| Eating for the FutureMember Project Spotlight Baltimore Hebrew Congregation's Sukkot Garden  | Jenni Gafur and her son show off their beautiful garden produce. |
Baltimore Hebrew Congregation is the oldest Reform Jewish congregation in the Baltimore area dating back to 1830. As Reform Jews, congregants believe they are God’s partners in improving the world. Tikkun olam — repairing the world — is a hallmark of Reform Judaism. Social Action has always been an important part of Baltimore Hebrew and in 2008, the congregation decided to focus their social justice activities on improving the environment and ending global warming and created the “Green Team”.
 | | Hard Work! Gardeners and congregants Ruth Crystal, Larry Kloze, Sheri Land, Becky Gutin, and Cindy Richard prepare the beds |
Sukkot is the annual Jewish festival of giving thanks for a bountiful fall harvest and commemorating the forty years of Jewish wandering in the desert after Sinai. At Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, members construct and decorate at least five sukkahs, or frail huts, that symbolize the frail huts in which the Israelites lived during their forty years of wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt.  | | Larry Kloze and 2 AmeriCorps volunteers helped with the tilling |
These huts are beautifully decorated with fruits and vegetables that symbolize the fall harvest. This year, the sukkahs were decorated with fruits and vegetables grown in Baltimore Hebrew's garden. This helped to build a connection between growing these crops and the harvest holiday in an urban culture when most people think of their produce as coming shrink-wrapped from the supermarket.
 | Rabbi Andy Busch and congregants at Sukkot service in our sanctuary with many of the veggies from the garden. |
The Sukkot celebration began on October 2nd with songs and prayers in the garden as the children harvested the last few crops for the sukkah in the sanctuary. There was a procession from the garden to the sanctuary led by young children and their parents carrying the last of the crop to decorate the sukkah.
 | Vicki Kloze nurturing the corn. |
It is part of Jewish teaching to leave the corners of fields for those without food to glean. Because the garden is set in an area that does not lean itself to gleaning (behind a locked fence), the Green Team donated non-perishable, nutritious food to a local pantry.
 | Shelly Lohmann gathers produce to decorate the sukkahs |
Ruth Crystal, garden project manager, told the BFFP that their garden was a great success and one which they hope becomes an annual project. They may even plant horseradish in 2010 so they can have a ritual collecting of it for Passover. The BFFP is so pleased to have been able to provide financial support for this most worthy effort!
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