Cringe. Chanukah should be celebrated, not co-opted:
For centuries, Chanukah has brought warmth and light to Jewish homes at the darkest time of the year. Now two Jewish organizations are using the eight-day festival to warn about too much warmth and light.
The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs are teaming up this Chanukah for a nationwide education and advocacy campaign about global warming and energy conservation.
Both groups want to shed light on the global warming problem — but a more energy-efficient light.
The bright idea at the center of their effort this Chanukah, which begins Dec. 15, is to encourage Jewish institutions to switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs, which consume 75 percent less energy.
Apparently unable to choose among clever Jewish light references, the campaign is known both as “A Light Among the Nations” and “How Many Jews Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?”
COEJL Executive Director Barbara Lerman-Golomb is hoping that installing the bulbs will turn the public on to the need for greater energy conservation.
“The idea behind it is that we can start with a simple action that will lead to larger actions that we can take,” Lerman-Golomb said.
On Chanukah we specifically kindle lights that we are not going to make use of. Avoid turning off lights when you leave the room.
More than 350 Jewish institutions have signed on, and COEJL’s Web site is maintaining a running tally of how many bulbs have been sold and how much carbon dioxide has been kept from the atmosphere as a result.
“Chanukah is a time when we think about the Maccabees, a small group of people affecting a larger group,” Lerman-Golomb said. “In advocating switching to CFLs, we want to motivate the Jewish community to take this small act of tikkun olam which will have a huge impact.” [...]
We also emphasize using oil on the winter holiday of Chanukah. Obviously we should drill for oil in ANWR.
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