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About Land and Tzedakah
If you are here, you have an interest, a connection to land. In recent years it became fashionable to state a land acknowledgement. As someone who deeply enjoys the land, I thought this made sense and I began doing land acknowledgements at the beginnings of my classes. I am honored to live and work on the home territory of the Lisjan Ohlone people. However, over time I realised that this practice was becoming hollow and performative. This skit aptly captures the problem.
I thought about how many times Native Americans have received lovely words from non-Native people that were empty and broken promises. So my next step was to compile resources, specifically for Jewish people, to learn more about the relationship between Native and Jewish communities. Below I share these with you and encourage you to share these freely, in classes you might teach or whatever methods are right for you.
A tribal land map, to understand who the Native groups are and were in the land you live on.
A writing to guide us, titled How to Come Correct, written by the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. This book may deepen our understanding of the sometimes complicated relationship between Native and Jewish peoples, The Cost of Free Land, Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance is about an area in the West originally inhabited by the Lakota, and given to Jewish settlers, called “Jew Flats”.
There is a television series about a little known aspect of the intersection of Native American & Jewish histories, adoption of Native kids by Jewish families in the “‘60’s scoop’”. Here’s another article about the series.
Please consider signing a petition to get the Federal movement to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. Here is an article written by a Native woman explaining why this is important.
An article defining rematriation and an example of that in Massachusetts.
As time has passed, and I am now putting out my own shingle, teaching through my website instead of just via other organizations, I can take the restitution to another level. In addition to continuing to share out these resources, each each class taught through this site, will have funds set aside for tzedakah towards land back to Native stewardship. On the topic of ethical speech/action, it's always important that people claiming to pass along your money are clear, are they talking about proceeds or profits? Profits are an easily manipulatable metric. For example, if I say a cost of the business is my million dollar salary, and that's subtracted from the total of the 1 million and 1 dollars I bring in, then my profit is a dollar and what sounded like a good size contribution, 10%, becomes .10.
The policy for Balebuste Botanicals is this; every class you register for, 10% of the gross class fee will go to tzedakah* to be split evenly between a Native Californian and a Jewish organization. 5% of the gross class fee will go to Segorea Te Land Trust. Thank you for helping me generate funds to pay Shuumi. Another 5% will go to the Jewish community, to the Jewish Herbalist Network. This is a subset of the Jewish Farmer Network which shares this beautiful vision "We are building a world in which Jewish farmers are not regarded as an oxymoron or a curiosity, but rather, as valued community members with a unique connection to Judaism's ancient technologies for building a more just and regenerative food system for all. We envision a world in which all Jewish individuals and communities have access to farms and gardens that connect them to both the agricultural roots of Judaism and the timeless food justice principles contained therein. We envision a world in which any Jewish individual with the desire to both live a land-based life and be a part of Jewish community life has the technical, economic, social, and cultural resources to do so." Thank you for helping me generate funds to support this vision.
I thought about how many times Native Americans have received lovely words from non-Native people that were empty and broken promises. So my next step was to compile resources, specifically for Jewish people, to learn more about the relationship between Native and Jewish communities. Below I share these with you and encourage you to share these freely, in classes you might teach or whatever methods are right for you.
A tribal land map, to understand who the Native groups are and were in the land you live on.
A writing to guide us, titled How to Come Correct, written by the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. This book may deepen our understanding of the sometimes complicated relationship between Native and Jewish peoples, The Cost of Free Land, Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance is about an area in the West originally inhabited by the Lakota, and given to Jewish settlers, called “Jew Flats”.
There is a television series about a little known aspect of the intersection of Native American & Jewish histories, adoption of Native kids by Jewish families in the “‘60’s scoop’”. Here’s another article about the series.
Please consider signing a petition to get the Federal movement to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. Here is an article written by a Native woman explaining why this is important.
An article defining rematriation and an example of that in Massachusetts.
As time has passed, and I am now putting out my own shingle, teaching through my website instead of just via other organizations, I can take the restitution to another level. In addition to continuing to share out these resources, each each class taught through this site, will have funds set aside for tzedakah towards land back to Native stewardship. On the topic of ethical speech/action, it's always important that people claiming to pass along your money are clear, are they talking about proceeds or profits? Profits are an easily manipulatable metric. For example, if I say a cost of the business is my million dollar salary, and that's subtracted from the total of the 1 million and 1 dollars I bring in, then my profit is a dollar and what sounded like a good size contribution, 10%, becomes .10.
The policy for Balebuste Botanicals is this; every class you register for, 10% of the gross class fee will go to tzedakah* to be split evenly between a Native Californian and a Jewish organization. 5% of the gross class fee will go to Segorea Te Land Trust. Thank you for helping me generate funds to pay Shuumi. Another 5% will go to the Jewish community, to the Jewish Herbalist Network. This is a subset of the Jewish Farmer Network which shares this beautiful vision "We are building a world in which Jewish farmers are not regarded as an oxymoron or a curiosity, but rather, as valued community members with a unique connection to Judaism's ancient technologies for building a more just and regenerative food system for all. We envision a world in which all Jewish individuals and communities have access to farms and gardens that connect them to both the agricultural roots of Judaism and the timeless food justice principles contained therein. We envision a world in which any Jewish individual with the desire to both live a land-based life and be a part of Jewish community life has the technical, economic, social, and cultural resources to do so." Thank you for helping me generate funds to support this vision.
*Tzedakah is often defined in English as "charity". Terrible translation! Charity conjures images like the lyrics Billie Holiday penned with her Jewish co-writer Arthur Herzog Jr., in "God Bless the Child",
"Rich relations give crusts of bread and such, You can help yourself, but don't take too much."
Here's my particular interpretation and translation of tzedakah, which is similar to the standard one, but perhaps also a bit particular to me. The root of the word tzedakah in Hebrew is "wisdom", and refers to the wisdom of understanding the interconnectedness of all people. Subsequently, it means the resources you give to others in recognition of that reality. It's an obligation for the spiritual health of the individual to both give tzedakah when they can, and receive it when they need it, while also keeping the community healthy by circulating resources.
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