movement, and Ahad Ha'am, may be seen as forerunners of Jewish environmentalism, though those these trends were not always in line with an explicitly Jewish environmentalist understanding. The pioneers of environmentalism in the North American Jewish community were often deeply committed to vegetarianism. (This trend can still be found in newer organizations like the Shamayim Va'aretz Institute and Farm Forward. ) Notable among the early innovators is Richard Schwartz, who published Judaism and Vegetarianism in 1982, followed by Judaism and Global Survival in 1984. As with most things Jewish, a large part of Jewish environmental work has consisted of investing Jewish practice with ecological meaning through sermons, teachings, and books. Two early writers were Eric Freudenstein and Rabbi Everett Gendler, who also influenced a great many activists and teachers during this period through his teaching and his farming. Rabbi Arthur Waskow has been one of the leaders in this area of exploration, starting with his 1982 work The Seasons of Our Joy: A Modern Guide to the Jewish Holidays, which follows the liturgical calendar through the changes in the earth. (Waskow's work was part of a trend now called Jewish Renewal, which involved uniting values associated with 1960s or New Age spiritual countercultures with Jewish practice.) In the same year, David Ehrenfeld and Rabbi Gerry Serotta at Rutgers University organized the first-ever Jewish Environmental Conference. In 1983, Waskow founded the Shalom Center, which over time turned its energy from nuclear weapons to the environment. The Shalom Center is now one of the primary organizations in North America and the world that promulgates an activist ecological understanding of Judaism. In 1988, Shomrei Adamah ("Guardians of the Earth") was formed as the first national Jewish organization devoted to environmental issues. Founded by Ellen Bernstein in Philadelphia, Shomrei Adamah produced guides to Judaism and the environment such as Let the Earth Teach You Torah (1992), which was one of the works that initiated the field of Jewish environmental education. Shomrei Adamah captured the imaginations of environmentally concerned Jews around North America and quickly supplanted groups such as L'OLAM in New York City on the national level. However, even as regional groups like Shomrei Adamah of Greater Washington, DC (founded in 1990) sprung up to do grassroots organizing, the national organization pulled away from involvement with regional groups. Later, other regional groups like the Northwest Jewish Environmental Project in Seattle (NWJEP or NJEP), founded