Jewish Community Garden

Robert Saligman Middle School, Melrose Park, PA
Jewish, Conservative Movement

Robert Saligman Middle School is part of a larger educational community, the Perelman Jewish Day School. The campus is shared not only with the other Perelman schools (a Jewish nursery school, day school and high school) but is also the home of Gratz College and the Auerbach Central Agency for Jewish Education, institutions which train thousands of Jewish educators.

This center of learning and growth was ideally suited to be the pilot site for a Jewish Community Garden (as part of the Teva Learning Center’s Alumot Project), planting seeds of environmental stewardship not just in the middle school children, but also in the students and educators who observe them nurturing the land. Students have participated in seed selection, garden design and the construction of the garden itself. Garden coordinator Nati Passow, from the Teva Learning Center, has worked with the students to examine such concepts as local food systems, organic versus conventional agriculture, and the connections between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot to the natural cycles of the seasons.

The garden reflects components of Jewish practice that are rooted in our connection to the earth. The students planted a fragrant herb garden, which produces the contents for use in the Havdalah spice box -- a sensual reminder of the sweetness of Shabbat -- used in the ceremony that concludes the Sabbath. A flower garden is comprised of plants from the countries that helped in saving Jews during the Holocaust -- the blooms are gathered to mark Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

On the last day of school in the spring of 2004, the students gathered their first harvest, sharing the fruits of their labor with classmates. According to Nati Passow, “The students were amazed that such delicious food could be grown in the small courtyard garden without harmful chemical fertilizers or pesticides.”

The garden has been the impetus for learning opportunities in the larger campus community. Passow has worked with the Early Childhood Education consultant for ACAJE to provide a gardening workshop for educators from the larger Philadelphia area. Passow concludes, “The garden has generated new interest in physically connecting with the earth; a process that is essential as we encourage people to become stewards, rather than simply users of creation.”

Contact Person: Nati Passow at nati@tevacenter.org

Organizational website: www.pjds.org