Yiddish Farm

Jews are farming today.  Jews care about the environment.  That's old news.  The Jewish Farm School has been farming since 2006.  Hazon, the premier Jewish environmental organization, has been educating and bike riding for longer.

But now comes the Yiddish Farm where you can not only farm in a Jewish tradition, but speak and learn Yiddish at the same time.  It is bringing together Jews from all walks of life.  And it's quite a spin on the organic farm trend in our culture.

Naftali Ejdelman, along with Yisroel Bass, founded the Yiddish farm a couple of years ago.  This year they are farming the land in Goshen, New York, along with about 10 other full time residents.    We are fortunate to personally know Naftali, and are thrilled for the coverage about Yiddish Farm in this week's Forward.

Now what about this music video filmed there?

Shake Sugaree and how nice it is to be with your brothers and sisters, including Matisyahu

Not to be confused with (fellow MOT) Danny Meyer's Shake Shack (no doubt:  treif and not kosher, but you can learn how to make their Shack Burger at home), tonight, in memory of Jerry Garcia (he died 15 years ago, August 9, 1995) we were listening to the Dead's Shake Sugaree.




 I got to thinking how the Dead sang about themes such as American love, loss, and heartbreak, and how this song is connected deep deep within our roots.

Elizabeth Cotten wrote the original Shake Sugaree. This woman knew how to sing and write the blues.  She was a real southern church-goin' mama. 

Here is a nice blog about Elizabeth Cotten.
She must've been connected in some way to the generations of African American women who followed the drinking gourd and had wisdom from their mamas and just by being connected to the earth.

Speaking of being connected to the earth, The Topsy Turvy Bus,

we have heard, plans to be in the lots for the 8/17/10 Phish show at Jones Beach theater.  This will be a great time to learn what the Jewish Climate Change Campaign Tour was all about.  Or maybe what Teva Learning Center is all about (shh...this visit to enlighten Jews and the world about caring for the earth is officially off the books and not really a Teva event...I mean, where is the bus even to be found on the home page?  That's another story...)  We could always chat with the folks about Eden Village Camp.  Maybe we could give each other a hug.  Or be nice.  Or just Speak Nicely. 


Here's a little history of the bus, with an interivew with Ben Cohen from Ben & Jerry's, at the end.



Or maybe, before the show, we can hang out in front of the bus and sing a good old fashioned hinay matov, arm in arm, camp-style.



Now if we could only beat-box like Matisyahu, we'd be golden..