Class Update – Juniors, April 2010

The April session of the Or Emet juniors’ class was devoted to learning–as per student request–about notable Jewish people throughout history, from the ancient to the modern. The class split into two teams and engaged in an in-depth trivia game, answering questions about everything from Hillel the Elder’s observations on the Torah (“What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn”) to the poems of crypto-Jewish writer M. Miriam Herrera to the role of Jewish-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement. Other questions touched on topics ranging from Jewish-American gangsters to Sholom Aleichem to modern pop singer Regina Spektor and her Jewish family’s emigration from the USSR during the Perestroika period. After the game’s end, the class discussed characteristics of these notable Jewish personalities and responded to the question of who among them they would consider to be Jewish heroes. We debated whether someone could be both a hero and a villain, talked about the difference between heroes and specifically Jewish heroes (is there any?), and concluded the lesson with a discussion of our own Jewish heroes.

Class update – Middles, April 2010

We began our class by talking about where Jews live in the world today. The kids were amazed to realize how Jews make up such a small portion of the entire population and also while there are nearly the same number of Jews in the US and Israel (around 5-6 million), Jews make up a much higher percentage of the population in Israel than in the US. I think they were also surprised to find out that the country with the third highest Jewish population is France (500-600 thousand). We also talked about how Jews have moved all over the world, especially in Europe and about how many Jews ended up settling in Eastern Europe, where many of the students ancestors are from.

Muriel visited our class and showed us photos from “A Vanished World” by Roman Vishniac of Jews in Eastern Europe iin the 1930s. We also learned a song in Yiddish about children studying in the cheder. The students sang very well…in both English and Yiddish!

Continuing our discussion of Jews in Eastern Europe, we learned about Shtetl life; how these were tight knit communities made up mosty of Jews where they would speak Yiddish on the streets and in homes and would use Hebrew in synagogue and when studying the Torah and Talmud. The marketplace was the center of the Shtetl where many people made their living selling the wares and where people would come to buy their food. We talked about how most people in the shtetl did not have a much money and made just enough to get by, but that it was important to help others in need within the community.

We finished up the class with the students starting to make their own dioramas of a shtetl. They were so involved, they are not yet complete, so we will continue the work in may.

Class update – Juniors, March 2010

The juniors’ class spent March’s lesson learning about the Ethiopian Jewish community and Ethiopian Jewish observance of Passover. Because Ethiopian Jews, or Beta Israel, practice a pre-Talmudic form of Judaism, they celebrate Passover and other holidays in some ways that are different from other Jews. Students participated in a role-playing activity where they acted the parts of Beta Israel people living in a village in Ethiopia in the 1970s. The activity walked students through the different stages of a Beta Israel Passover celebration, from the cleaning and inspection of homes for chometz to the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb to the Kes’s (rabbi’s) oral retelling of the Passover story. Students ‘broke the fast’ in character afterward, eating pieces of injera spread with hot pepper sauce just as Beta Israel people would to enjoy their first taste of leavened bread at the holiday’s end. Through the role-playing, students also learned about the challenges and discrimination Beta Israel people faced in Ethiopia, and discovered how tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews were rescued from civil war and famine and brought to Israel by airlift in the ’80s and ’90s. Acting the parts of Beta Israel people, students learned, additionally, how these Ethiopian Jews see strong parallels between the ancient Jewish exodus from Egypt celebrated in the Passover story and their own exodus from Ethiopia to Israel. The lesson concluded with an opportunity for the class to write a final act for their characters, in which these characters reflected on the opportunities and challenges presented by their new lives in Israel. We wrapped up the morning with some time outside; the class played some games and reflected on the things they had learned so far as well as the things that they wanted to do in the remaining time this year.

Class update – Juniors, February 2010

The February lesson for the juniors’ class focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We began the morning with a short history lesson, and students learned about the conflict’s origins in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that paved the way for the founding of the state of Israel and made refugees out of the millions of Palestinians displaced by Zionist forces. Students wrote and performed short skits about this history, and then did some more in-depth thinking about the effects/consequences for Israelis and Palestinians of different developments stemming from expanding occupation of the territories. After this, the class watched selections from a 2001 documentary film called “Promises,” which looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of seven children—Jewish and Palestinian—who live in Jerusalem and on the West Bank. Students discussed the clips, their feelings about the Jewish and Palestinian children’s experiences, and their thoughts about what could help achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians. After the film discussion, we shifted gears, and students split into teams and wrote some Jewish trivia questions; then teams posed questions to each other Or Emet-quiz-bowl style! Class wrapped up with a visit from Miriam Jerris, and students had the opportunity to share some thoughts about Humanistic Judaism and the day’s lesson with the rabbi.

Class update – Pre-School, March 2010

March’s class focused on Passover. We started the day by working through our Humanistic Judaism packets. We will finish these next class and everyone will take them home! Everyone has learned a lot about what Humanistic Judaism means through these coloring books, both by reading through it and by making up our pictures to illustrate it. After that, we read a book explaining what the holiday of Passover is and different objects or words that we all should know when we celebrate Passover. Once we learned all of those great words and objects, the students did a scavenger hunt for many of those objects. I’d hidden pictures of the contents of a seder plate, along with some pictures of matzo, around our classroom. Everyone searched the room for the pictures, and once we found them and identified all of them, we made a big seder plate together with the pictures. It was a great way to introduce the students to the different foods they would see on their seder plates at home or in friends’ homes. After learning all about our seder plate, we went upstairs and worked with the Middles group to make matzo covers for the Or Emet seder. Hopefully everyone enjoyed seeing our students’ great artwork on their tables during the Seder!

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