The President's Vision for the Confernce

The President’s Conference: Facing Tomorrow

Israel at 60

May 13-15, 2008

Jerusalem


"In all my years, I have been party to many dreams. The ones that became reality had one thing in common: they were all blessed with the proper mix of imagination, will, and compassion. I am quite sure that all three of these very human qualities will be abundantly evident at this conference, and will afford it the intellectual fertility, curiosity, and enthusiasm any meaningful consideration of tomorrow requires."

Shimon Peres


Facing Tomorrow, President Shimon Peres' first annual conference, will take place in Jerusalem, May 13-15, 2008. This international convocation will look closely at the trends and developments that are mapping the future, and serve as an incubator for some selected proactive responses.

Participants will be charged with examining, confronting, and responding to three intertwining futures: the global tomorrow, the Jewish tomorrow, and the Israeli tomorrow.

Facing Tomorrow will be a conference of focused exploration, a synergistic gathering of major world leaders, Jews and non-Jews, thinkers and doers, poets and physicists, rabbis and entrepreneurs, including the next generation of leadership -- young men and women of exceptional promise and originality.

In addition to plenary meetings, working groups, and a host of keynote speakers, 50 panels will span a broad spectrum of topics, from Economic Strategy as an Engine of Peace to Wrestling with Creation: Medical Ethics and New Discoveries in Research and Treatment; from The Jewish Self and Jewish Collective Identity in an Era of Multiple Identities to Constructing Dialog with Islam, New Roles for Religious and Cultural Leaders. Most panels, plenary meetings and keynote addresses will be simulcast on the World Wide Web.

Each “tomorrow” -- Jewish, Israeli, and world -- will be examined through a set of four critical lenses: The value systems that are meant to guide our conduct, the leadership necessary to navigate the challenges ahead, the creativity required to embrace the new, and the notion of evolving, mutable, and sometimes multiple identities as we attempt to keep pace with a rapidly changing and digitally interconnected world.

Participants will grapple with the forces and trends, global and local, that are redrawing the contours of the future. This, however, is only one aspect of the conference’s work. Facing Tomorrow will also be a laboratory for practical initiatives intended to nurture the thriving of Israel, of the Jewish people, of humanity.

Across the millennia, the echoes of the biblical prophets have been heard, repeated, and often gone unheeded. Envisaging a just and peaceful tomorrow, they charted our thorny way forward, and gave us the moral armour for the journey. With great passion, they instructed us to explore and shape a better future, and continue to provide us with the inspiration and commitment to do so. In the spirit of the magnitude of the prophets' vision, and yet with all due humility, Facing Tomorrow will address the challenges and opportunities that await us.