In this season, we are sharing the recordings of a six part speaker series called Acting for Change, Creating Justice produced by Ekar Farms, an earth-based Jewish urban farm in Denver, CO. We will look at how to use ancient Jewish traditions, like Shmita, to catalyze conversations that inspire individual and collective actions to work towards justice. Each episode will have a new speaker to explore the interwoven themes of Judaism, connection to land, and modern social justice movements. We hope this series will inspire you to take action on some of these issues during the upcoming Shmita Year. You can learn more about this series and other programs at www.ekarfarm.org/shmita. This series is produced in partnership with the Shmita Project. The Shmita Project is working to expand awareness about the biblical Sabbatical tradition, and to bring the values of this practice to life today to support healthier, more sustainable Jewish communities. Learn more at www.shmitaproject.org.

Please enjoy this second episode, featuring co-hosts Hannah Perez-Postman and Adam Brock and their guest speakers, Greg Watson of the Schumacher Institute for a New Economics and Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster of T'ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. This hour long conversation will be a discussion of economic justice through the lens of Shmita, during which our guests will speak about what brought them to their work as activists and what we all can do to contribute and organize for a more economically just, and equitable society.

Featured Guests:

Greg Watson, Director of Policy and Systems Design at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics.

His work currently focuses on community food systems and the dynamics between local and geo-economic systems. Watson has spent nearly 40 years learning to understand systems thinking as inspired by Buckminster Fuller and to apply that understanding to achieve a just and sustainable world.

Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, Deputy Director, T’ruah.

Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster has spent nearly fourteen years at T'ruah: The Rabbinical Call for Human Rights, most recently as Deputy Director. At T'ruah, she has been the lead strategist on T’ruah’s human rights campaigns and heads the organizing and training of more than 2,000 rabbis and cantors. Rachel is the original #tomatorabbi, spearheading T’ruah’s critical partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida, and leads Jewish community in worker-led campaigns for corporate accountability.