Year of the trees, Tu Bishvat. Biblical and rabbinic texts have also been enlisted for prayers about the environment in all the liberal movements, especially in Reform Judaism and Jewish Renewal movements. Perhaps most emblematic of the nexus of Judaism and the environment is the growth of the primary Jewish environmental event to which most Jews have been exposed, the aforementioned Tu biSh'vat seder, often labeled "Jewish Earth Day" and sometimes called tongue-in-cheek "Tree B'Earthday". Falling in the early spring two full moons before Passover, Tu biSh'vat ("the 15th of the month of Sh'vat") generally coincides with the first sap rising in the fruit trees in the land of Israel. Because in rabbinic Judaism this day was labeled the "New Year for the Tree," 17th century mystics created a ritual meal or seder of fruit and nuts for the day that celebrated the "Tree of Life" that sustains the universe. The Jewish National Fund (JNF) applied these motifs to in the 1950s to championing Tu biSh'vat as a day for planting trees in the land of Israel. The history of the seder also sheds light on the development of the Jewish environmental movement. One of the early moments of awakening to environmental issues in the Jewish community came when rabbis and Jewish activists drew on the symbolism of the Jewish National Fund campaigns to create the "Trees for Vietnam" reforestation campaign in 1971 in response to the use of Agent Orange by the US. In 1976, Jonathan Wolf in New York City created and led one of the first modern environmental seders, incorporating liturgy from the Kabbalists with information from Israeli environmental groups like Neot Kedumim ("Ancient Fields," a conservancy group devoted to Biblical species), and Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). By the late-1970s, Jewish groups around the country were innovating rituals for Tu biSh'vat that connected Biblical and rabbinic teachings with material from the Kibbutz movement or JNF and with current environmental concerns. In the 1980s dozens of homemade Tu biSh'vat liturgical books or haggadot modeled after the Passover seder were being used around the country to celebrate trees and to talk about local and national environmental issues, the earth and ecology. See also Derech HaTeva Environmental issues Green Zionism Jewish Veg Jewish vegetarianism Spiritual ecology Stewardship (theology) Earth stewardship References Bibliography Alexander Barzel. Matsaʻ u-matsav: ʻiyunim bi-tefisat ha-ṭevaʻ ba-maḥashavah ha-Yehudit Sifriyat "Helal Ben-Ḥayim". Tel-Aviv: