Every Thursday, Ellen Bernstein drives two hours from her home in Northampton, Mass., to Hebrew College for the equivalent of a week's worth of class, meetings and business. An MAJS student and a grants consultant for the College known for her pioneering work in Judaism and ecology and Jewish outreach, Bernstein considered Hebrew College a proverbial oasis in the desert when she moved from Philadelphia to Northampton in 2003.

"There aren't many Jewish institutions in America on the cutting edge of Jewish renaissance work-that's where I want to place myself," she says. "I believe in the College's commitment to transdenominationalism. I think that its entrepreneurial endeavors have the potential to invigorate-even revolutionize -Jewish life in America."

The author of The Splendor of Creation: A Biblical Ecology (Pilgrim Press, 2005 ), Bernstein merged her twin passions of Judaism and ecology when she founded the first national Jewish environmental organization in 1988, Shomrei Adamah (Keepers of the Earth). "I've always felt that the ecological dimension of Judaism is a lost aspect of Jewish culture," she says.

Photo by PETER TOBIA

Bernstein's synthesis of the Bible and nature began during her undergraduate years at University of California, Berkeley in the 1970s. Growing up in an assimilated Jewish family in Haverhill, Mass., she developed a love of nature that prompted her to major in Conservation of Natural Resources. Her growing concern for the environment, after seeing it consumed and destroyed, led her on a spiritual path. Studying the Bible, she was amazed at its inherent reverence for nature.

"Genesis I is the Western world's first environmental epic," she says. "The Bible can help give nature a face and can help engage readers in an ecological ethic." Developing an authentic religious language by which Jewish leaders could understand and convey ecological ideas in Jewish terms became her goal.

After graduating, she ran wilderness river trips in northern California with the aim to instill in others a love for nature. "We can't destroy something we love," she says. When she moved to Philadelphia in the early 1980s, her friends encouraged her to take the leap into organized Jewish life, and she founded Shomrei Adamah. Since then she has remained committed to Jewish life, both personally and professionally, and has launched several Jewish initiatives including a Jewish arts salon and Friday Night Alive-a musical Friday night service that traveled to Philadelphia synagogues to engage Jews who ordinarily did not attend service.

Now that The Splendor of Creation-a 15-year project-is published, Bernstein is delving more deeply into studies at Hebrew College and assisting the College in development e¤orts. She is delighted to have the opportunity to work with old friends and colleagues as well as new ones who have also gravitated to the College. "There is a kind of intimacy here," she remarks. "This place is full of fantastic people."

Ellen Bernstein will be speaking on The Splendor of Creation at Hebrew College on Sunday, April 2 at 7 p.m.

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