Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Heaven on Earth: Allan Berkowitz is the new head of an environmental group that teaches children about nature and how to protect it. These stuffed creatures are used as educational tools for the students.
God's Green Earth
For Rabbi Berkowitz, "Protect the earth" is something like a commandment
By Susan Wiedmann
It seems as if Willow Glen resident Allan Berkowitz hasn't met a nonprofit cause to which he could say no. Most recently, on Aug. 1, he became the new executive director of Environmental Volunteers (EV), a Palo Alto-based nonprofit organization that teaches 10,000 children a year about nature. Berkowitz is an ordained rabbi who brings a wealth of knowledge to EV, along with an impressive nonprofit background. He has spent much of his adult life assisting people in need.
"I have a passion for doing what I can to make the world a better place," Berkowitz said. "It's one of the reasons I went into the rabbinate, and it's the main reason that I've stayed in the nonprofit world."
That passion was evident when he was the rabbi at Willow Glen's Congregation Sinai Synagogue from 1985-97. The position required a major commitment, but he still found time to take part in several vital community programs, often taking on a time-consuming leadership role in projects such as the Community Food Bank.
"The genesis of [the food bank] was when a couple of congregants came to me and told me there wasn't a lot they could do about hunger around the world, other than writing a check--but they wanted to do something locally and asked for my help," he said.
He wound up becoming the food bank's director.
Berkowitz was also on the founding board of directors of the multidenominational San Jose International Airport Chaplaincy, which aids travelers in times of personal crisis. In addition, he served as its Rabbinic representative for approximately 18 months.
Other nonprofit projects in which he was involved included the San Jose Community Peace Corps, comprised of a few volunteers, including Berkowitz, who were assigned projects to help community members. He was also a liaison for the Rotating Homeless Shelter Program and a member of both the clergy advisory panel for the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors' Child Abuse Council and the Homeless and Emergency Assistance Committee for the United Way of Santa Clara. Additionally, he managed to find time to become a permanent member of the Medical Ethics Committee for Santa Teresa Hospital.
Berkowitz sees close similarities in the daily responsibilities of religious and nonprofit executives, and is confident of his future success at EV.
"If you think about what a pastor does, in addition to the ritual pieces and the religious education, we manage staff, we fundraise and we develop programs," he said. "We do all of the things that an executive director of the nonprofit world does. In that sense, it's not that big of a leap."
Even though he does not have a science degree, Berkowitz is knowledgeable about important environmental values, including those that date back thousands of years.
"The Torah is an early radical document in support of environmental protection," he said.
Berkowitz explained that, according to the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), the Sabbath is not only a time for individuals to rest, but it is also a one-day-a-week opportunity to give the land a break. Even backyard gardening is prohibited on the Sabbath. In ancient Israel, the Torah also required farmers to rest their land every seven years. Modern farmers have only recently relearned the necessity of rotating crops to avoid depleting the soil of its precious nutrients.
"Another ancient Jewish value forbids wanton destruction of anything, and it originates with nature. I can't pick up an ax and chop down a tree because I am angry and I need to get my energy out," Berkowitz said. Even in time of war, he added, the Torah prohibited the destruction of the enemy's fruit trees, out of respect for future generations.
One of his favorite environmental teachings is from the Talmud.
"It says if you're planting a tree and the Messiah arrives, finish planting the tree before you go out to greet the Messiah. It really speaks about nature and environment as a core belief," he said.
Born in Brooklyn, Berkowitz grew up in Los Angeles. After high school, he spent a year in Israel, living in a kibbutz, combining studies with travel and making lifelong friends. It was an experience that, he admits, changed him. He went home to Los Angeles, enrolled at UCLA, but wanted to be back in Israel.
"One day I boldly announced I was moving back to Israel and going to college. I figured my folks would either say okay, we'll support that, or they would say no, we won't support that, in which case I would have shrugged my shoulders and said I guess I can't do that," Berkowitz said, smiling at the memory.
To his surprise, they encouraged him to make the change. In 1980 he received a bachelor's degree in education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It was while still living in Israel that he faced a dilemma. He was very interested in going to rabbinical school but was equally interested in attending graduate school for a master's degree in education. He decided to apply to both, figuring that only one would accept him.
But both did. Unsure of what to do, Berkowitz took his father's advice. He attended the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, full time, for five years and took only a class or two each semester towards his master's degree at Columbia Teachers College, two blocks away. In 1985 he received his master's degree in instructional (multimedia) technology, was ordained as a rabbi and moved to Willow Glen to begin his rabbinical work.
Berkowitz stepped down from the rabbinical position in 1997. He said he needed to devote more time to his "mini-Brady bunch," comprised of his wife Mindy, his sons, Elie, 14, and Eitan, 12, from his first marriage, and Mindy's daughters, Rebecca, 16, and Abigail, 13, from her former marriage. That year he became the executive director of Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, a mental health clinic and training organization. But he wanted to get back to a more grassroots organization, so he recently applied for the vacant executive director position at EV.
"Environmental Volunteers is one of the best nonprofit organizations I have ever come across," Berkowitz said emphatically, "and I have obviously come across a lot of organizations."
He said he is very impressed by the commitment of the six staff members and the 130 volunteer docents, and their ability to work so well as a team. All staff members must go through EV's training program, and Berkowitz said he is looking forward to becoming certified as an environmental volunteer and leading some field trips.
"Allen is just the perfect person for the job," said Nancy Rubin, Chair of the EV board of trustees that appointed him. "He is passionate about the idea of giving children stewardship of the environment."
EV was founded in 1972 by a small group of women at a time when San Francisco Bay was especially polluted from storm drain runoff and sewage discharge. The women wanted to teach school children to be environmentally responsible and to take that knowledge into their adult lives.
To date, about 260,000 elementary and middle school students have benefited from the workshops and nature hikes, which are offered in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The trained volunteers range in age from high school students to senior citizens.
The workshops are designed to allow small groups of children to experience hands-on lessons about nature with the help of one volunteer per group. The children's teachers can choose from eight programs: Baylands Ecology Program; Foothill Ecology Program; Nature in Your Neighborhood Program; Marine Ecology Program; Earthquake Geology and Preparedness; All About Birds; Water Science and Conservation; and Early California Indian Life: An Environmental Focus. If the school can afford a field trip on a subsequent day, the children also get to see the natural settings of the subjects they studied, reinforcing the lessons learned.
San Jose State University certifies EV's training program, enabling college students to receive credit for time spent volunteering for EV. Karen Meisenheimer, EV's education director, is developing curricula for a 150-hour UC-Santa Cruz Extension program, which will earn elementary school teachers an integrated environmental education certificate.
Berkowitz wants to explore new ways to deliver natural science education to adults. One of his ideas involves EV setting up an "elder hostel" program. Such programs exist elsewhere and attract mature individuals who want to travel to fascinating tourist locations and to study while there.
"It's learning for the sake of learning, which is what EV is all about," he said exuberantly. "We live in one of the top tourist spots in the country, in an environmentally rich area. We've got mountains, we've got oceans, we've got the Mendocino coast, and we've got Monterey and Carmel. What about offering a one-week elder hostel program on environmental studies, packaged with touring this wonderful area?"
It seems Berkowitz' passion is showing, yet again.
For further information on Environmental Volunteers, visit www.evols.org or call 650.961.0545.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
