How to Go Green with Yehudit Refson of Neve Yerushalayim

Some people are born with a passion deeply embedded in them. They know from when they’re children what they’re drawn to and what they want to do with their lives in some capacity. For Yehudit Refson, that pull was — and still is — nature.

Yehudit grew up in Monsey, New York, and always felt connected to the flora around her. “I was the one who knew where all the wild raspberries grew,” she says. “I’d pick them with my cousins and then my aunt would make raspberry pie out of them.”

After she got married, she made aliyah (her husband is Israeli) and landed in Nachlaot, a neighborhood in central Yerushalayim. “It has the best energy,” she explains. But, unfortunately, it doesn’t have much green space. “The closest greenery was Gan Sacher [a public park], which you have to walk 10 minutes to get to and then share your blade of grass with a million strangers.” 

That didn’t stop Yehudit from doing what she could with the space she had. “I was getting desperate. So, one day, I brought an old bathtub up to the porch and made a garden inside of it,” she shares. “My kids and I would plant veggies there. We filled up every inch of the porch with plants, and all the windows had flowers.”

The family — she’s a mother of eight — lived there for more than 20 years and then, eventually, decided it was time for the next step. Initially, they were looking into moving to a moshav (an agricultural community), but then they got the opportunity to move onto the campus at Neve Yerushalayim, a seminary for girls in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem. Her father-in-law, Rabbi Dovid Refson, founded the school, and her husband, Rabbi Yonah Aryeh Refson, was teaching there.

Yehudit’s work with Neve actually began before they moved — five years ago. Yehudit runs parenting groups, yet also has a passion for art. Around that time, she felt like she needed a place outside her home to work on her art, so her father-in-law let her use a room at Neve. She totally redid the space — painted it and built furniture from old scraps she found around campus.  

Her father-in-law saw how talented she was and insisted she start running art programs for the girls at Neve. “That’s how I got onto campus,” she explains. “We’ve made candles, soap, we’ve built our own canvases and made art to go up around the walls in all of the buildings. That made me feel so connected to Neve and then I looked around and realized there was greenery and land all over, which is what I was missing. So, we decided to come stay.”

Her husband now works with his father as she continues to teach art and turn the Neve campus into an eco-friendly haven. “We want to make Neve as green as possible,” she shares. “That’s my passion and I think it’s important. I want to teach everyone about it.” 

Yehudit made a 10-year go-green plan five years ago when she started her art programming and has stayed on track. The first step was planting an organic vegetable garden. It tripled in size between the first and third years. Then, they added chickens — they now have a flock of 55 — which contribute to the garden by fertilizing the plants and eating insects.

They also have 25 laying hens, which produce around 20 farm-fresh eggs a day — some of which they use for cookouts and some that are actually fed back to the chicks right after they’re born. “I’ll hard boil some of the chicken eggs and feed them to newly hatched chicks,” she explains. “An egg has all the nutrients to sustain a chick’s growth before it hatches and also has everything they need for the first few days afterward.”

After that, Yehudit started a composting program. Neve makes tons of food every day for the students, so instead of the leftovers going to waste, the extra food and vegetable peelings are given to the chickens to eat. “There is no bal tashcit [destroying or wasting] going on, as there are lots of scraps from the 600 students we feed three times a day,” she explains. “We also work with local fruit store owners, who happily save us their leftovers.” Whatever they don’t eat goes back into the Earth. They cover the scraps with wood chips (which the government gives out for free) and make their own compost to fertilize the gardens. 

DID YOU KNOW?
If you layer food scraps (they’re high in nitrogen) with wood chips or dry leaves (which contain mostly carbon compounds) and keep it moist, it will literally cook itself. Yehudit uses a compost thermometer to measure the heat and it gets up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which fertilizes the plants. “One of Hashem’s miracles!”

Everything works in tandem and comes with the goal of leaving the Earth better than they found it. “We try to do things in a permaculture way, which means permanent agriculture,” Yehudit explains. “We look at an ecosystem, like a rain forest, for example, and learn from the interconnection of all the species and how they work together. You try to make as many closed loops as you can, putting things next to each other that work together.”

Yehudit says she’s learned how to do all of this just by taking in bits and pieces over the years, reading and researching. When she doesn’t know how to do something, she outsources. “We have turkeys and quail and are slowly working up to getting bees and goats. The turkeys roam campus freely and eat weeds and bugs. The quails give really healthy eggs, and they’re just cool. Every single part is a crucial connection to help create the best environment long-term.”

Elevating the Physical 

“Judaism is an agricultural-based religion,” she says. “Every chag [festival] has its own connection to the Earth — there’s a special fruit or grain for each one. For example, Rosh Hashanah has the pomegranate and other simanim [symbolic foods eaten to symbolize our hopes for a sweet New Year].” She also explains that when we connect to the ground, we’re getting in touch with our primal source. “Hashem created us from earth,” she shares. “It’s an extremely powerful experience. You can’t even explain how deep it is to touch, use and work with the earth.”

“As a Jewish farmer, there are myriad halachot [Jewish laws] dictating almost every aspect of the process, from when we can eat breakfast — only after we feed the livestock — to the space needed between different species of plants to how to tithe [separate a portion, as designated in the Torah] and more,” she continues. “We’re not just learning Torah, we’re living Torah.”

Yehudit and the girls just finished planting 101 fruit trees on campus. They have an apple orchard, an orange grove, an Israeli forest (meaning trees that are native to the land of Israel) and a shivat haminim (seven species) garden. “Initially, we had a goal of planting 100 trees, which felt like a good number. But then a friend of mine said that the number 100 is finite, like I’m closing myself off,” Yehudit explains. “With 101, we’re starting the next 100 so it’s a different headspace that’s more expansive — now we have even more than 101.”

“We’ve been using the fruit trees at Neve as a learning experience for the girls,” she continues. “The first commandment we got when we came into Israel was to plant fruit trees, so it’s a huge mitzvah. It’s a spiritual experience, especially at Neve, when you’re concentrating on connecting to your roots…I believe if you see things growing, you’re inspired to grow.”

DID YOU KNOW?
There are more than 7,500 varieties of apples in the world. Yehudit researched which ones can grow in Jerusalem (in addition to digging through thousands of varieties of other types of fruit) and got the ones she felt were best for the environment. “Some had such exotic names I had no idea what they were, but we were and are so focused on bringing that diversity on campus.”

The fruit trees help the Neve girls find more meaning in each holiday. This past Rosh Hashanah they picked pomegranates from their pomegranate tree. Then, they juiced the leftover pomegranates and drank the juice at their Sukkot brunch. They picked walnuts and cracked and ate them together. On Chanukah, they picked their own olives and then took them to a local olive press to make oil. “All the girls lit Chanukah lights with their own olive oil,” she says. “It was a really immersive experience.”

By this Rosh Hashanah, they plan to have many simanim ready to pick. They have a fishpond now for doing Tashlich [customary atonement ritual done beside water on Rosh Hashanah] as well and are planning to bring in a beehive for honey. They are also planting hadassim (myrtles), aravot (willows) and lulavim (palms) that they will eventually be able to use on Sukkot for the mitzvah of arbaa minim (the Four Species). “We have etrogim [citrons] now, as well,” she says. “We have four different kinds — the Chazon Ish variety, Chabad, Moroccan and Yemenite. We’re a teaching institution, so we want to show that diversity and be able to go and learn the halachot right outside.”

The next year will be a Shemitta year, which will be a big learning opportunity for both Yehudit and the girls. Shemitta means Sabbatical. During the week, the seventh day is Shabbat, when we rest. So, too, the ground and plants in Israel have a Shemitta year every seventh year, when it’s their turn to rest.

“For six years, we plant and create connections based on what we think is right,” Yehudit explains. “During the seventh year, we let go and watch Hashem make the connections. We see what happens naturally. It’s the year we learn the most.”

During this year, you can’t actively take care of your plants or fruit trees. You can’t mulch, prune, add compost or plant something new. You are allowed to water the plants to keep them from dying. Anything produced by the plants during the year is hefker, or “ownerless,” meaning anyone can come, take and enjoy the fruits.

Yehudit is excited to see how the plants respond during the year. She explains that when the weeds come up, you can learn from each one. “Each weed has a purpose,” she shares. “When we take our ego out of it and just watch, we notice things that we haven’t noticed before. The weeds can tell you what’s missing in the earth — what vitamins and minerals. You might see that something isn’t doing well in the Shemitta year so maybe it’s not in the right place.”

It’s a year of real emuna (faith) and bitachon (trust in G-d), but one with great reward. “It’s a huge zechut [merit] and bracha [blessing],” she explains. “It’s cool to think about Hashem coming to check out your garden. It’s like having the principal stop by to see what you’ve done.”

Going Green Across the Globe

Yehudit has such passion for this project she couldn’t just keep it to herself and those around her. That’s how her YouTube channel and Instagram account, “Watch Neve Go Green,” were born.

She makes videos about the chickens’ lives and how the hen is taking care of her chicks, for example. “There’s a special sound she makes when she lays an egg,” Yehudit explains. She takes viewers on tours around campus and updates them on the goings-on.

The excitement bubbles up from within, and it’s true, Yehudit needs a place to let it out. The Neve girls are grateful that after they leave campus, they can continue to follow what’s going on and check in to see how things they helped with are doing. “The girls will see that the tree they planted is already giving fruit,” she explains.

Yehudit creates the videos vlog-style, so it doesn’t take long, has a natural, casual feel and doesn’t have to be a professional production. She’ll show off all the animals and new plant life. It’s also a great way for the parents of the girls to feel more in touch with their daughter’s experience away from home. “Gardening is a neutral topic,” she explains. “They can enjoy watching without having anything else attached to it.” 

The girls are deeply involved in everything she does. “We have Neve girls who feed the chickens in the morning, clean out the water and take care of them as part of their work-study.”

Yehudit has learned so many lessons from her trials in the garden — both in how to work with nature and others that apply to life. One day, she discovered that slugs had come and decimated her pea and beet plants. “In two nights, there was nothing left,” she shares. This occurred after a month of planting and growing.

These moments are frustrating, but Yehudit doesn’t get down about it. “You win some, you lose some,” she explains. “That’s part of the adventure and it’s part of nature. Just because something like this happens doesn’t mean that you’re not gaining from the experience.” It’s a lesson we can apply to all areas of our lives.

What You Can Do to Make a Difference

Yehudit’s goal is to bring more awareness about taking care of the Earth to anyone who is open to listening. She hopes that through her YouTube and Instagram accounts the Neve girls will stay connected to the Earth after they leave, and anyone else who is interested in going a little more “green” can learn from her exploits. 

Yehudit explains that the Jewish belief is that Hashem created this beautiful world, and we have a job to take care of it. “There is a whole Mishnah — Zera’im, that boys learn in third grade about planting. You learn exactly how you’re allowed to plant and how you’re not. So much of hilchot Shabbat [the laws of Shabbat] relate to working in the field. By learning what you’re not allowed to do then, you learn what you should do the rest of the week.” 

Planting and helping the earth go hand in hand with Judaism. Here, she shares small yet impactful things you can do to get started.

1. PICK ONE THING TO REDUCE

When thinking about the environment, there are so many areas in which one can make a positive change. For example, it’s no secret that an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle can involve using a lot of disposables. Shabbat comes every week and that often involves a lot of cooking, hosting guests and therefore many — MANY — dishes. People often have large families and keeping up with cleaning all the plates and utensils, especially if you don’t have a dishwasher, can just take up too much time and energy.

It’s natural to do whatever you have to do to make things easier on yourself, so this is not to bring up extra guilt. “I do believe if Hashem created plastic, He did it for the Jewish woman on Friday night,” she says. “I think everyone can make their own decision about it, and the first step is just becoming more aware.”

Yehudit actually made her own calculation when it came to plastic usage. She knew it was better for the environment not to use so much and then realized that constantly buying plastic cutlery and plates for Shabbat is actually quite expensive. “It’s cheaper for me to hire a girl to wash my dishes every week,” she shares. 

Yehudit also did a blind taste test and discovered people actually enjoyed the food more when it was served on real plates with real cutlery. “The results were hysterical,” she explains. “When the food was served on real dishes, people complimented it more and felt like the whole experience was better.”

She says all of this from a place of understanding. She knows people are busy today. It’s a fast-paced world and plastic is just convenient a lot of the time. “People today are just trying to survive,” she says. “When you have a lot of kids and work and priorities, plus a Jewish lifestyle, which adds priorities, the environment is one of the lower items that naturally gets pushed out. People might not want to think about it; they don’t want to feel guilty with everything else they have going on.”

Through her own experience, she has learned that just educating yourself a little bit can inspire you to make small changes that end up creating big results. “Even just minimizing your plastic cup usage is something,” she offers. “If you want to use plastic cups, what I’ve done is write my kids’ names on the plastic cups each morning so they each have one cup a day. Instead of taking a new one every time they want to drink something, they can use one instead of 10. Even that small thing is something. It can be done.”

2. JUST START SOMEWHERE

If you want to dive into gardening but are completely overwhelmed, she suggests starting with a plant on your windowsill. “There are only two rules — just start and don’t drown it. Put it in a place where you go often; maybe it’s your kitchen window, for example. Don’t put it in a place that’s hard to get to because you’ll forget. Put it somewhere that’s near water and you’ll have the most luck with it.”

The Jewish world also has many gemachim (an umbrella term referring to any resource set up for the benefit of others) with secondhand clothing, which is a great way to recycle and help the environment while getting new and inexpensive clothing.

At Neve, Yehudit works in the art studio with the students turning old sheets into rugs and old bedside tables into bar chairs or flowerpots. There are so many opportunities when it comes to repurposing.

3. LOOK AROUND LOCALLY 

Awareness is so powerful because once your eyes are open, you start to notice things everywhere. “All of a sudden you realize there’s a farmers market nearby or a nursery down the road,” she says. “Usually in every neighborhood there’s something closer than you think.”

In Judaism, we make brachot (blessings). By thanking Hashem before everything we eat, we create an awareness of where our food comes from. The more aware you are about the source of your food, the more appreciative you can be — the closer you feel to it.

The power of experiencing these opportunities is connecting back to the Earth, as she spoke about above. “Touching the earth is extremely therapeutic,” she says. “If you live in Israel, every blade of grass is holy and has a special angel that’s created to take care of it.” (She’s referring to the statement from Midrash Rabba, Bereishit 10:6, “Said Rabbi Simon: ‘Every single blade of grass has a corresponding ‘mazal’ in the sky that hits it and tells it to grow.’”)

Even if you don’t live in Israel, the impact you can make is great. Supporting local products means not supporting child labor in China and elsewhere, she says. Plus, you’re not just helping others, you’re actually giving yourself a greater sense of purpose and fulfilment. 

Buying locally, whether products or produce, helps you create community and connections. “That’s what permaculture is all about — connection,” she explains. “You’re connecting to people, community and strengthening your sense of belonging.”