Teva Learning Alliance
The Teva Learning Alliance is a Jewish-based environmental education 501 non-profit organization that teaches about Judaism and the environment at Jewish day schools, summer camps and Hebrew schools. It is the only full-time year-round program providing innovative, experiential Jewish and nature-based education.
History and mission
The Teva Learning Center was founded in 1994 by and is based at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center and Surprise Lake Camp.The Teva Learning Center seeks "to renew the ecological wisdom inherent in Judaism" by "immersing participants in the natural world."
Its director, Nili Simhai, won the 2009 Covenant Foundation award for Excellence in Jewish Education. In 2014, Teva and the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center merged with the Jewish environmental organization Hazon.
Programs
The Teva Learning Center is a Jewish education group which engages in environmental education and activism through the context of Judaism. Teva's education centers on the preservation of the environment from a Jewish point of view. Teva frequently teaches children in Jewish day schools teaches as well as synagogues, camps and youth groups. Teva provides a hands-on approach to environmental education.Bring It Back To Our School
Teva provides workshops on the environment and outdoor experiences along the East Coast at 45 different schools working with about 4,000 students annually.Part of this is teaching students that they are Shomrei Adamah :
Shomrei Adamah, is for fifth- and sixth-grade day-school students who visit a retreat center for four days and make a 'brit adamah,' or covenant with the earth, to engage in environmental activity. The Center also runs a program for junior-high students, Achdoot, in which the teens camp in the wilderness, usually a state campground.
In June 2009, students from the Solomon Schechter Day School of Raritan Valley in New Jersey were presented with the 'Kids for Clean Communities Award' for the recycling program they developed at their school after attending the Teva program.