FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Debra Kolodny, Executive Director, ALEPH

DATE: Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Phone: 301-565-0719

Email: DebraRuth@mac.com

Dear Editor:

Enclosed is the June 2006 ALEPH News Service. We hope you run one or more of the following articles, and look forward to hearing from you if you do. This release contains:

1. Faith-Based and Civic Organizations Meet to Discuss Sacred Foods

2 Ruach Ha’Aretz: August 14-20, Santa Cruz, CA

3. “Jewish Renewal-Integrating Heart and World” launches June 25 in Jerusalem

About ALEPH: ALEPH acts as the headquarters of the Jewish Renewal movement by organizing and nurturing communities, developing spiritual leadership, ordaining rabbis, cantors and rabbinic pastors, creating liturgical and scholarly resources, holding retreats and festivals and working for social and environmental justice.

ALEPH has attracted and energized thousands of seekers returning to Judaism and thousands who are deeply engaged but looking to elevate their current practice. ALEPH has 42 affiliated communities and its projects include two biennial gatherings: the Kallah and Ruach HaAretz; the Sacred Foods Project, C-DEEP: The Center for Devotional, Energy, and Ecstatic Practice, the Bet Midrash (producing siddurim, publications, videos and CDs from our founder Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and other Jewish Renewal teachers) and Kesher (supporting twenty and early thirty year old leaders). In addition to its projects, ALEPH also produces one-day Jewish Renewal festivals in communities around the US and Canada called Caravans. It is home to OHALAH: The Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal and a Rabbinic Studies Program, educating future rabbis, cantors and rabbinic pastors.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like additional information. ALEPH looks forward to working with you,

Debra Kolodny /s/

Faith-Based and Civic Organizations Meet to Discuss Sacred Foods

Clergy and leadership from more than two-dozen faith-based and civic organizations joined leaders in academic and business circles to explore the connection between religion and food, hunger, agriculture and the natural world at the Sacred Foods Conference in Garrison, New York this month.

The conference sparked a unique interfaith dialogue among Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders. It also provided a launching point for new interfaith initiatives to promote healthy eating and end hunger, protect the environment, improve conditions for agricultural workers and promote animal welfare.

“The Sacred Foods conference stemmed from a recognition that the importance of religion in our daily life is increasing and is also becoming a more significant influence in our food choices,” said Sacred Foods Project Director Arlin Wasserman. According to Wasserman, “The growing influence of religion in our culture is driving double digit increases in the market for kosher and halal foods—motivating people around religious identity as well as concerns about health, the environment and animal welfare.”

The connections between food, faith and the marketplace were brought into sharper focus by keynote presentations from the Hartman Group’s Shelley Balanko, an expert in consumer trends, Bernie Evans, a professor of Rural Social Ministries from St. John’s University and Francesca Cortez, a migrant farm worker active in the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Experts in sustainability, certification of kosher and halal foods, and culinary professionals also addressed the conference.

The Sacred Foods project, launched in July 2005, and housed in ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, is an interfaith effort to incorporate religious and ethical principles in the ways in which we produce and distribute food. The project brings together religious leaders, faith-based and civic institutions and members of the food industry to improve the quality of our land, air and water, to provide healthier and more sustainable food for our citizens and to improve the lives of agricultural workers.

ALEPH worked in concert with Faith in Place, the Food Alliance, the Islamic Society of North America, the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, the National Council of Churches, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and The Shalom Center, with the generous support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Schocken Foundation to make this conference happen.

Contact: Arlin Wasserman, Sacred Foods Project Director for additional information at 651-698-1991 or arlin@changingtastes.net

Ruach Ha’Aretz: August 14-20, Santa Cruz, CA

Imagine an intimate Jewish multi-generational gathering in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz mountains; a week of deep connection with the Divine …

The morning begins with a choice of yoga, Hebrew letter movement, morning prayer and meditation. During the day you may choose to study in two (out of 16 tantalizing options) week-long classes, morning and afternoon. Your children and teens will be participating in a wonderful program filled with learning, theater, art and exploring the beautiful environment.

Each evening, the entire community gathers for programs for all ages that celebrate our experience with beautiful music and teaching. There will be dancing, drumming, lively discussions, moving poetry and inspired dream work. Our nights will end with meditations and prayers that carry us into higher levels even as we sleep.

The week leads us into a Shabbat full of beauty and love. Led by masterful Rabbis, the davenning can become the fullest expression of our true selves. We will create the spirit and aesthetic that can carry us into joyous merger with the Shekhinah.

This is Ruach Ha’Aretz.

Ruach Ha’Aretz (www.ruachhaaretz.com) is a unique Jewish retreat for individuals, couples and families. People of all ages, backgrounds and levels of observance are welcomed to enter a diverse community to deepen their connections with the divine. Our teaching staff consists of nationally and internationally known rabbis and hazzans such as Rabbi Wayne Dosick, Rabbi Elliot Ginsberg, Rabbi Shefa Gold with Rachmiel O’Reagan, Rabbis Nadya and Victor Gross, Rabbi Diane Elliot, Rabbi Shaya Isenberg with Bahira Sugarman, Rabbi Burt Jacobsen, Rabbi Laura Kaplan, Rabbi Itzhak Marmorstein, Rabbi Leah Novick, Rabbi Marcia Prager, Hazzan Richard Kaplan and Hazzan Jack Kessler. Other guest teachers are Ellen Kaufman Dosick MSW, Rabbinic Pastor Shulamit Fagan, Dorit Ori Har and Tom DiGinnaro as well as artist Nancy Katz. For a full description of teachers and class descriptions, please visit our website www.ruachhaaretz.org.

Since 1996 Ruach Ha’Aretz has been hosting week long retreats in spiritual centers around the United States and Canada. This year’s retreat will be in the beautiful redwoods just north of Santa Cruz CA. Part of our mission is to return to study in nature so that we can open the gates to fully embrace our Judaism.

This year Ruach Ha’Aretz is partnering with the Basherte Jewish Singles program August 11-13^th for a pre-retreat weekend for singles. This is a unique Jewish Singles weekend for those seeking conscious partnership. For full details please visit the Basherete website at www.basherte.org.

“Jewish Renewal-Integrating Heart and World” launches June 25 in Jerusalem

A new book written by Rabbi Zalman Schachter–Shalomi with Rabbi Ruth Gan Kagan was published in Hebrew last month in Israel. The book titled "Jewish Renewal – Integrating Heart and World" was published by Yediot Books, and was written specifically for an Israeli readership.

This coming Sunday, July 25, at 7 pm the book will be launched in Jerusalem. The celebration will take place at the Kol Ha Neshama community, 1 Asher St. Bakaa.

As befitting a book of Jewish Renewal teachings, the event will open with experiential workshops inspired by its content led by friends and students of the authors. Rabbi David Zeller will lead a session on Jewish Meditation. The artist and soferet STaM Shoshana Guggenheim will lead a session about ‘Journeying through the Four Worlds,’ Michael Kagan and voice artist Yael Tai will explore the sefirot in movement and sound.

Dr. Ruchama Weiss, the editor of the book’s umbrella series, “Judaism Here and Now” will introduce the book. Dr. Yair Caspi – the author of "Searching for God" will give the main presentation.

Rabbi Ruth Gan Kagan will read excerpts from the book and lead the audience in socialized meditation. Musicians Daphna Rosenberg, Shirly Pugatzki, Erez Shoham, and Netanel Goldberg will offer music from the heart – Reb Zalman's compositions as well as their own.

Rabbi Kagan is a native Israeli who spent two years in Boulder studying with Reb Zalman. During their time together she decided to bring his unique voice to the Israeli public. The book was written over three years of meetings and e-mail communications between the Judean Mountains and the Rockies and merges Reb Zalman's teachings and life stories with Ruth's insights into the nature of Israel's spiritual reality.

The book can be ordered on line at: http://www.ibooks.co.il/ns_getprodinfo.asp?shr=ybook&prodid=11321767