of the dinner project.
2. Specifically the different types of Bread and their religious and symbolic significance
a. Include Representation for Christianity
i. Explore the symbolic role of bread in Protestant Christian Churches
ii. Newman Center bakes their own bread to be consecrated during Catholic Masses
I. Presentation
a. Multimedia Video Presentation
b. Utilizing Technology expertise of Rebecca Bias
1. Digital Video Recording Equipment Rental from OIT in Central Classrooms’ basement
a. Firewire for digitizing video
b. Mini DV cartridge
2. Editing with Window Movie Maker available in 159 Hagerty Hall
a. Thursday’s tutorial on from 1:30-2:30pm
b. Music: Eric Whitacre's Five Hebrew Love Songs, Muslim and Christian folk music.
II. Topic
a. Comparative Religions: Parallels and Differences Three Monotheistic Faiths
b. Comparing meal preparation between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity
1. Foods prepared especially for feast days
a. Interviewing interfaith dinner project participants
b. Recording the processes of dinner preparation
c. Dr. Jalil and Dr. Hosansky, Muslim and Jewish coordinators of the dinner project.
2. Specifically the different types of Bread and their religious and symbolic significance
a. Include Representation for Christianity
i. Explore the symbolic role of bread in Protestant Christian Churches
ii. Newman Center bakes their own bread to be consecrated during Catholic Masses
Monday, May 5, 2008
Food for Thought
Tonight as I was eating a slice of homemade pound cake, layered with fresh-cut strawberries and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, I was told to enjoy the food I eat. Ok, easy enough. The message went a little deeper, though. When we first sat down in a cozy meeting room of the Covenant Presbyterian Church to start our interfaith dinner, one of the Christian hosts for the evening described the menu: vegetarian lasagna, salad, garlic bread, ice cream, and finally the cake. This last course was a family recipe of hers, a vivid memory from childhood passed down by her grandmother. With the anecdote she encouraged our own dinner discussion of personal "food memories" and introduced the theme for this evening.
So for the next hour the seven women at my table ate, talked, and laughed food. We didn't have any grand theological or political discussions, but by the end of the meal I knew that a Jewish woman makes Challah-french toast for her family on Sundays, and a Muslim woman delights in the scent of baking cookies during Ramadan.
Now these religious stories I could relate to. In my family (and this probably reveals too much about my family) religion has always been synonymous with food. In fact, when my mom found out this year that I was planning to go out of town for Easter she paused for a moment, considered the implications, and responded accordingly:
"Well I guess I have already made ham for dinner recently, we won't be missing much." I couldn't help but laugh, because she was right. As I searched my own bank of religious events, holidays, and ceremonies, I realized their menus were the easiest memories to grasp. Chrstmas... cookies. Shabbat... challah. Easter... honey-baked ham. Passover... haroset. Bar and Bat Mitzvahs... those yummy little peanut butter/chocolate treats... what were those called? Anyway, I know this association is ridiculous, but it's gnawing at something deeper.
The main course of the evening was a sort of after-dinner sermon on the importance of food in the three faiths and in life. The woman who baked the delicious pound cake, though, had put more into it than a half-pound of butter, so I intended to get more out of it than a pleasant belly ache. She said that food, in all three religions, was something not just to be deprived from, it was something to delight in, to spend time preparing, and to enjoy eating. She understood this later in life, after her husband left and her kids grew up and she stood in the kitchen alone asking only herself, "What do I want to eat tonight?" She said it was an awakening.
Perhaps like the "scraps" we throw away after dinner, the meat we farm and grind and ship, and the snacks we can never have enough of in the cupboard, we take our religious sustenance for granted as well. After all, we had all come together on this night with empty stomachs, we had joined over a meal, and we had learned about each other through stories of food. The dinner was not only substance, it was a symbol.
"You know some people have trouble understanding the practice of communion," a minister said later, "but it is really just based on the acts of Jesus, getting together with friends, enjoying food, asking them to remember him by it."
So for the next hour the seven women at my table ate, talked, and laughed food. We didn't have any grand theological or political discussions, but by the end of the meal I knew that a Jewish woman makes Challah-french toast for her family on Sundays, and a Muslim woman delights in the scent of baking cookies during Ramadan.
Now these religious stories I could relate to. In my family (and this probably reveals too much about my family) religion has always been synonymous with food. In fact, when my mom found out this year that I was planning to go out of town for Easter she paused for a moment, considered the implications, and responded accordingly:
"Well I guess I have already made ham for dinner recently, we won't be missing much." I couldn't help but laugh, because she was right. As I searched my own bank of religious events, holidays, and ceremonies, I realized their menus were the easiest memories to grasp. Chrstmas... cookies. Shabbat... challah. Easter... honey-baked ham. Passover... haroset. Bar and Bat Mitzvahs... those yummy little peanut butter/chocolate treats... what were those called? Anyway, I know this association is ridiculous, but it's gnawing at something deeper.
The main course of the evening was a sort of after-dinner sermon on the importance of food in the three faiths and in life. The woman who baked the delicious pound cake, though, had put more into it than a half-pound of butter, so I intended to get more out of it than a pleasant belly ache. She said that food, in all three religions, was something not just to be deprived from, it was something to delight in, to spend time preparing, and to enjoy eating. She understood this later in life, after her husband left and her kids grew up and she stood in the kitchen alone asking only herself, "What do I want to eat tonight?" She said it was an awakening.
Perhaps like the "scraps" we throw away after dinner, the meat we farm and grind and ship, and the snacks we can never have enough of in the cupboard, we take our religious sustenance for granted as well. After all, we had all come together on this night with empty stomachs, we had joined over a meal, and we had learned about each other through stories of food. The dinner was not only substance, it was a symbol.
"You know some people have trouble understanding the practice of communion," a minister said later, "but it is really just based on the acts of Jesus, getting together with friends, enjoying food, asking them to remember him by it."
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