Feature

The FCG network is stronger because of our partners. That's why we will be writing regular features on this blog that highlight the work of collaborating groups or individuals to show our appreciation for all they do for our communities towards a more sustainable future. This month, to launch the series, we invite readers to learn about the work of Shoresh, an Ontario, grassroots Jewish environmental charity.

Awe and Wonder

Sabrina Malach is Director of Engagement at Shoresh, a grassroots Jewish environmental charity that operates through various locations across Southern Ontario, as well as schools, synagogues, camps, and community organizations in the Greater Toronto Area. 

Since 2002, Shoresh has been bringing awareness and stewardship of the natural world around us through Jewish experiential education and action, ‘because you can only protect what you love,” Sabrina says.

While their audience is primarily the Jewish community, “we are radically inclusive,” Sabrina says. “We are open to others.”

To this end, Shoresh offers a diverse array of programs including the Shoresh Outdoor School, an after-school program bridges meaningful Jewish learning with hands-on, nature-based experiences in the Toronto's parks and ravines as well as habitat restoration, pollinator conservation and community supported beekeeping. In 2017, 11,000 trees were planted at Bela Farm, Shoresh's 100-acre rural home in Hillsburgh, Ontario to provide habitat and help sequester carbon, “Planting trees is a long-term project. We want people to act for the future. Planting trees is an act of hope and belief in the future.”

Six years later, Shoresh is now focussing on tending the forest as well as their 20-acre bee sanctuary at the farm. More broadly, their focus is on leading, inspiring and empowering their community to become protectors of the earth, a task mandated to Jews in Genesis. Shoresh also has an online shop where they sell sustainble ritual objects, mostly made by bees and local artisans, including beeswax candles for the sabbath and Chanukah and honey from their hives at Bela Farm.

Children at Play	Offerings on sale.