About Hazon

Hazon means “vision.”
Our mission is to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community and a healthier and more sustainable world for all.

Since 2000 our Jewish Environmental Bike Rides have raised over $2 million to support a wide range of environmental education and advocacy in the US, Israel and elsewhere. 

Since 2004, we’ve been at the forefront of a new Jewish food movement – addressing the issue of what and how we eat as a key way of changing ourselves and improving the world.

In 2000, when we cycled more than 3,000 miles across the US to raise environmental degradation and climate change as key issues, people asked “Why should Jewish people care about the environment?”  Today, increasingly, they ask “Why aren’t we doing more?!”

After nine years, Hazon is now the largest Jewish environmental organization in North America.  Doing this Ride is a chance for you to learn more about key issues. It’s a chance to learn about what Hazon and our partner organizations are doing. Through your fundraising, it’s an opportunity not just to raise money for Hazon and our partners, but also to let friends and family members know that you care about these issues – and invite them to do likewise.

We affect change in three ways:

• Through the direct human impact of our programs;
• By supporting the American Jewish environmental movement and the Israeli environmental movement;
• Through thought-leadership (writing, speaking, teaching, campaigning).

The following values underpin our programs:

• A strong commitment to inclusive community
• A strong commitment to volunteer involvement and leadership development
• Multi-generational
• Being Jewishly serious and deeply engaged with the world around us
• Reaching people where they are and not where we might like them to be

In the medium-term, our goal is to transform Jewish life over the next six years, so that by September 2015 – at the end of the next shmita (sabbatical) year in the Jewish tradition,  - we are clearly and demonstrably weaving commitments to sustainability into the fabric of Jewish life in this country and around the world

Outdoor Programs

Outdoor programming and education is a key step towards environmental protection. It reminds us of how beautiful the world is, and how fragile; and it enables us to see how much more powerful we are than we realize.  Most car rides in the US are of three miles or less: if we walked those distances, or rode our bikes, we’d be fitter and happier, and we’d reduce CO² emissions quite considerably. 

Our events in Israel have a further component: they not only support some of the most vital work happening in Israel, they also enable participants to learn at first hand about some of the key issues Israel faces – and some of the ways that environmentalists are helping to create peace.

Our main outdoor education programs include:

The New York Jewish Environmental Bike Ride is held over 4 days during Labor Day weekend attracting over 300 people.

The Arava Institute Hazon Israel Ride: Cycling for Peace, Partnership & Environmental Protection  is held over 7 days. 

Jews, Food, and Contemporary Issues

As Jews, we’ve been thinking about kashrut - about what is “fit” to eat - for nearly 3,000 years. Hazon stands at the forefront of a new Jewish food movement, leading Jews to think more broadly and deeply about our own food choices. We’re using food as a platform to create innovative Jewish educational programs; to touch people’s lives directly, to strengthen Jewish institutions, and in the broadest sense to create healthier, richer and more sustainable Jewish communities.

Hazon CSA was the first Jewish Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in North America. The 40 Hazon CSAs span the United States and Canada, giving members the opportunity to put their purchasing power behind local, sustainable farms while deepening their connection to where their food comes from, and doing so within a context of Jewish community and learning.

The Hazon Food Conference brings together participants from Hazon CSA communities and our partner day schools, as well as educators, food lovers, farmers, home gardeners, nutritionists, rabbis, chefs, and community organizers from across the country to explore the intersections of Jewish tradition and contemporary food issues. The annual Hazon Food Conference will take place at the Asilomar Conference and Retreat Center on the Monterey Peninsula, California.

Min Ha’Aretz is a three-part family education initiative for Jewish day schools comprised of a curriculum for students, a related beit midrash for adults, and joint family-education programs. Min Ha’Aretz uses food and Jewish tradition as focal points to create innovative programming for Jewish grade school children and their parents. It aims to strengthen intra-family conversations about food, Jewish tradition, and the world around us.

JFEN—Jewish Food Education Network is a national network of resources, curricula, and training about food and Jewish tradition.  JFEN provides programming for children, families, adults and training for educators. Member institutions receive a variety of resources including;  the Min Ha’Aretz curriculum for students and for families, Food for Thought: Hazon’s sourcebook on Jews, Food, and Contemporary Life and Training in Jewish Food Education.  Monthly phone conference training makes it possible for educators throughout North America to bring Jewish Food Education to their communities. 

Hazon’s award-winning blog “The Jew & The Carrot” at www.JCarrot.org serves as a front page for all of Hazon’s food work, bringing the discussions of food, Jewish life and contemporary issues to far reaching corners of the Jewish community. The Jew & The Carrot covers food news and politics, food celebrity interviews and resources to green your holidays and life. The Jew & The Carrot won awards for "Best New Blog" and "Best Kosher Food/Recipe Blog" in the 2007 Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards.