Last year a small group of friends and family gathered in the beautiful Berkshire mountains to celebrate Rabbi Gendler’s 85th birthday and to formally kick off the Gendler Grapevine Project.

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Friends and family gather to celebrate Everett’s 85th birthday

In the first year of the project, we helped 5,000 kids at Jewish summer camps around the country become more environmentally aware and educated. A small sampling of our summer camp projects include: installing a solar hot water system; developing a curriculum that teaches sustainability best practices, environmental awareness, and the connections between Judaism and the environment; eliminating the use of disposable dishware during outdoor meals; and creating more opportunities to get kids eating locally grown food and learning how to grow their own food (read more about the 2013 projects).

This year, the Gendler Grapevine Project supported projects at five rabbinical schools across the denominations. These projects will help inspire a new generation of leaders through programs such as the development of an eco-ritual lab, a class to inspire activist leaders in social justice and the environment, and a shechita fellowship (read more about our current projects).

We continue to look forward to engaging more segments of the Jewish community such as youth-group aged kids and synagogues.

Rabbi Gendler’s 86th birthday is today, 8/8/14, and we invite you to celebrate Everett’s inspirational leadership and perpetuate his life’s work by donating to the Gendler Grapevine Project.

Let’s work together to inspire a new generation.