Activities

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Engagement with Israel

Before You Get Started

Look at the list of enduring understandings, which one would you like to emphasize through this activity?

Goal

This introductory activity aims to help participants examine honestly their feelings regarding both the idea of a Jewish State and the reality of the State of Israel today. Having considered their own position, they attempt to evaluate the feelings and reactions of their group as a whole, and to compare it with their assessment of the feelings of young Jews in their country as a whole towards these two questions.

Materials Needed

Scrap paper for each small group, for note-taking and general use
Large pieces of paper for each small group, for visual representation of their group positions
Pens

Time Needed

30-40 minutes, depending on the size of the group and the amount of time you want to give to group discussion.

Directions for Activity

Have all the participants place themselves on two scales of 0 to 10 in terms of a) how connected they feel to the idea of Israel as a Jewish State (one scale) and b) the society and reality of Israel today (the other scale). Zero means totally uninvolved and disconnected while 10 means totally involved and connected. Give them a few minutes to write an explanation on why they chose particular numbers on the scales. If on either scale they have assigned a number above zero, have them explain what it means. Encourage them to be totally honest in terms of their feelings. If the answer is zero, that is legitimate.
In groups of four of five, have them share their “grades” with each other, explaining why they made particular choices.
After they have all spoken and questioned each other to clarify positions, let them map the positions of the small group. Explain to them that they are part of a research project into the attitudes of their particular age group in their particular country. If this was a research group, what things could be said about the positions of the group members? What positions are held within the group? Are there positions representing the majority of people in the group? Is there a minority position? Is there a difference in the two scales? What does this seem to reflect?
Have members of each group come together to create a new series of small groups with all of the previous groups represented. Have them do the same thing, but this time they present the findings about their previous group rather than their own personal positions. Their task is to come to conclusions regarding the whole group.
Bring the whole group together and let representatives of each of the second groups present their conclusions and analysis for the entire group. From this, try and extrapolate a group position.
Ask the group whether they think this position would be representative of their age group of Jews in their country (U.S.? Canada? etc.) Why or why not?
What does their position say about the involvement and connection of young Jews in their community? Is it surprising? Does it show high involvement or low involvement and connection? What explanations are there for this sense of connection or disconnection? How do they think it would compare with their parents or grandparents sense of connection? Is there a marked difference between the reactions towards the two different scales? Is there a difference in connection between those who have had contact with Israel through visits and those who have not yet visited? How do they feel about their sense of involvement or uninvolvement? Is it a natural situation for young Jews and a Jewish State? Why or why not?

Note to Educator

Did the Enduring Understandings that you set out to teach surface during this activity?

Preparing for a Mifgash (Encounter) with Israelis

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The following activity is designed to prepare a group for a meeting with a group of Jews from another background. In this case it is particularly focused for Americans before they meet Israelis, but could also be adapted and used with other populations.

Before You Get Started

Look at the list of enduring understandings, which one would you like to emphasize through this activity?

Goals

To help participants understand the nuances that exist in different definitions of being Jewish, and particularly to expose the fact that Israelis and diaspora Jews tend to understand being Jewish in different ways.
To provide some historical background context about the formation of Israeli Jewish identity and how it came to be as it is today.
To allow participants to articulate stereotypes they have about Israelis and anticipate stereotypes they expect Israelis to have about them, in order to recognize and confront them.
To excite participants about the upcoming Mifgash and prepare them to take advantage of it.

Materials and Equipment Needed

Several large pieces of paper, hung on the wall
Markers
Projector and screen, with a computer and an internet connection, to show two short video clips

Time Needed

60-90 minutes, depending on the size of the group and their previous knowledge of Israel and Israelis.

Directions for Activity

1. What type of Jew are you? (15-20 minutes)

On a large piece of paper at the front of the room (or next to the facilitator in the circle), write the question “What type of Jew are you?” Ask participants to suggest labels or terms that they use to define themselves as Jews. They might say ‘Conservative’, ‘Ashkenazi’, ‘Non-denominational’ and many more. Don’t worry if people don’t like labeling themselves; the point here is not to judge the labels, just to list the ones that are relevant to them.

Then hang up another large piece of paper next to your list. Now ask participants to give examples of how they express their Jewishness. Write down what they say on the second paper, connected to the label they have already suggested. So, for example, someone who said they were “Reform” could then say that one of her expressions of Judaism is having a Passover seder. Write down Passover seder and connect it with a line to the label “reform”. If someone who labels themselves “orthodox” also says Passover seder, that is fine. Connect both labels to the same action. Add a lot of different Jewish expressions to the list and connect them to the types already mentioned.

Ask participants what they notice from this exercise.

2. Israeli Jewish identity today – some core concepts and events (15-30 minutes, depending on background knowledge of the group)

In this section of the program you will give participants an overview of some of the key events in Israel’s history, and how they have led to the reality of Jewish identity in Israel today.

If you are not familiar with some of these issues, look at the following resources or ask a local Jewish educator for help:

The blog “Religion and State in Israel” provides contemporary news in all these arenas – http://religionandstateinisrael.blogspot.co.il
For info about the “Status Quo” that established the law allowing some Jews to study Torah rather than serve in the IDF. http://countrystudies.us/israel/46.htm
Every ten years the Israel Democracy Institute does research into the Jewish identity of Israeli Jews. The latest research can be found at http://en.idi.org.il/media/1351622/GuttmanAviChaiReport2012_EngFinal.pdf

Key events and information you may want to share with the participants:

Ben-Gurion and the “Status Quo”
The legal status of the non-orthodox movements in Israel.
Who are Israeli Jews?

Tell the group about the following: In the Guttman Report (referenced above), Israeli Jews are divided into several types:

Haredi (ultra-orthodox)
Orthodox
Traditional
Secular (not anti-religious)
Secular (anti-religious)

Look at page 30 of the report and explain these categories to the participants. On page 30 you will also see how Israelis define their observance of mitzvoth. Look at Figure 8 on p33 of the report. See what you can learn from the correlation, or lack of it, with the categories.

Discuss with the participants:

what do they learn about some of the definitions that are relevant to Israeli Jews?
How are they different or similar to the labels and definitions that you already used?
What does this tell you about Israelis? What more do you want to know about them, when you meet?

At the end of this discussion, show participants the short video by Avraham Infeld, the “Birkat”. You can find it at http://www.5leggedtable.org/en/legpage/israel

Allow a few minutes for comments and thoughts on the video.

3. Stereotypes (15-20 minutes)

Now, stick up two more large pieces of paper stuck on the wall. Label one “Israelis are …” and ask the group to brainstorm some words that describe Israelis. Add all the stereotypes or labels that you can think of. Don’t worry if they contradict each other, and don’t feel required to explain or justify. Participants might say “Israelis are … friendly/pushy/not good at following the rules”.

After this, on the second piece of paper, write “Israelis think we are …” and finish the sentence. The participants might say “They think we are … rich/religious/lazy”.

After you have made your lists, ask participants what they learn from these lists. Have they learnt anything new about themselves or the Israelis they will be meeting? What do they want to find out about them? (make a list). What stereotypes do they want to counter?

4. Final Words (5-10 minutes)

Sum up with what you have learned about Israelis, and what you expect to learn from the upcoming mifgash. You could look again at the first list you made of labels. What labels and expressions of Jewish identity do you expect to find amongst the Israeli group? What do you think will be the same and different for them? Encourage participants to ask the Israelis real questions about themselves, and to share their own thoughts and beliefs.

Note to Educator

Did the Enduring Understandings that you set out to teach surface during this activity?

Hatikva

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Before You Get Started

Look at the list of Enduring Understandings which one would you like to emphasize through this activity?

Goal

To explore Israel’s national anthem Hatikva and to consider the question, “Whose anthem is it?” – an Israeli anthem sung by Israeli citizens of a Sovereign State or the anthem of the Jewish people around the world?

Time

45 minutes

Materials

Video Clips, internet connection screening device
Copy of words to Hatikva

Direction for Activity

Ask participants to share which national anthems they are familiar with. Which have they sung? How have they felt when they sang them?
Expand the conversation to think about anthems in a more analytical way – what do they think national anthems are meant to do? Who do they think should write or choose an anthem?
Now let’s turn to Hatikva – ask participants to share when they last sang Hatikva and what feelings were stirred for them? Did they know the words? Did it feel different from singing the American or any other anthem?
Share historical background about the writing of Hatikva.

Hatikva was written by the Zionist poet Naftali Herz Imber in 1877 sitting in Romania (and was then called “Tikvateinu”, “Our Hope”) a full 70 years before Israel was established as a State. The lyrics reflect the position of someone who is standing outside of Israel “looking East” with aspirations toward Israel.

More information on the creation and choice of Hatikva can be found at jweekly.

5. Share the lyrics of Hatikva with participants

Or use this translation:

As long as deep in your heart

The soul of a Jew still stirs

As long as gazing forward toward the East

Your eyes still seek Zion

Then our hope is not yet lost

To be a free people

In our land

The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

6. Have the participants reflect on the anthem (either through a writing exercise or by sharing with the person next to them). Which line resonates with them? For Jews living outside of Israel today, what does it mean for their “eyes [to] seek Zion?”

7. Bring the group back together and widen the conversation by posing the following questions:

Now that there is a sovereign state, should the anthem be considered a symbol mainly for Israeli citizens or for the whole Jewish People? (Interesting to note that both ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel and Israel’s Arab Citizens don’t consider it their anthem.)
As Jews living outside Israel, do you see Hatikva as your anthem?
Do you stand when you sing it and consider that it is speaking for you?
Share your different positions on the Hatikva as either the Israeli national anthem or the Jewish anthem.

8. View the Clips

Hatikva with Barbara Streisand in 1978 Stars Salute Israel Event

Cue to: 2:54 through end.

Hatikva with Acapella Group KOLture Shock

KOLture Shock performed this version of Hatikva as a part of a Flash Mob on the Tel Aviv light rail produced before the 2015 Israeli Elections.

9. Using the clips as a basis, widen the discussion. Through its visual representation – what story does each version of Hatikva tell? If Hatikva were the anthem of the Jewish People, what images should be reflected? Who would be invited to sing it?

10. Sum up the discussion and ask participants to share a question or idea they are left with.

Note to Educator

Did the enduring understandings that you set out to teach surface during this activity?

Resources

For another Hatikva related activity see Makom Israel

For historical background on Hatikva check out the iCenter and jweekly.

A Tale of Two Zions

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Before You Get Started

Look at the list of enduring understandings, which one would you like to emphasize through this activity?

Goal

To explore how both the Israeli Jewish experience and the American Jewish one can be sources of learning and inspiration to the other.

To learn about organizations and individuals in both communities who are influenced and inspired by the values of the other.

Time

45 minutes-1 hour

Materials

Video clip, internet connection and screening device
Poster board and markers
2 cartons (or something that can serve as a soap box)

Direction for Activity

1. On a board write out “American Jewish Community” and “Israeli Jewish Community”. Ask participants to brainstorm words that characterize these two groups. Focus the list on what Jews in each community may do, believe in or care about. (Try to steer the group away from generalizations or stereotypes that might be amusing but not entirely helpful.)

2. Extrapolate generalizations from the list, which touch on American Jews’ prioritizing individual choice and universalist values and Israelis prioritizing distinctly Jewish values and ingroup loyalty. Draw a “Ying/Yang” drawing around these two columns.

3. Introduce and view the video clip of Rabbi Mishael Zion’s ELI talk entitled “A Tale of Two Zions.” (cue from 9.22 to the end)

Ask the participants to share their general reactions to the clip. In particular, share these quotes from the video and ask them to think about how his perspective resonates with your experience of these two communities.

Americans ask: Why be Jewish? Israelis answer, Jewish identity thrives when immersed in Hebrew language, culture and geography.

We learn love, dignity and ethics, from our family first.

[Israeli Jews] are struggling to find room for the voice of the individual. They are challenged by an American Jewish project that says, that the dignity of the individual is a supreme Jewish value for Jews and non-Jews alike. And that a healthy modern Jewish identity must rest in free, individual choice.

Put the hypothesis to the test! Can the Jewish community in Israel answer American Jews’ deeply held questions about being Jewish? And does the American Jewish experience offer insight into a basic challenge facing many Israelis, that of individual dignity? Ask for two representatives who can “make the case” about how this can work. Make it fun and have them stand on a “soap box” to make their case.
To conclude, encourage your participants to learn about an organization in Israel and America that is incorporating the ethos of the other community into their work. In Israel examples include, Shatil, the New Israel Fund and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. In America the organizations include Taglit-Birthright Israel, Israel Cultural Centers in JCCs across America like this one.

Note to Educator

Did the Enduring Understandings that you set out to teach surface during this activity?

Israel Calls Me!

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Before You Get Started

Look at the list of enduring understandings, which one would you like to emphasize through this activity?

Goal

To consider what compels us to help other Jews in need through a close reading of a text from Nechemia and from the experience of American Jews who volunteer for the Israeli army.

Materials Needed

Copy of Nechemia text
Copy of articles about Volunteers in Israeli Army (see below)
Paper and pens/ pencils

Time Needed

45mins – 1 hour

Directions for Activity

Ask participants to share a time when they have been “called” to do something that was outside of their comfort zone?
Introduce the text from Nechemia using the explanation of the text.
Pass out the text from Nechemia and ask participants to read the text in small groups. What is the basic meaning of the text? How did Nechamia react to hearing bad news of fellow Jews in Jerusalem?
After a brief discussion, divide the group into three smaller groups:
- The first group has to prepare a drama piece describing the scene before the beginning of the book showing something of Nehemiah’s daily activity.
- The second group should illustrate the scene from the text.
- The third group should illustrate what they think happens next.
Having presented these three drama pieces each participant should write an inner monologue for Nehemiah just after the meeting with Hanani and the others and share these with the group.
Widen the conversation to try to understand Nehemiah’s mindset. What would make a person react in the way that he did? What is their explanation for such an extreme reaction to the point that it would literally be a life-changing event?
Have they or anyone in their family or community ever experienced such an extreme reaction on hearing news from modern Israel? If so, how do they explain that? Is such a connection strange to them or is it obvious? Why? Why not?
Have the group look at one of these three articles about volunteers from abroad who came to Israel to be part of the Israeli army
How do they explain the phenomenon? What reactions do they have to people who appear to have such a strong connection that they would join the Israeli Army as a volunteer?

Note to Educator

Did the enduring understandings that you set out to teach surface during this activity?

American Jews and Israel

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Before You Get Started

Look at the list of enduring understandings, which one would you like to emphasize through this activity?

Goal

To explore the place of Israel in Mordechai Kaplan’s thought
To consider how Kaplan’s perspective resonates with participants’ connection to Israel

Materials Needed

Copies of Mordechai Kaplan text (see below)

Time Needed

45mins – 1 hour

Directions for Activity

Share with participants some background about theologian and writer, Mordechai Kaplan. In particular, make note of his views on Zionism, which formed a significant part of his understanding of Judaism as a civilization. Use the following as background.

Mordechai Kaplan is the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, a stream of Judaism, which redefined the Jewish collective as the civilization lived by the Jewish people. In his Principles of Reconstructionism, he had mentioned the need for “the renewal of the covenant binding all Jews throughout the world into one united people, with the Jewish community in Israel as the core”.

He saw the need for all Jews to accept Jewish communities everywhere as part of the international Jewish People with special emphasis on the Jewish community in the Land and State of Israel. He believed that without the Jewish community in the State of Israel, and the great cultural and spiritual energy which would come from there, the other Jewish communities around the world would suffer cultural attrition which would ultimately lead to their downfall or disappearance.

In this, he was a disciple of Ahad Ha’Am, the unorthodox Zionist thinker who also believed in the importance of the survival of Diaspora communities and the energizing power of the Zionist community in Eretz Israel. The difference between them in this respect was that Kaplan had every intention of living that active Jewish life in which he so believed, in the United States whereas Ahad Ha’Am moved to Eretz Israel/Palestine at the age of 66, almost ten years younger than Kaplan when he wrote the above excerpt.

Kaplan believed that Zionism was a good thing and that aliyah was a good option for those who wanted. However he totally rejected the idea common in Zionism thought (Ahad Ha’Am was in a minority position in this respect within the Zionist movement) that said that the Galut – the Exile, referring to Jewish communities outside the land of Israel – should be eliminated and that diaspora communities were a negative aberration from what Jewish life should be like, lived completely in the Jewish land.

Kaplan believed that only if the Jews were a majority in their own land where they had both the ability and the obligation to deal with all of the problems that life produced, would they need to call on the resources of thousands of years of accumulated insight to solve issues.

In that environment Judaism would indeed come alive with all of its three-dimensional potential and a rich and vibrant cultural creativity would be released. This would ultimately enrich the lives of Jewish communities throughout the world.

It was clear to Kaplan that Israel was a project of the Jewish People in which all Jews must feel invested and the Jewish People must be one of the projects of the State of Israel and the Jewish community within. They must complement each other and see the continued existence of the Jewish People all over the world as a creative enterprise common to all. (Shlomi Ravid)

2. Once participants are acquainted with Kaplan. Run a formal debate on the following quote from him. Divide the group into two, with half of the group of the group in favor and half against and go to it!

Jews who visit Israel, who study in Israel, who are moved to learn its language, sing its songs, read its literature, participate in the solution of its social and economic problems, live naturally a more creative Jewish life than if the State of Israel did not exist.

Mordechai Kaplan

3. Following the debate discuss the issue more generally. Do the participants agree with Kaplan? Are they insulted at such a view? Why? Why not?

4. Add in the following quote from the Orthodox Israeli activist Tzvia Greenfield who accepts the Diaspora but who believes that Israel today is by far the most significant entity in Jewish life and suggests that all who are interested in helping to shape the meaning of Jewish existence make their place there.

Our Jewish brethren in the Diaspora who are concerned about the fate of Israel must acknowledge that in preferring to live among the nations and not within the sovereign collective in Israel, they are relinquishing the truly significant Jewish existence: the opportunity to shape – and the responsibility for creating and living within – a comprehensive moral reality in the spirit of the prophets of Israel.

We need them and their love. Therefore, let us hope that they and their children will continue to see themselves as part of the Jewish people in all its generations. But the truly great historical, cultural and moral work of the Jewish people will apparently be done elsewhere. Here, in the State of Israel.

Tzvia Greenfield

5. Ask the same questions as before. Do they agree? Are they insulted at such a view? Why? Why not?

Note to Educator

Did the enduring understandings that you set out to teach surface during this activity?

Song of the Morning

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Before You Get Started

Look at the list of enduring understandings, which one would you like to emphasize through this activity?

Goal

To be introduced to Amir Gilboa’s “Song of the Morning” and how it expresses a message around Jewish Peoplehood

Materials Needed

Copies of “Song of the Morning”

Copies of page from Shma Journal

Time Needed

30-45 mins

Directions for Activity

1.Read the poem “Song of the Morning” in depth with your students and discuss how a person “suddenly” might feel part of a collective. Is it possible? How do your students start to feel part of a collective, if at all? What collective action might inspire Jews all over the world to feel part of a Jewish collective?

2. After you have read the poem carefully with your students, look at additional discussion of the poem, from the journal Shma.com.

3. Ask everyone in the group to work with a study partner (or chevruta). Read the different reactions to the poem. Which ones resonated with you? Did any of them raise questions for you? What makes you feel like a part of the Jewish collective? Is this something that you happened upon gradually or suddenly?

4. Ask your students to write a piece to add to the conversation (in the first person!) and create a collective collage in the same style.

5. You might want to end the activity by sharing that Gilboa’s poem, Song of the Morning was set to music by Shlomo Artzi. Performed first in the 70s and later in the Summer of 2011 at a big social demonstration in Israel when hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets to protest social inequalities and to demand social justice.

Watch both videos. In the context of the social justice protest, what are the additional layers of meaning of the song?

Note to Educator

Did the enduring understandings that you set out to teach surface during this activity?