Hazon Announces Winners of Art Competition to Shine Spotlight on Shmita Sabbatical Year

February 1, 2022 JMORE Staff

(Clockwise) Mira Burack's "Sleeping Huts," Idelle Hammond-Sass's "Renewing Shmita," Jessi Roemer's "Seij Años," and Levi Selig's "Shmitah Brick By Brick." (Provided by Hazon)

“For six years, you are to sow your land and to gather in its produce, but in the seventh you are to let it go and to let it be, that the needy of your people may eat, and what remains, the wildlife of the field shall eat.” (Exodus 23: 10-11)

Hazon, the Jewish Lab for Sustainability, recently announced the winners of its inaugural art competition, the Shmita Prizes, after collecting nearly 250 submissions from 11 different countries over the past 10 months.

Last July, Hazon, the largest faith-based environmental organization in the nation, merged with the Pearlstone Retreat Center and Outdoor Education Campus in Reisterstown. Pearlstone CEO Jakir Manela now leads Hazon.

The Shmita Prizes were created to engage artists, educators and spiritual leaders in what a “shmita ritual” might look like amid a changing world and pandemic.

The prizes were named after the Jewish calendar cycle of shmita, a sabbatical every seventh year devoted to rest, community-building and release of traditional work patterns.

“Shmita offers a remarkable framework for addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time,” said Nigel Savage, Hazon’s former CEO and current global ambassador. “Shmita is about our relation to land and food; to community and boundaries; to work, overwork and rest; and to debt relief and the amelioration of inequality. Each of these topics is a significant issue in contemporary life.”

Hazon’s panel of judges included bestselling author Anita Diamant and musician Alicia Jo Rabins, and featured five categories: Fine Art, Ritual Object, Written Word, Video and Performance Art/Music/Liturgy.

First-place winners include Mira Burack (“Sleeping Huts,” Fine Art), Idelle Hammond-Sass (“Renewing Shmita,” Ritual Object), Baltimore-based writer, musician and educator Rabbi Benjamin Shalva (“The Thistle,” Written Word), Levi Selig (“Shmitah Brick By Brick,” Video) and Jessi Roemer (“Seij Años,” Performance Art/Music /Liturgy).

Honorable mentions include Annapolis-based artist Anna Fine Foer (“That’s Not Land, That’s Sky,” Fine Art), Rachel Kanter (“Community Wimple,” Fine Art), Susan L. Brown (“Shmita Honey and More,” Fine Art), Emmet Leader (“Imagining A Shmita Bowl: 7 Explorations for Ritual Use,” Ritual Object), Rachel Berger, (“Mappa,” Ritual Object), Mil Wexler Kobrinski (“The Giving Fields,” Ritual Object), Liz P.G. Hirsch (“5781: A Shmita Year,” Written Word), Camille Lerner (“On Shmita,” Written Word), Nikki Skuratovsky (“Shmita Within Society,” Written Word), Raaya Ilovitz and Nava Elias (“Shmita in a Nutshell,” Video), Alli Fransblow (“Shmita safe cake!!,” Video), Sophia Porath (“Shmita Food Rules,” Video), Yael Goldfeder (“Earth Needs Naps,” Performance Art/Music/Liturgy), Jordan Lowe (“Shmita Prayer,” Performance Art/Music /Liturgy) and Eitan Marx (“Shmita: The Remedy,” Performance Art/Music/Liturgy).

Violinist Alicia Jo Rabins (Jason Falchook, via JTA)

The Shmita Prizes are part of Hazon’s effort to raise awareness of the sabbatical year through the Shmita Project, a collaboration of diverse organizations. Each Shmita Project partner is currently teaching about shmita or producing programs in association with the shmita year.

Project partners include Pearlstone, Limmud, the Shalom Hartman Institute, Pardes, Ekar Farm, Jewish Farmer Network, Organic Torah, Shoresh and Wilderness Torah.

First-place winners will receive a prize of $1,800 each, while honorable mentions will receive $250 each. Winners will be honored at the Hazon gala in May and a virtual award ceremony hosted by Hazon and the Shalom Hartman Institute, which ran a parallel Israeli Shmita Prizes.

For information about The Shmita Project and The Shmita Prizes art competition, visit shmitaproject.org.