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.

I arrived at my base camp in Colorado with an open mind and eagerness on the first day of a summer program called PanimWorks, a two-week summer program that brings Jewish teens into direct contact with Native Americans through community service. Participants do work to help improve the conditions and lives of their hosts and learn about Native American culture. The experience is framed through the lenses of Jewish values, social activism and advocacy.