Shlomo carves a pen in his woodworking studio.

The date: Dec. 5, 2006. The place: Cocopah Nation Indian Reservation in Yuma, Ariz. One-hundred fifty-five Native Americans and one Chasidic Jew converged for the National Wildlife Foundation’s Tribal Land Climate Change Conference. Rabbi Shmuel Simenowitz, director of Project Ya’aleh V’Yavo, a Jewish environmental non-profit, had been asked to participate in this conference by a Native American who had once heard him speak.

Rabbi Simenowitz was deeply affected by what he saw and heard at the conference. When he arrived home, he recounted to his family the existential challenges faced by the Native American participants and their struggles to achieve energy independence by utilizing the abundant natural resources, such as sun and wind, found on tribal lands. Sadly, Native Americans lack the financial resources to accomplish energy independence.

Rabbi Simenowitz’s son, Shlomo, was 12 at the time of the conference. He was struck by the similarities between the Native American wisdom and the Chasidic teachings he had grown up with—a respect for one’s elders and traditions and a reverence for God’s creations and their holiness.

At the time, Shlomo was studying for his bar mitzvah. In his spare time, he indulged in his other passion—woodworking. Growing up on a farm in rural Vermont, Shlomo had more opportunities than most boys his age to swing a hammer and make sawdust. He even spent a summer timber-framing his family’s new sugarhouse and synagogue.

One day he was in a tool store and saw a demonstration of woodturning, the process of mounting a piece of wood on a spinning lathe and carving it with sharp chisels. He decided to try it out, and after some playing around, he found he had a real knack for it. As he reflected on his upcoming bar mitzvah, Shlomo thought it was important for the Native Americans his father had befriended to pursue alternative-energy sources so they wouldn’t be seduced into exploiting the coal that lays beneath tribal holdings.

He decided to take his bar mitzvah money and start an environmentally sustainable business that would make a difference. He would sell his hand-crafted wooden items to help fund tribal sustainable-energy initiatives. He came up with the name “Maple with a Mission,” bought some serious tools for himself and started doing some research. He found that wood-turners make their best money on pens. After practicing on some cheaper kits, he sold his first pen for $15. When he started to get good at it, the prices started to rise, and, before he knew it, he was getting more than $100 for some of his higher-end pens! He’s since raised hundreds of dollars not only for Native American energy initiatives, but for local B’nai Tzedek teen philanthropy projects as well.

Shlomo decided to promote the sustainable component of Maple with a Mission’s goal by using local, sustainable woods mainly from his farm in Vermont and the woods in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Occasionally he’ll also use responsibly harvested Jerusalem olive wood on some of his high-end matched wedding sets. But when Shlomo’s monthly wood magazines arrive in the mail, he drools over the exquisite, exotic tropical hard woods that are harvested to make room for cattle grazing. Even though he’s intrigued by these unique woods, he knows he has a responsibility to this planet and that importing woods from halfway across the world leaves quite a massive carbon footprint.

This dilemma hit home when it was time to make a yad (Torah pointer) to use at his bar mitzvah. He was resigned to using local woods instead of the exotics he coveted. But one lucky day, Shlomo’s father got a package in the mail containing exotic wooden pegs for use in timber frames. Shlomo threw one on the lathe and turned a magnificent tigerwood yad, which he still uses. Another time he recycled an old piece of furniture that was headed for the landfill. He cleaned it up and discovered it was made of jatoba, a dense tropical rainforest wood, from which he has since made dozens of beautiful pens.

People often wonder, “With all the problems in the world, what can I do to make a difference?” Shlomo, who I’m proud to say is my kid brother, seems to have found that perfect balance of taking a hobby he’s passionate about and using it to fuel the engine of social change. You can even check out some of his “cutting edge” work at maplewithamission.com.

Tova Simenowitz grew up as a religious Jew on a farm in rural Vermont. She enjoys reading, writing, farming, tikkun olam, working with children, tutoring and teaching, environmentalism, learning and just being Jewish. She’s also the president of the JVibe Teen Advisory Board.