On 25 June 2018, over 80 partners and friends took part in the LivingTogether annual conference, held this year in Moshav Magshimim, in central Israel.
Central to the agenda was the official wrap-up of the Task Force meetings, an occasion we celebrated with a fully-attended joint study session, followed by a debate. Seated at round tables, participants attended a workshop titled Leading the LivingTogether Process. It was facilitated by Dr. Gali Sambira and Barak Loozon, Director of the San Francisco Federation Israel Office, and member of the LivingTogether Board. Then, following a poetry-slam performance by Tzvia Margalit and Arik Aber, Task Force members were awarded certificates of appreciation. On hand to present them were Avi Cohen, Director General of the Ministry for Social Equality, Noam Lautman, Miki Nevo and Liat Amar-Aran, who facilitated the Task Force meetings.
A Board meeting was also held, and the conference concluded with a festive dinner.
Recounting the experience, Avi Cohen, Director-General of the Ministry for Social Equality, wrote:
“Living Together is not just the name of an amazing new project, it is a worldview unto itself, a view of life that a group of exceptional people is trying to promote and instill in all of us. For us at the Ministry for Social Equality, Living Together is a work concept, and I wish to thank Gila Gamliel, the Minister for Social Equality, who, having learnt about the project, decided to adopt it and work together with the Center. Over the past eighteen months, an impressive number of people, representing every group in Israeli society, got together to further our agenda. They are men and women from the ultra-Orthodox, Arab, traditional, secular and religious communities; both adults and young members of the next generation, private citizens and representatives of organizations and institutions. All of them are familiar with Israeli society, its challenges, and its complex processes. They took upon themselves one task: to develop a program that will help us instill the LivingTogether worldview throughout Israeli society.
“As the song goes: ‘Ein Li Eretz Acheret’ or ‘We have no other country, no other state, and no other society.’ We joined this project so that we could really and honestly learn to live together. And that is no less than a national mission.”
