The conference was held under the auspices of the Center for the Study of the Galilee administered by Kibbutz Hanaton and Moshav Shorashim, aided by the Foundation for Conservative (Masorti) Judaism in Israel and the Goldie Rotman Institute. The conference was sponsored by the Seminary of Judaic Studies, Yad Yitzchak ben-Zvi, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Duke University and the University of Connecticut.