Judaism and environmentalism intersect on many levels. The natural world plays a central role in Jewish law, literature, and liturgical and other practices. Within the arena of Jewish thought, beliefs vary widely about the human relation to the environment. Jewish law and the environment In Jewish law (halakhah), ecological concerns are reflected in Biblical protection for fruit trees, rules in the Mishnah against harming the public domain, Talmudic debate over noise and smoke damages, and contemporary responsa on agricultural pollution. In Conservative Judaism, a new initiative has adopted ecokashrut ideas begun in the 1970s. In addition, Jewish activists have recruited principles of halakhah for environmental purposes, such as the injunction against unnecessary destruction, known as bal tashkhit. The rule of tza'ar ba'alei hayyim is a restriction on cruelty to animals. Some prophetic traditions speak of societal moral decadence causing an environmental disaster. Other Jewish beliefs about the environment Generally speaking, the Bible and rabbinic tradition have put Judaism primarily on an anthropocentric trajectory, but creation-centered or eco-centric interpretations of Judaism can also be found throughout Jewish history, many theologians regard the land as a primary partner of Jewish covenant, and Judaism and especially the practices described in the Torah may be regarded as the expression of a fully indigenous and land- or earth-centered tradition. In Genesis, too, God instructs humanity to hold dominion over nature, but this may be interpreted in terms of stewardship as well. Eco-centric discussions of Judaism can be found in the work of such modern scholars and rabbis as Arthur Green, Arthur Waskow, Eilon Schwartz, Lynn Gottlieb, Mike Comins, Ellen Bernstein, and David Mevorach Seidenberg. Jewish environmentalism The Jewish environmental movement has developed tracks in North America and in Israel. In North America it was in many ways motivated by the revival of back-to-the-land values in the sixties and seventies. However, whereas for the majority of the counter-culture movement these values were an expression of 1960's radicalism, for Jews there was the additional and powerful influence of Zionist idealism, which since its inception also emphasized returning to the land. Especially after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, which generated a huge outpouring of sympathy and identification with Israel among unaffiliated Jews, the motif of return to the land became a bridge that connected progressive Jewish activists with the Jewish community from which they were often estranged. In Israel various initiatives, movements, and thinkers, like the JNF, the kibbutz