Cousteau Family Visits Minneapolis

Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 21, 2015 (Newswire.com) - Governor Mark Dayton’s proposal is currently stalled in the Legislature, but that doesn’t stop Minnesotans from caring about the importance of water and water quality.  Governor Dayton’s proposal will “require a healthy strip of natural vegetation along a third or more of the 70,000 miles of streams, rivers and ditches that meander through Minnesota” (“In Minnesota, buffer strips are rallying cry for cleaner water," Star Tribune, 4-17-2015). This is very much in line with what Jacques Cousteau once said: “we forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.”  This is but one of the many reasons Beth El Synagogue’s next Inspiring Minds speakers are the Cousteau Family.

Beth El Synagogue’s Inspiring Minds Series proudly presents An Evening with the Cousteau Family (www.besyn.org/cousteaus) on May 7th.  Jean-Michel Cousteau (son of Jacques-Yves), and his children Céline and Fabien, will help open up our minds to a world of sustainability, conservation, stewardship and innovation. 

As Jacques Cousteau once said: "we forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one." Society needs to feel an even stronger desire to protect our water--the key to improving our community and our world.

Avi S. Olitzky, Rabbi, Beth El Synagogue

Through this majestic evening, these inspiring minds, living and teaching the legacy of their father and grandfather Jacques-Yves Cousteau, will share with us the beauty and diversity of our world’s water–the source of all life on our planet.  The goal is that attendees will feel an even stronger desire to protect what, for some, will either be experienced for the first time, or perhaps re-discovered.  The Cousteau Family inspires us to recognize that marine conservation is one of the keys to improving our community and our world.

ABOUT JEAN-MICHEL

Honoring his heritage, Jean-Michel Cousteau founded Ocean Futures Society in 1999 to carry on this pioneering work. Ocean Futures Society, a non-profit marine conservation and education organization, serves as a “Voice for the Ocean” by communicating in all media the critical bond between people and the sea and the importance of wise environmental policy.

ABOUT CÉLINE

Céline Cousteau is founder and executive director of CauseCentric Productions, a non-profit organization that creates cause-focused multimedia content. As a member of the World Economic Forum Council on Oceans, Céline collaborates with the council to provide recommendations to the WEF about ocean issues. Celine’s current major work is a multimedia project, documentary, and engagement campaign “Tribes on the Edge” based on the indigenous tribes of the Vale do Javari reserve in the Brazilian Amazon.

ABOUT FABIEN

With his vast experience in the field, Fabien Cousteau uses his knowledge to help refine a public policy platform grounded in the belief that environmental discipline can be the basis for cutting-edge solutions that strike a balance between regional as well as global environmental problems and the realities of market economies.  In June 2014, Fabien and his team of aquanauts embarked on Mission 31, which broke new ground in ocean exploration and honored the 50th anniversary of his grandfather’s original underwater living experiment (Conshelf Two) by going deeper, longer and further, while broadcasting each moment live on multiple channels exposing the world to the adventure, drama and mystique of what lies beneath (www.mission-31.com).

More information and tickets are available online at www.besyn.org/cousteaus.

 Date/Time:        Thursday | May 7, 2015 | 7:00 pm

Location:          Beth El Synagogue | 5225 Barry Street West | St. Louis Park, MN 55416

 About Beth El

Beth El is a warm, open and caring Conservative Jewish community in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. The synagogue reaches out to its 1,250 households, offering educational, spiritual and social opportunities that nourish the intellect, soul and body. In so doing, familial bonds have been formed between members that stretch “from generation to generation.” Beth El is a center of Jewish life that strives to respond to emerging needs while living out the eternal, sacred values of the Jewish people.