2022 Vision is a platfor
m for bringing together Jewish leaders around a common theme: our vision for the Jewish community and for the world in 2022, at the end of the next seven-year Shmita cycle in Jewish life. 2022 Vision is a project of the Siach network, and emerges from our focus on the social, economic, and environmental implications of Shmita over the past several years.
2022 Vision will launch at a gathering in Jerusalem, with representatives from North America, Europe, and Israel, from November 3-5, 2015. This conference is inspired by the biblical practice of hakhel, a national gathering that would occur over sukkot in the year after a Shmita year. At the gathering the king would read sections of the Torah, in particular those that limit the power of the king, the commandments to take tithes, and the second paragraph of the Sh’ma, among others. Traditionally, it was the only time the entire nation came together to celebrate unity. We are seizing this opportunity to help articulate a vision for the next shmita cycle.
Space is highly limited and attendance is by invitation only. If you would like to be considered, please contact us.
The goals of the conference are to craft:
- A set of macro goals for the Jewish community with respect to environmental sustainability and social justice for the next seven years;
A vision for what the various institutions participating in the gathering might look like in 2022;- A sense of how these smaller and larger goals are woven together.
It is our hope that from the conference, 2022 Vision will serve as a goal setting and organizing platform and framework that can be adapted and utilized by communities and institutions around the world. If successful, 2022 Vision will:
- Build strong cross-border relationships between Jewish leaders focused on social change and the environment;
- Nurture and develop a series of programs, both within specific locales and across them;
- In aggregate – at a time of considerable gloom – unleash and marshal great people and great ideas, at the intersection of strengthening Jewish life and creating a better world for all.
Background on Siach, Shmita, and 2022 Vision
In 2007, Hazon launched the Shmita Project, with the goal of facilitating conversation within the Jewish community around the values of the Shmita, and encouraging individuals and institutions to imagine how things might be tangibly different in the Shmita year. Seven years later we are seeing some remarkable results from these efforts as Shmita is now on the map of the Jewish community in a variety of striking and important ways.
In 2010, Siach, a network of leaders from North America, Europe, and Israel working at the intersection of the environment and social justice, was launched. In 2012, at the Siach conference in Israel, there was a seminal Beit Midrash on Shmita. Members of the Siach community were very inspired by the values and practices of Shmita and how they could have vast environmental, social, and economic implications. In March 2014, Siach hosted the Shmita Summit in London, bringing together over 40 participants from around the world, as well as over 100 British Jewish educators, to explore Shmita even more deeply. Several participants have created new Shmita-themed initiatives as a result of the conference.
While the momentum around Shmita has been building, much of the interest within the community has only surged in the past year. With that in mind, we are excited about the potential that exists within the next Shmita cycle, that begins in September of 2015, and concludes in September of 2022, as an opportunity to take this conversation and process even further. September 2015 represents the first time in modern Jewish history when a sizeable contingent of
the community will be aware of the Shmita cycle, have tools and resources to use it as a framework for long-term thinking, and be motivated and supported to do that.
Siach and the 2022 Vision Leadership Conference are projects of Hazon, the Heschel Sustainability Center, and Teva Ivri and the Israeli Shmita Initiative, and are supported by UJA-Federation of New York and Yad Hanadiv.
