Prospect Heights Natural Resources Commission
June 23rd, 2026 - 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Live and in-person, Joel Greenberg
"To Life: Jews Exploring Nature"
Renowned author Joel Greenberg returns for a second visit to Nature Speaks to Discuss his new book, "To Life: Jews Exploring Nature".
There have been few if any books on Jews who studied the various facets of natural history. There have certainly been those who have done so in the past and in the current world there are many, but for a host of reasons natural history as a career or serious avocation was much less common in the past.
To Life: Jews Exploring Nature offers a unique exploration of Jewish engagement with nature through compelling biographies of eight selected subjects.
The book
These people manifested different aspects of Jewish identity and made significant contributions to their fields. The accounts place the contributions of this diverse mix of individuals into a richly biographical context that connects the personal with the professional, thus providing insights into their lives and work.
In addition, the scientific and environmental topics addressed will become more accessible to a wider array of readers who are drawn to the personal narratives.
Levi Herb and Lorna with pronghorn 1950.
To Life explores the Jewish relationship with nature by illuminating significant Jewish thinkers who increased in important ways our understanding of various aspects of natural history. In eight compelling biographies, naturalist Joel Greenberg demonstrates the diversity of both Jewish identity and the natural sciences.
Greenberg’s rich biographical sketches spotlight great Jewish scientists who not only made major contributions to the study of the natural world but also led rich and colorful lives: botanist and spy Aaron Aaronsohn, zoologist Libbie Henrietta Hyman, infamous ornithologist Nathan Leopold, mammalogist Philip Hershkovitz, arachnologist Herbert Levi, herpetologist Hymen Marx, public health entomologist Andrew Spielman, and ecologist Joan Ehrenfeld. These individuals manifested different aspects of Jewish identity—some observant, some secular—but all were affected in one way or another by their being Jewish.
By exploring the relationship between Jews and nature through the lives of these figures, Greenberg shares new and under recognized aspects of Jewish and environmental history and opens new portals into the fields they studied. The ranks of Jewish naturalists have grown considerably over time, so in some regards To Life has a historical perspective, albeit one rarely, if ever, the main subject of a book. But the disparity among those who are active today still is strong.
Joan Ehrenfeld
Andrew Spielman and Fidel Castro
Joel Greenberg has spent most of his life in the Chicago region and has been interested in natural history since childhood. He spent his career in environmental protection working for such governmental agencies as the Cook County States Attorney's Office, City of Chicago's Department of Environment, Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, and DuPage County Forest Preserve, as well as being a consultant to an array of other entities including U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Prairie Island Indian Community, Wetlands Research, Inc., and Center for Neighborhood Technology.
Greenberg out birding
He has written numerous articles and has authored or co-authored four books: A Birder's Guide to the Chicago Region (with Lynne Carpenter); A Natural History of the Chicago Region; Of Prairie Woods, and Waters: Two Centuries of Chicago Nature Writing; and A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction. He also co-wrote, co-produced, and was principal on screen in the documentary From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction that was shown on PBS stations across the country.
Admission is free of charge but you must register for this in-person presentation. This program will be recorded for distribution at a later date. Registration will be open soon.