With the holiday of Purim just over a month away, don't forget about the World Purim Album from Beit Hatfutsot. This project is the Jewish People's family photograph album – full of photos of Jews around the world dressed up in their best Purim costumes. If you have a class or community that will be dressing…
I love my nuclear family. I also love my extended family. And I particularly love the way they celebrate Thanksgiving. When I was living in New York, our family of five would go to our first-cousins home every year. It was just about as “Americana” as you could get, with the traditional Thanksgiving foods, the…
The past year has been a very productive one for the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education and we'd love to share some of the highlights from the past 12 months: Two new editions of the Peoplehood Papers: #13 on Jewish Peoplehood: What does it mean? Why is it important? How do we Nurture It?; #14, inspired by the…
Every High Holiday season a powerful sound momentarily causes we who experience it to pause. Tekiah. Shvarim. Truah. Tekiah Gedolah. Those sounds, stirring and dramatic, lead to personal reflection about how we missed the mark in the previous year and how we want to improve in the coming year. But shofar is about more than…
We have chosen some ready-to-use educational resources from the Peoplehood Education Toolkit that bring together themes of Jewish Peoplehood and the High Holiday season. Check them out: Collective Prayer – A text study and activity based on the Vidui (Confession) liturgy of the High Holidays. How do we understand the language of "we" in relation to our…
Six months ago, I began teaching a premarital class to intrafaith and interfaith couples being married by clergy at my synagogue. The impetus for the class was the increasing disaffiliation and disconnection of Jewish young adults from Jewish life. Regardless of whether couples were endogamous or interfaith, we believed that marriage presented an opportunity to…
Check out the latest resources in the Toolkit focusing on the theme of Collective Identity. We have some great new activities for you. They include activities using debate and discussion, reflection and some creative arts, as well as those based around stimulating texts and movies. And for a great Passover-themed activity, check out "Collective Memory…
The Hebrew month of Elul has just begun, and with it comes the countdown to the new year. Rosh HaShana and the season of the High Holydays is only a few weeks away. Elul is a month with enormous power. It is traditionally the time in which Jews start a process of "cheshbon nefesh" (…
There are many ways in which to understand why and how Israel is significant for Jews. Some argue that it is the Promised Land; it is a refuge from persecution; it is the realization of secular Jewish nationalism; it is the hub for Jewish culture and innovation. Each of these approaches reflect a set of…
In the aftermath of Purim take a look at the new Worldwide Purim Album from Beit Hatfutsot . Here are some ideas for using the album to connect your students to Jews across time and space. These ideas would work well with younger children and teens. Have your students bring pictures of themselves in Purim…