By Cindy Mindell

Connecticut will soon be home to one of the largest Jewish environmental and food networks in the world.

In December 2012, the boards of Hazon and the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center announced an anticipated merger of the two Jewish non-profits that play a leading role in the new Jewish food movement and the Jewish environmental movement.

In a joint statement, board chairs Richard Dale of Hazon and Mark Russo of Isabella Freedman said, “We’re proud of the accomplishments of each of our organizations, and we hope and intend that the merger will enable the combined entity to grow more strongly, to expand and enrich its programming, and to have a more significant human and communal impact, than either could by itself.” David Weisberg, currently the executive director of Isabella Freedman, is CEO of the new organization. The chair of the new organization is Richard Shuster, Isabella Freedman board member.

“The two organizations are like friends who’ve known each other a long time and one day realize they should get married,” says Weisberg. “We already know each other and have shared values. Now that our engagement is public, we’re excited to start to weave a new enlarged Hazon that honors our history and the people who brought us here, while envisioning and creating a dynamic and exciting future.”

The merger will provide a physical base to Hazon, a national and international organization that connects Jews with the natural world through bike rides, an annual food conference, community-supported agriculture programs, and supporting the Jewish environmental projects of other organizations.

“The strong growth of Hazon in the last decade is testament not only to our incredible staff, board members, volunteers, participants and funders; it’s also a reflection of the remarkable growth of the wider Jewish food movement and Jewish environmental movement,” says Nigel Savage, Hazon founder and longtime Isabella Freedman board member. “Both Hazon and Freedman have become known for launching new programs that bring Jewish tradition to life in incredible ways, and we see on a daily basis that our ideas resonate with growing numbers of people. In the next decade we need to take this work to scale, so that we and our partners not only renew and strengthen Jewish life, but also enable the American Jewish community to play a distinctive role in creating a more sustainable world for all. That’s what this merger aims to achieve.”

The merged organization is also expected to include the Teva Learning Alliance, which began in association with Isabella Freedman in the 1990s, but which until now has formally been a program of Surprise Lake Camp.

The new group will be called Hazon – Hebrew for “vision” – and will be headquartered at Falls Village and in New York City, with offices in California and Colorado. The retreat center will continue to be known as Isabella Freedman, one of several “sub-brands” that also include Adamah, the award-winning Jewish farming program; Elat Chayyim, spirituality-based retreats; “The Jew & The Carrot,” the New Jewish Food Movement blog; the Jewish Greening Fellowship, a leadership and organizational-transformation initiative; Makom Hadash, supporting second-stage non-profits; the Shmita Project, a multi-organization partnership to renew awareness of the shmita cycle; Siach, strengthening ties between American, European, and Israeli environmental- and social-justice leaders; and Teva, focusing on environmental education for children and educators.