News

It was wonderful to see our different partners come together on January 23, 2022 for a Tu BiShvat Celebration and Tree Pruning for Shmita cohosted by Congregation Beth Shalom and City Fruit. We engaged in a Shmita ritual, gathering in-season produce to donate to North Helpline food bank, and cared for apple trees at Jose Rizal Park in Beacon Hill – all in service of local food justice. City Fruit is a non-profit that works to care for Seattle's urban fruit trees and orchards. They show people how to care for fruit trees, how to harvest and preserve the fruit, and they encourage the sharing of surplus fruit with others in the community.

On January 13 2022, members of the Shmita Project Northwest community came together to study Shmita texts from Torah alongside the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. This exploration highlighted the connection with Tu BiShvat and Martin Luther King Jr. Day as we used text study to understand both holidays, honor Shmita Project Northwest’s commitment to racial, social, environmental, economic justice, as well as get march signs ready for the the Seattle MLK Coalition’s MLK Rally & March that happened on January 17!

AllCreation.org published a piece on the call of Shmita in our time by Shmita Project Northwest leader Deirdre Gabbay. She beautifully articulates a vision of holding on by letting go through the paradox of Shmita. Click here to read the article and reflect on her near-term, medium-term, and maximalist vision of bringing Shmita to life.

At the start of the new year 5782, the Shmita Project Northwest hosted the Shmita Year Opening Festival. 50 people from various synagogues and traditions came together in Congregation Beth Shalom’s sukkah for this time of celebration and community building. We learned more about Shmita values and met local organizations bringing these values to life. Visit the resource section of our webpage to download handouts we shared at the event.

The Shmita Project Northwest received the top recognition from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism's 2021 Idea Generator Visionary Awards for the partnership between Earth Ministry/WAIPL and Congregation Beth Shalom. We are honored to receive this award that recognizes the programming we offered this spring in the Approaching the Shmita Year Distinguished Speaker Series.

Shmita Project Northwest hosted a community connection gathering for a structured yet casual conversation to get to know one another more and share ideas, questions, or thoughts around strengthening our personal, congregational, and regional response to Shmita in the year ahead. Here you can see some ideas shared by event participants about their interest in Shmita values and practices.

The Shmita Project Northwest hosted a distinguished speaker series in the months leading up to the Shmita Year 5782. We were delighted to welcome nationally renowned speakers to share their wisdom at five Shmita-related events. We also processed what we learned at two community conversations. The event recordings are available here.